Von Braun

[kelber at mindspring.com]

>
>I'm not saying that von Braun didn't bear moral responsibility, as did
>Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay, all the gang at Los Alamos, and Rosie the
>Riveter turning out those B-29s. I'm saying  that there's a persistent
>temptation to stop at the level of Tom Lehrer snark (and it *is* a funny
>song)... to pat ourselves on the back for having finally recognized the
>death-dealing technocrat among us (hey, just like 'Marathon Man' and 'Boys
>from Brazil'). It's much nicer to think about the evil but comfortably
>receding Nazi past than to think about how much of it might have been part
>of the Greatest Generation, too... how much of it survived and flourished
>(by our deliberate choices, not by Wernher's malign hypnotic skill)  -- into
>the Cold War...  and how much of it might still be part of the GWOT present.
>
>Won't get fooled again, foax, right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?      
>
>
Certainly some of this was caught in Dr. Strangelove.  But there has been a resurgence of "Best Generation" rah-rah we're-the-good-guys patriotism.  You'd think, though, that the Iraq Invasion would be clobbering the hell out of it.

Laura