[lit-ideas] Had Thousands Died in Papua, New Guinea
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:47:30 -0500
Would TV have affected the course of WW2?
If the technology were available, only the US and UK would have TV as we
know it. Hitler would run German TV. Stalin and Tojo would run theirs.
(On the bright side, the Free French could have transmitted their own
pirate TV shows to the Vichy population of France.)
American or UK TV coverage would have foregrounded some of the more
horrible parts of the war, such as huge civilian bombing casualties or
particularly savage tactics. That could have undermined US public
confidence.
For example, when the Germans retreated over the Rhine, they strung
piano wire across the roads so that Allied officers riding in Jeeps
would be decapitated as they drove past the hanging wires. Think of it
as a Nazi IED. Terrible. Lethal. Invisible.
Popularizing this tactic would have created a call for safer Jeeps,
cries of Army mismanagement and complaints about the Army's lack of
materials-design foresight. Nazis, learning of this, might have strung
more piano wire. Made beheading videos even.
As for the Holocaust, I tend to view it as an annex of the war. WW2, in
part, was the destruction of the Nazi government's capacity to wage war.
The Holocaust is a different species. To have TV crews break into the
death camps with the first American soldiers . . . would that have
affected anything?
Eric
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