Reprisals

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Globalization41
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Reprisals

#2

Post by Globalization41 » 10 Jan 2020, 20:20

If a Nazi war criminal is liquidated by the leader of the resistance followed by 50 hostages shot as reprisal by the Nazis, then who get the blame for the executed hostages? … If LBJ defends South Vietnam from communist invasion, then who gets the blame for starting the Vietnam War?

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wm
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Re: Reprisals

#3

Post by wm » 10 Jan 2020, 20:53

Reprisals were permissible if you could demonstrate the hostages were connected in some way with the assassination. But 50 was too many, a few were ok. It didn't matter if the killed was a monster or an angel.

The communists wanted and started the Vietnam War and were responsible for it.

Globalization41
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Re: Reprisals

#4

Post by Globalization41 » 10 Jan 2020, 21:49

And Stalin under the pretext of communist ideology continued the Czar's foreign policy of weakening rival countries with maximum sabotage. North Korea, Eastern Europe, and India were all vulnerable to cheap provocations. Their propaganda often reported Uncle Sam planned to enslave them. … While communist propaganda complained, America's allies in general prospered.

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AdolfDettmer
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Re: Reprisals

#5

Post by AdolfDettmer » 22 Jan 2020, 19:24

Globalization41 wrote:
10 Jan 2020, 21:49
And Stalin under the pretext of communist ideology continued the Czar's foreign policy of weakening rival countries with maximum sabotage. North Korea, Eastern Europe, and India were all vulnerable to cheap provocations. Their propaganda often reported Uncle Sam planned to enslave them. … While communist propaganda complained, America's allies in general prospered.

Globalization41.
Are you seriously trying to justify the reprisals against civilians by implying the resistance is what caused them?

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wm
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Re: Reprisals

#6

Post by wm » 23 Jan 2020, 12:59

A reprisal is a legal crime.

The very idea is that the innocent (but available) suffers for the crime committed by the (unavailable) guilty. To force him to stop his actions.

For example, when the Germans started murdering Polish elites by thousands, the Poles proposed all Germans in Allied territories were executed too.
This is how you do reprisals.

Globalization41
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Reprisals

#7

Post by Globalization41 » 24 Jan 2020, 20:14

Actually Adolf I was not justifying reprisals, but just replying to WM's comment on Vietnam. Sorry about the unclear antecedent. … Nazi reprisals against prisoners weakened American isolationists prior to Pearl Harbor. News of reprisals strengthened F.D.R.'s interventionist tendencies. Publicized Nazi cruelty to prisoners increased the Allies' fighting spirit. Overall humane Anglo/American treatment of POWs decreased Germany's fighting spirit considerably on the western front compared to the Eastern Front.

Globalization41.

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