Intelligence failures in the 20th century

[Moonglow]

Actually the HUAC (house unamerican activities committee) was established by a democrat majority in congress. It was a pretty good idea to expose the communist influence in society but when attitudes changed the liberal media managed to blame the whole thing on a republican senator. Little ignorant bean counter Harry Truman signed an order to dismantle the OSS after WW2 and scatter the responsibilities among the State Dept and the Army. It was a bad idea. Truman also dismantled the greatest Fighting Force in the world and we weren't ready for Korea either from a military or an intelligence standpoint. The Cold War and the communist revolution seemed to come as a surprise to the government.

Most of us could go through WWII and find thousands of errors, thousands of bad decisions from platoon commanders up to the president. If America were a dictatorship certainly some of the political decisions made during the war and after would have been made differently. But it's not a dictatorship and with the war ended, the American people may have wanted to get back to a normal life; they had gone through the Great Depression, and then WWII and now they wanted to resume a life. The GI's also figured they had done their job and wanted to come home and politicians responded.
It takes no genius today to go back and see errors and miscalculations, and there are some biggies involving thousands of lives, but that's the nature of wars. And I guess it is the nature of post-war generals to point out the errors that were made.

As one general stated, in battle nothing goes as planned.

 

[whitehall]

Actually the HUAC (house unamerican activities committee) was established by a democrat majority in congress. It was a pretty good idea to expose the communist influence in society but when attitudes changed the liberal media managed to blame the whole thing on a republican senator. Little ignorant bean counter Harry Truman signed an order to dismantle the OSS after WW2 and scatter the responsibilities among the State Dept and the Army. It was a bad idea. Truman also dismantled the greatest Fighting Force in the world and we weren't ready for Korea either from a military or an intelligence standpoint. The Cold War and the communist revolution seemed to come as a surprise to the government.

Most of us could go through WWII and find thousands of errors, thousands of bad decisions from platoon commanders up to the president. If America were a dictatorship certainly some of the political decisions made during the war and after would have been made differently. But it's not a dictatorship and with the war ended, the American people may have wanted to get back to a normal life; they had gone through the Great Depression, and then WWII and now they wanted to resume a life. The GI's also figured they had done their job and wanted to come home and politicians responded.
It takes no genius today to go back and see errors and miscalculations, and there are some biggies involving thousands of lives, but that's the nature of wars. And I guess it is the nature of post-war generals to point out the errors that were made.

As one general stated, in battle nothing goes as planned.

You could add "if the planning is faulty to begin with the plan will certainly fail" and you can add "propaganda trumps history". The FBI was busy backstabbing the OSS and the administration was playing both agencies against each other while Army Intelligence refused to talk to anyone except Army Intelligence. The rumors went around late in 1944 that the GI's would be home for Christmas. Ike want to a Christmas party and the Troops prepared for a modest celebration around Dec. 16, 1944 while the Germans prepared for a massive offensive. Thanks to the power of the media, the courage of front line US commanders like McAuliffe overshadowed the criminal lack of intelligence that resulted in substantial Allied losses during the Battle of the Bulge.

 

[gipper]

Non-combatants were killed with regularity during the war. We killed thousands of German non-combatants and thousands of Japanese non-combatants.
As for the invasion not needed even before the bombs were dropped, creates a dilemma, whose premise do we accept your's that we did not have to invade or the military's that was making preparations to invade?
In any case a few days after the bombs were dropped Japan surrendered. Did Japan surrender because of the bombs or it was just part of Japan's plans? We also knew that if we invaded it would not just be thousands of American GI's that would die, but thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians.

So since lots of noncombatants were killed, one concludes the use of the a-bomb was warranted...not a good conclusion. It was immoral and must be condemn for what it is.

You need to research the bombing. Many experts agree with me including many in Truman's administration and many military leaders including Ike, MacArthur, and Leahy.

Here this might help....Hiroshima: Quotes

Better than quotes might be some books, in fact I can suggest a few if needed. The bottom line is that we dropped the bombs and and a few days later the Japanese surrendered. The war was over.
The questions:
Would the Japanese have surrendered if no bombs?
If they had not surrendered, would we have invaded?
If we had invaded would the Japanese have resisted?
If they Japanese resisted, would both Americans and Japanese taken casualties?
If both sides had taken casualties what were the estimated casualties?
Did the bombs reduce the predicted invasion casualties?
If the bombs had been available to end the war and Truman had not used the bombs would anyone have been upset with that decision?

Me, for one.

The Japanese had been trying to surrender since at least 1943. But thanks to the murderous nature of Stalin's Stooge and Dipshit Harry, we continued to kill and die because of the idiotic surrender terms we demanded.

The questions:
Would the Japanese have surrendered if no bombs? YES...they tried to surrender multiple times. But, dipshit Harry would not accept it. Because all the Japanese wanted was their Emperor left unmolested...which Dipshit allowed AFTER he incinerated women and children with the a-bomb.
If they had not surrendered, would we have invaded? NOT APPLICABLE
If we had invaded would the Japanese have resisted? NOT APPLICABLE
If they Japanese resisted, would both Americans and Japanese taken casualties? NOT APPLICABLE
If both sides had taken casualties what were the estimated casualties? NOT APPLICABLE

Did the bombs reduce the predicted invasion casualties? NOT APPLICABLE
If the bombs had been available to end the war and Truman had not used the bombs would anyone have been upset with that decision? NOT APPLICABLE

Its all here....Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Ralph Raico