Metafilter's own
JF Ptak has an
interesting post on the Life magazine issue of March 2nd, 1942, readers of which were confronted by some startling maps detailing possible Axis invasion strategies for North America. There was invasion down the
St. Lawrence valley, there was invasion via
Trinidad, via
Bermuda,
full frontal west coast, and down the
west coast as well - note the mapping of the large "fifth columns". As Ptak notes, maps such as these with huge arrows pointed menancingly at the American homeland were very much not the norm of the day.
[more inside]
posted by Rumple
on Jan 3, 2010 -
44 comments
Losing the War "From the beginning, the actual circumstances of World War II were smothered in countless lies...People all along have preferred the movie version: the tense border crossing where the flint-eyed SS guards check the forged papers; the despondent high-level briefing where the junior staff officer pipes up with the crazy plan that just might work...The truth behind these cliches was never forgotten -- because nobody except the soldiers ever learned it in the first place."
posted by deern the headlice
on Jan 3, 2010 -
151 comments
Unexploded landmines still remain a huge problem the world over. What is more, landmine clearance is an expensive business. One man has found a potential solution, however.
All hail the HeroRAT.
posted by pashdown
on Dec 13, 2009 -
22 comments
Duck and Cover! There are many aspects of the Civil Defense program that may seem funny today, but the period after World War II was a very scary time. Civil defense officials and volunteers during that time were very serious about their work and I believe they deserve respect for their efforts. They rendered emergency services after natural and man-made disasters and would have had an impossible task had there ever been a nuclear war.
This virtual museum is dedicated to the Civil Defense and emergency workers of the United States who worked to protect the public from nuclear attack.
posted by Ruthless Bunny
on Oct 27, 2009 -
44 comments
War Dances:
“I wanted to call my father and tell him that a white man thought my brain was beautiful”. Sherman Alexie doing his thing in The New Yorker, excerpted from his upcoming book (
early review; interview
1,
2.)
posted by Non Prosequitur
on Oct 5, 2009 -
45 comments
The scene was the siege of Shanghai, the year 1932. It was more than half a year since the Mukden Incident had provided a pretext for Japan to
invade Manchuria and begin moving down through Northern China. Three Imperial Japanese soldiers from an engineering division died in a bomb blast that took out a section of the Chinese fortifications, allowing Japanese forces to surge through the breach and advance.
The fallen soldiers became known as the "
Three Human Bombs" (Bakudan Sanyushi / 爆弾三勇士).
Memorials were built and
murals were painted and the Three Human Bombs were remembered as gallant and selfless heroes who gave their lives for the greater good of Japan, lauded on stage, in film, and
in song. A
military medal was created to award heroism in honor of the three.
Problem is,
it was all a lie. The story of the Three Human Bombs was one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of the early twentieth century.
posted by XMLicious
on Sep 30, 2009 -
14 comments
"What if America wasn't America?" That was the question posed by a series of ads broadcast in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ads which depicted a dystopian America bereft of liberty:
Library -
Diner -
Church. Together with more positive ads like
Remember Freedom and
I Am an American, they encouraged frightened viewers to cherish their freedoms and defend against division and prejudice in the face of terrorism (
seven years previously). The campaign was the work of the
Ad Council, a non-profit agency that employs the creative muscle of volunteer advertisers to raise awareness for social issues of national importance. Founded during WWII as the War Advertising Council, the organization has been behind
some of the most memorable public service campaigns in American history, including
Rosie the Riveter,
Smokey the Bear,
McGruff the Crime Dog, and
the Crash Test Dummies. And the Council is still at it today, producing striking, funny, and above all
effective PSAs on everything from
student invention to
global warming to
arts education to
community service.
Additional resources:
A-to-Z index of Ad Council campaigns -
Campaigns organized by category -
Award-winning campaigns -
PSA Central: A free download directory of TV, radio, and print PSAs
(registration req'd) -
An exhaustive history of the Ad Council [46-page PDF] -
YouTube channel -
Vimeo channel -
Twitter feed
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 11, 2009 -
69 comments
The Becker Collection: Drawings of the American Civil War Era "..contains the hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s
Illustrated Weekly Newspaper observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the trans-atlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture." {
artist biographies /
subject browse} [
via]
posted by peacay
on Sep 9, 2009 -
8 comments
"It is a scene from which many of us would naturally recoil, or at least avert our eyes: a grievously injured young man, fallen on a rough patch of earth; his open-mouthed and unseeing stare registering — who can know what? — horror or fear or shock; being tended desperately by two companions in what are the first moments of the final hours of his life."
