On: Why The American Civil War Is Important

[chollida1]

> Ok, well what about the idea that WWII was fought to save the Jews from Hitler?

Does anyone really think that? I've never heard that idea posed.

[grandalf → chollida1]

this is a very popular view. Are you serious?

[anamax → grandalf]

"WWII was about saving Jews" may be a popular view now, but the death camps and the like were not well known during the war.

I doubt that many Russians fought to save Jews, or that common knowledge of the Holocaust would have changed the number. Maybe some French and Italians might have been more interested.

[grandalf → anamax]

It is used as evidence that the US involvement was just, rather than just self-interested.

[anamax → grandalf]

It wasn't used at the time in any significant way.

Saving the French was seen as significant.

[grandalf → anamax]

Why is it then so controversial today that IBM sold computers to the Nazi regime?

[anamax → grandalf]

Because they were Nazis, the enemy, and all that.

Note that "controversial today" doesn't tell us anything about the story in the 1930s and 40s.

[chollida1 → grandalf]

Well to be fair to you I am Canadian. This point of view could be entirely American?