[Rick Lee]

I went to the Nat. Atomic Museum in Albuquerque a few years ago. They had an interesting exhibit on alternatives to dropping the bomb on Japan. One theory was to do a demo detonation in the Pacific with a few of Japan's high-ranking generals to show them what we had in store for them. But the idea was dismissed because we were unsure if the bomb would even detonate. And had it failed then, there would have been no deterrent effect at all except by later detonating one over a city.

I went to Dresden for the first time in 1989 just before the Wall came down. At that time, a lot of the inner city was still fenced off and unrebuilt. The devastation was amazing even 44 yrs. later. I was last there about four years ago and the Frauenkirche was just about done being rebuilt. It truly was the best preserved baroque city in Europe before Feb. 1945. Still, destroying Dresden had little military value. It was full of refugees from the eastern territories at the time we and the Brits bombed it. It was a revenge kinda thing.