Scott interviews Greg Mitchell about The Beginning or the End, his new book that tells the story of the making of the 1947 film of the same name. The movie was conceived as an exposé on the horrors of America’s use of the nuclear bomb against Japan, partly at the urging of former Manhattan Project scientists. But it was quickly co-opted by the U.S. government, forcing many changes to the film’s structure, and eventually resulting in what amounted to a piece of pro-military propaganda. Mitchell’s book explores much of the history of this period, revealing the true circumstances of Japan’s potential surrender and America’s real motives for deploying the bomb.
Discussed on the show:
- “The Beginning or the End (1947)” (IMDb)
- First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War
- “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)” (IMDb)
- “A Magazine Story Opened Eyes to Hiroshima’s Horror. White House Allies Plotted to Shut Them Again” (Mother Jones)
- “Hiroshima” (The New Yorker)
- “Terms of Surrender, by Henry Lewis Stimson” (Harper’s Magazine)
- Atlas Shrugged
- “Mozart Was a Red” (Mises Institute)
Greg Mitchell is the former editor of Editor & Publisher and author of thirteen books, including Tricks, Lies, and Videotape: Obama vs. Romney and Campaign 2012 and The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood―and America―Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Follow him on Twitter @GregMitch.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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