The New York Times' Lens Blog
explores the circumstances and consequences of the Associated Press releasing Julie Jacobsen's photo depicting Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard after he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush.
[more inside]
posted by heeeraldo
on Sep 4, 2009 -
131 comments
"
August is the cruelest month,"
is what Eliot must have meant and Edna O’Brien wrote a novel called
August Is a Wicked Month, and indeed, it has proved
historically to be a month of dramas and crises, especially sociopolitically.
Leo is a fixed, intransigent sign and can create
stubborn stances in the world and it is a
notorious month for coups, bombings and revolution. The late rock writer Al Aronowitz
penned the line, "August is the month when wars start." Both
the first and second world wars
broke out in August. The first atomic bombs
were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. There were
significant cold war crises in August. The Berlin wall
was built in August 1961. The Tonkin Gulf crisis
marked a serious escalation of the Vietnam War in August 1964. Russia invaded Czechoslovakia and
ended the Prague Spring in August 1968. Gorbachev
was ousted for being too liberal by communist hardliners in August 1991. Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Russia invaded Georgia last August. (slightly corrected paragraph
via)
posted by infini
on Aug 2, 2009 -
94 comments
Tariq Ali writes in the LRB: -
This is now Obama’s war. He campaigned to send more troops into Afghanistan and to extend the war, if necessary, into Pakistan. These pledges are now being fulfilled. On the day he publicly expressed his sadness at the death of a young Iranian woman caught up in the repression in Tehran, US drones killed 60 people in Pakistan.
Tariq Ali discusses the views of Graham Fuller an ex CIA Kabul station chief who thinks
Obama's Policies are Making the Situation Worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The further view from Asia is that Pakistan wields a
double-edged sword and that although the
Pakistan-US plan are falling into place the militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they don't plan to deviate. A mighty collision is inevitable.
Meanwhile
Kalashnikov demand soars.
posted by adamvasco
on Jul 28, 2009 -
91 comments
Exit wounds: - It is the poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness.
With the official inquiry into Iraq imminent and the war in Afghanistan returning dead teenagers;
Carol Duffy, recently elected UK
Poet Laureate invited a range of her fellow poets to bear witness, each in their own way, to these matters of war.
More about the poets inside:
[more inside]
posted by adamvasco
on Jul 25, 2009 -
13 comments
David Rees's comic strip
Get Your War On (and
video), has been
appropriated by Jamba Juice into
an animated Flash video. Rees, of course, built
Get Your War On using clip art, which makes matters a little trickier. Is Jamba Juice's ad a case of fair use? Or are there enough factors being used here for Rees to have a casus belli? Will we see more advertisements pilfering along these lines?
posted by ed
on Jul 20, 2009 -
71 comments
How to win in Afghanistan? Peter Bergen looks at the capability of the Taliban insurgents, NATO troops, and the Afghan army and police, compares the current conflict to the Soviet invasion, and weighs the dangers of civilian casualties and popular support. He concludes that renewed American effort in the fight will "produce a relatively stable and prosperous Central Asian state." (
via Matthew Yglesias)
posted by Pants!
on Jul 16, 2009 -
45 comments
The sequel to Warfare 1917 (
previously) has been released:
Warfare 1944. I was going to save this for tomorrow, but it seems that we've had a Flash Thursday today.
posted by Hactar
on Jul 2, 2009 -
18 comments
Just released:
Saddam Hussein Talks to the FBI.
FBI special agents carried out 20 formal interviews and at least 5 "casual conversations" with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after his capture by U.S. troops in December 2003, according to secret FBI reports released as the result of Freedom of Information Act requests by the National Security Archive. Via
this Washington Post article.
posted by amyms
on Jul 2, 2009 -
25 comments
