Other relevant WWII films (European front)

[David Casseres]

[Steely sez]
>But for a truly post-modern experience nothing tops watching re-runs of
>those Ronald Reagan press conferences regarding his trip to the Waffen SS
>cemetary
>at Bitburg, and his heroic recollections of his role in the liberation
>of Auschwitz--having apparently forgotten it was the Soviets who liberated
>Auschwitz and his "unit" was taking some hill in the San Gabriel Mountains
>outside Glendale.

Yas.  But it's even more post-modern to tell people that Reagan (and 
company) established levels of pure mendacity in American political life 
that have never even been approached before or since -- and watch their 
looks of incredulity; surely, they respond, it's *Clinton* who is the 
biggest liar.  Then you remind them about Bitburg as an example of 
Reagan's deconstruction of history and his own life, and their eyes glaze 
over, and a few minutes later they don't even recall having a 
conversation with you...

A-and while we're on Reagan and history, there was an international D-Day 
anniversary event in 1985, and the Reagan Administration provided a huge 
wad of briefing material for the press, going beyond the Normandy 
campaign to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany on all fronts and by all 
of the Allied powers -- except that the Soviet participation in the war 
was edited completely out of the story.  Orwell woulda loved it, and so, 
perhaps, did Pynchon.  Here and there, a reporter or two complained about 
this, but their publishers did that same glazing-of-the-eyes act, and the 
rest is not history.

Cheers,
David