Gary, it is true that Henry Stimson saved Kyoto, but he was not a general -- he was Secretary of War, and all the generals reported to him, so he was able to take Kyoto off the list. Another example of an American official saving a city is the case of John J. McCloy's successful effort to save Rothenburg ob der Tauber from destruction: " In one of his first key wartime policy decisions, Mr. McCloy saved the historic town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber from a planned American attack. When diehard Nazi troops dug in behind the city’s medieval walls, Mr. McCloy suggested that the town might be persuaded to surrender without dropping any bombs. Negotiations began and the town gave up the following day. He was later named a patron and honorary citizen of Rothenburg in gratitude." You can find more about McCloy here:
http://www.acgusa.org/index.php?section=bio-mccloy It is a pity that other cultural treasures (e.g., Monte Cassino) have been casualties of war, but I feel more grief at the lives that are lost. War is indeed hell.
--Previous Message--
: As the great philosopher Aaron Sorkin once had
: a general say in an episode of The West
: Wing, "Every war is a crime."
:
: Back to World War II, the city of Kyoto was
: spared the horror of the atomic bomb because
: the American General Stimson valued the
: city's historic temples and wanted to
: preserve those cultural treasures.
: Unfortunately for the people of Hiroshima
: and Nagasaki, they apparently did not have
: the same architectural riches.
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