Enola Gay and Offutt Air Force Base
Offutt AFB is where President Bush was transported on the morning of 9/11/2001. I imagine that this former SAC headquarters (SAC moved out in the early 90s) was chosen because of its unimpeachable security.
It's funny from a civilian standpoint - security here is nowhere near as tight as it is on other military bases where I've worked as a "contractor" (as the military calls us folk). At Fort Myer, just behind Arlington National Cemetary, for example, my car was unloaded, mirrors used under the vehicle to inspect it, and I was wanded. The security was at least as tight as any civilian now undergoes to board a plane. At Offutt, I was asked to show an easily-forged 8 1/2 x 11 xeroxed base pass and, sometimes, was asked for my driver's license, and then waved through. I guess they're not worried about car bombers in Nebraska, perhaps because strategic war services are not as big a presence at Offutt as before.
In its heyday, Offutt was used as a model for Burpelson Air Force Base in "Dr. Strangelove." B52s were mustered there, as well as tankers and, to a limited extent, fighters. And, up until fifteen years ago, SAC was headquartered there.
But history may remember it best for the Enola Gay, built and loaded there.
How do we feel about creating and using this amazingly destructive power?
Well, here's what Harry Truman said about it on one occasion...
Below is a letter written by Harry Truman on January 12, 1953 to Prof. James L. Cate which seems to clearly present his understanding of the necessity of using the atomic bombs to end World War II.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington
January 12, 1953
My Dear Professor Cate;
Your letter of December 6, 1952 has just been delivered to me. When the message came to Potsdam that a successful atomic explosion had taken place in New Mexico, there was much excitement and conversation about the effect on the war then in progress with Japan. The next day I told the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Generalissimo Stalin that the explosion had been a success. The British Prime Minister understood and appreciated what I'd told him. Premier Stalin smiled and thanked me for reporting the explosion to him, but I'm sure he did not understand its significance. I called a meeting of the Secretary of State, Mr. Byrnes, the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, Admiral Leahy, General Marshall, General Eisenhower, Admiral King and some others, to discuss what should be done with this awful weapon.
I asked General Marshall what it would cost in lives to land on the Tokyo plain and other places in Japan. It was his opinion that such an invasion would cost at a minimum one quarter of a million casualties, and might cost as much as a million, on the American side alone, with an equal number of the enemy. The other military and naval men present agreed. I asked Secretary Stimson which sites in Japan were devoted to war production. He promptly named Hiroshima and Nagasaki, among others. We sent an ultimatum to Japan. It was rejected.
I ordered atomic bombs dropped on the two cities named on the way back from Potsdam, when we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In your letter, you raise the fact that the directive to General Spaatz to prepare for delivering the bomb is dated July twenty-fifth. It was, of course, necessary to set the military wheels in motion, as these orders did, but the final decision was in my hands, and was not made until we were returning from Potsdam. Dropping the bombs ended the war, saved lives, and gave the free nations a chance to face the facts. When it looked as if Japan would quit, Russia hurried into the fray less than a week before the surrender, so as to be in at the settlement. No military contribution was made by the Russians toward victory over Japan. Prisoners were surrendered and Manchuria occupied by the Soviets, as was Korea, North of the 38th parallel.
Sincerely,
(The letter was signed by Harry Truman.)
Harry was quite clear: in the utilitarian ethical analysis, deaths on the scale of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were so much fewer than a land invasion, his decision could not be more clear...
It's funny from a civilian standpoint - security here is nowhere near as tight as it is on other military bases where I've worked as a "contractor" (as the military calls us folk). At Fort Myer, just behind Arlington National Cemetary, for example, my car was unloaded, mirrors used under the vehicle to inspect it, and I was wanded. The security was at least as tight as any civilian now undergoes to board a plane. At Offutt, I was asked to show an easily-forged 8 1/2 x 11 xeroxed base pass and, sometimes, was asked for my driver's license, and then waved through. I guess they're not worried about car bombers in Nebraska, perhaps because strategic war services are not as big a presence at Offutt as before.
In its heyday, Offutt was used as a model for Burpelson Air Force Base in "Dr. Strangelove." B52s were mustered there, as well as tankers and, to a limited extent, fighters. And, up until fifteen years ago, SAC was headquartered there.
But history may remember it best for the Enola Gay, built and loaded there.
How do we feel about creating and using this amazingly destructive power?
Well, here's what Harry Truman said about it on one occasion...
Below is a letter written by Harry Truman on January 12, 1953 to Prof. James L. Cate which seems to clearly present his understanding of the necessity of using the atomic bombs to end World War II.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington
January 12, 1953
My Dear Professor Cate;
Your letter of December 6, 1952 has just been delivered to me. When the message came to Potsdam that a successful atomic explosion had taken place in New Mexico, there was much excitement and conversation about the effect on the war then in progress with Japan. The next day I told the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Generalissimo Stalin that the explosion had been a success. The British Prime Minister understood and appreciated what I'd told him. Premier Stalin smiled and thanked me for reporting the explosion to him, but I'm sure he did not understand its significance. I called a meeting of the Secretary of State, Mr. Byrnes, the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, Admiral Leahy, General Marshall, General Eisenhower, Admiral King and some others, to discuss what should be done with this awful weapon.
I asked General Marshall what it would cost in lives to land on the Tokyo plain and other places in Japan. It was his opinion that such an invasion would cost at a minimum one quarter of a million casualties, and might cost as much as a million, on the American side alone, with an equal number of the enemy. The other military and naval men present agreed. I asked Secretary Stimson which sites in Japan were devoted to war production. He promptly named Hiroshima and Nagasaki, among others. We sent an ultimatum to Japan. It was rejected.
I ordered atomic bombs dropped on the two cities named on the way back from Potsdam, when we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In your letter, you raise the fact that the directive to General Spaatz to prepare for delivering the bomb is dated July twenty-fifth. It was, of course, necessary to set the military wheels in motion, as these orders did, but the final decision was in my hands, and was not made until we were returning from Potsdam. Dropping the bombs ended the war, saved lives, and gave the free nations a chance to face the facts. When it looked as if Japan would quit, Russia hurried into the fray less than a week before the surrender, so as to be in at the settlement. No military contribution was made by the Russians toward victory over Japan. Prisoners were surrendered and Manchuria occupied by the Soviets, as was Korea, North of the 38th parallel.
Sincerely,
(The letter was signed by Harry Truman.)
Harry was quite clear: in the utilitarian ethical analysis, deaths on the scale of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were so much fewer than a land invasion, his decision could not be more clear...
posted by John Bernat @ 5:48 PM
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