“Vonnegut was physically in Greater Dresden when the city was firebombed...he managed to see humanity in the innocent victims...The ultimate moral authority here is Natural Law; murder is intrinsically evil...the idea that the Germans (or Japanese) were barbaric so we had to burn them to death doesn’t make any objective sense at all.” [Captain Walker, post 185]
I will risk the ire of forum members by admitting that I deem Kurt Vonnegut Jr to have been a talented author. I cannot remember many pages of his that I’ve read which did not evoke new insights, or at least novel ways of looking at the situation.
None of which can excuse the fact that he was a squishy Leftist who blamed the United States for the miserable state of the world. Renders his judgment suspect, on this or that governmental action or public policy.
Little of which has any bearing on what he said concerning Allied air attacks on Dresden in February 1945. Was it unpleasant? Yes. Horrifying? Yes. Messy? Chaotic? Yes and yes. And whatever unpleasant adjectives you care to add.
But we cannot take the personal experiences of junior Allied prisoners who had the bad luck to be present during the strikes as valid critiques of the Allied air strategy.
Did he become a "squishy Leftist" before or after his experiences in the Second World War? It's not a rhetorical question; Army NCOs as a rule aren't known for being "squishy Leftists", and it's fair to think his experiences in February 1945 had something to do with this.
Little of which has any bearing on what he said concerning Allied air attacks on Dresden in February 1945. Was it unpleasant? Yes. Horrifying? Yes. Messy? Chaotic? Yes and yes. And whatever unpleasant adjectives you care to add.
I'll add "murderous" and call it a night.