On 3 Dec 98 at 9:59, Jim Devine wrote:
does anyone know about the truth of the story (that circulated years ago
and I think first appeared in RAMPARTS magazine) that the Allied air forces
deliberately refrained from bombing GM- and Ford-owned factories in greater
Germany during World War II?
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
Jim,
Sometime ago when I first posted portions of the speech of Parenti, I
got two messages from a regular reader of pen-l who personally likes
Parenti and did not want to debunk him but who had been with the
Eight Air Force in combat over Europe during World War II. He noted
that they would bomb at 25,000 ft, were continually under fire from
flak and fighters, were often shit scared and wanted to bomb and get
out. He noted that precision bombing from that altitude and under
those conditions would be impossible--to save selected plants. He
noted further, that the British bombed at night and would have had to
declare whole cities off-limits to save a few plants. He also noted
that literally hundreds of aircrews would have had to have been
briefed--letting them all in on the dirty little secret and risking a
security leak from someone incensed about treason and aid and comfort
to the enemy.
Later he wrote that he had found some memorabilia and noted that his
old bomb group on May 14, 1943 (before he got there) "... the second
mission of 17 aircraft...bombed General Motors and ford Plants and
nearby locks at Antwerp Belgium." He said that he had heard the idea
of off-limits targets (US companies) many times before and found it
amusing.
I most certainly defer to this gentleman's experience--and courage I
might add--and find his arguments compelling. But as I wrote back to
him I also found it very odd that targets would be explicitly named
in bombing reviews as "General Motors" and "Ford" plants--retaining the
American names of firms supposedly totally expropriated by the Nazis.
I do believe that Charles Higham--with the assistance of I.F.
Stone--gave compelling and overwhelming evidence of extensive and
ongoing contacts/collaboration between American businessmen and even
government officials and German, Japanese and Italian businessmen and
officials; and I believe that Higham gave compelling evidence that
the Ford, GM, Texaco, Standard Oil and other entities in occupied
territories were anything but expropriated by the nazis.
Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. Perhaps some plants
were bombed due to their proximity to other strategic targets and
perhaps others--relatively isolated--were not bombed. In his
"Sovereign State of ITT", Anthony Samson records that as late as 1967, ITT
received $27 million for the bombing of the Focke Wulf (fighter)--made
by ITT indirectly--plants in Hamburg. That alone is a very
significant finding (An "American" company gets reparations for the
bombing of a plant manufacturing fighter aircraft shooting down
American aircraft--priceless).
I know that Parenti is an excellent and careful researcher. On the
other hand, we have all fallen victim to myths that were honestly and
innocently transmitted to and by us for the best of reasons.
Jim Craven
James Craven
Dept. of Economics,Clark College
1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863
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