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A Few Things Oppenheimer Leaves Out
The atomic bomb was developed by physicist, J, Robert Oppenheimer and his team in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was dropped unnecessarily on the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 8, 1945. It was a war crime.
The summer blockbuster bio-pic “Oppenheimer“ does not tell this truth to the tens of thousands of people who have gone to see the movie. Historians have established that it was not necessary to stop the war because the Japanese were ready to surrender. Therefore the justification that it saved American lives because troops would not have to fight on the Japanese mainland is false. These two premises, that’s the bomb was necessary, and that it save lives is a lie obscured then, and carried forward until today.
The Cold War against Russia started on August 6 and August 8, 1945 when the US dropped two nuclear weapons on two Japanese cities to scare the Russians. The movie does not show the effects of the nuclear bomb. Between 200 and 300,000 old people, children and women were instantly incinerated. Hundreds of thousands got sick and died from radiation poisoning.
Oppenheimer was a great physicist and a humanist. Although, not a member, he sympathized with the U.S. Communist Party because of their anti-fascism, anti-racism, and union building.
He had second thoughts about what he did in developing the bomb and told President Truman in a meeting at the White House that he felt like he had blood on his hands and that in the future, nuclear weapons should be placed under international controls. Truman threw him out of his office, calling him a crybaby. Because of his association with the Communist Party, Oppenheimer was red baited, denied a security clearance, and ruined. He died age 62, a broken man.
The danger of red baiting in our country now is quite high. Trump is running on a platform, calling for American born socialists to be deported. The US Congress, with the support of many Democrats, overwhelmingly voted for a resolution denouncing what is it called “ the horrors of Socialism.“ Andrew’s Substack article
Guest – Andrew Cockburn, Washington DC-based journalist and author of Spoils of War: Power, Profit, and the American War Machine. Verso Books 2021. Washington Editor at Harper’s Magazine
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Peace Movement Attacks And A Renewed War With Korea?
Many political commentators believe the driving force behind growing U.S. actions and hostility towards China are being carried out in preparation for war with China; war with China if China cannot otherwise be contained as it more and more challenges the might and global reach of the United States. Indeed, China already now has the second largest economy in the world and is on track to soon surpass that of the United States. A McCarthyite redbaiting hit piece on the front page of the New York Times on August 6th, against the peace group CODEPINK, and others who are organizing against the growing demonization of China, is a particularly troubling sign. So, we will ask our guest: is a war with China inevitable? Does not the fact that China, as well as the U.S., are nuclear weaponized nations make such a war unthinkable?
We will also ask our guest Ann Wright about Korea. Korea, with its claimed right to possess nuclear weapons, has also been the target of administrations from both parties. The Korean War ended in 1953. And yet thousands of U.S. troops are still stationed in South Korea and, of course, there is still no peace treaty, no true formal ending of the war, and so the country still remains divided. And those who advocate for peace in Korea are also sharply criticized and redbaited by the U.S. government, and in the press.
Is a renewed war with Korea also a possibility? Col. Wright is also a retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. Ann Wright received the State Department Award for Heroism, in 1997, for helping to evacuate thousands of people during the war in Sierra Leone.
Guest – Ann Wright is a 29-year US Army/Army Reserves veteran, a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the Gaza flotilla. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” She has written frequently on rape in the military. VoicesofConscience
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith, Jim Lafferty and Maria Hall
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