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Podcast: Cold War Cast
Episode:

Total War
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:26:56
Publish Date: 2017-06-05 08:27:55
Description:

World War II played out a lot different from previous wars, as the battlespace not only happened at the front lines, but over the heads of the people back home working in factories, rail yards, power plants, docks and other parts of the industrial base that had great strategic value in modern warfare.  To the enemy, the guy making the tank was just as much a part of the problem as the guy driving it.

The success of attacking a nation’s industrial base and causing chaos and despair within the enemy nation will go on to influence war planning during the Cold War.  Pretty much the same people dropping bombs over Germany and Japan will go on to influence nuclear strategy in the years immediately following WWII.

Towards the end of the show I ask the uncomfortable question on whether or not civilians working in war industry are valid targets.  In the years to come we’ll have nuclear warheads pointed at Moscow that would theoretically kill millions in order to take out a few hundred or thousand people in leadership positions in the USSR (and vise-versa).   I also give a personal anecdote about what was believed to be the Soviet strategy against my city, Des Moines and how if things went hot, I’d probably wind up a crispy critter in order to shut down some roads.

Enjoy the show.  The idea of total war, true nation against nation warfare, will be very important philosophically going forward in the Cold War.
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