Hiroshima, Herbert Hoover e conservadores de outros tempos

"Hoover and the Bomb" by Marcus Epstein: "During World War II, President Hoover was a vociferous opponent of Roosevelt and Truman administration’s demand for the unconditional surrender of Japan. He met with many military and political leaders urging them to negotiate a peace with the Emperor. Describing a meeting with Douglas MacAuthur, he wrote in his diary, "I told MacArthur of my memorandum of mid-May 1945 to Truman, that peace could be had with Japan by which our major objectives would be accomplished. MacArthur said that was correct and that we would have avoided all of the losses, the Atomic bomb, and the entry of Russia into Manchuria."

Two days after the dropping of the bomb, Hoover wrote, "The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul." He testified to Congress later that year that the act was "barbaric." President Hoover was not alone. As Leo Maley III and Uday Mohan demonstrate at the History News Network, virtually all conservative voices from Human Events to the Chicago Tribune and even National Review continued to criticize the decision well into the 1950s. "

In 1948, Henry Luce, the conservative owner of Time, Life, and Fortune, stated that "[i]f, instead of our doctrine of 'unconditional surrender,' we had all along made our conditions clear, I have little doubt that the war with Japan would have ended soon without the bomb explosion which so jarred the Christian conscience."

A steady drumbeat of conservative criticism continued throughout the 1950s. A 1958 editorial in William F. Buckley, Jr.'s National Review took former President Truman to task for his then-current explanation of why he had decided to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The editors asked the question that "ought to haunt Harry Truman: 'Was it really necessary?'" Could a demonstration of the bomb and an ultimatum have ended the war? The editors challenged Truman to provide a satisfactory answer. Six weeks later the magazine published an article harshly critical of Truman's atomic bomb decision.

Two years later, David Lawrence informed his magazine's readers that it was "not too late to confess our guilt and to ask God and all the world to forgive our error" of having used atomic weapons against civilians. As a 1959 National Review article matter-of-factly stated: "The indefensibility of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima is becoming a part of the national conservative creed."

PS: Hoje em dia, a nova direita, não faz outra coisa que não defender esquerdistas comprometidos que trouxeram o socialismo aos EUA e o prática da Vitória Total conseguida pela destruição total (Churchill teve um papel nisso, quer no socialismo, quer na prática da guerra total). Recordemos que tudo levaria a pensar que seria à direita que estaria reservado o papel de defender as boas práticas das leis da guerra, determinadas ao longo de séculos da boa tradição monárquica europeia. Hoje, internacionalismo, soberania limitada do Estado Nação, mudança de regime e vitória total (como quem diz revolução social total) parecem fazer parte de uma direita infectada pela doença da ideologia.