No Nazi Propaganda about A-bombs

It is instructive to bear in mind that Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein's letter to FDR, suggesting he might want to develop the A-bomb, was specifically about the danger of Nazi Germany developing one. After all, the U.S. had overwhelming industrial superiority to Germany, so, this was really the only potential threat from Germany. Now, why were they so worried about this? After all, as it turned out, Germany never really got to first base, with the A-bomb. And, in any case, they probably had neither the resources nor the industrial capacity to build one. So, why the worry, at the time? Well, you know, there was one thing the the Nazis were, quite indisputably, very good at, indeed -- self-aggrandizing propaganda. And, they were so good at this, that many people actually believed they could do things that they couldn't possibly do. Even, sometimes, very bright and well informed people. And, the Nazis had been quite actively bragging of their ability to develop and deploy atomic weapons from quite early on, and this lasted until very nearly the end of the war. Indeed, our great friend and favorite spy, Jewish baseball player Mo Berg, was quite specifically hired by the OSS to deal with this problem. After all, how many incredibly fit, incredibly brilliant, incredibly socially skilled Princeton educated linguists could American Intelligence get hold of on short notice? Mo Berg was only mediocre in the big leagues, but, because of his unique intelligence, he was a great favorite among the sports writers and the fans. So, Mo Berg was given some training in Physics, and sent to Europe to soft sell the European scientists on cooperating with the U.S. Or, in the case of Nazi atomic scientist Werner Heisenberg, to kill/abuct and/or persuade him to relocate in the U.S. He really was given the authority, on his own, to decide if he should kill Heisenberg at a conference in Switzerland, and had both a pistol and a cyanide capsule at hand for the purpose. Actually he knew neither enough German nor enough Physics to understand a word of Heisenberg's talk, but, he could see from the response of the audience that it had nothing to do with the A-bomb. So, instead of killing Heisenberg, he had his Swiss physicist contacts invite him to dinner, where Mo Berg's German was simply too poor for him to persuade the man to do anything other than avoid him. Mo Berg's great spying achievement was simply to confirm that the Nazis never had a serious A-bomb program at all, and that it was all just propaganda. And, he had some trouble persuading them of that! But, with no Nazi A-bomb propaganda, why would America have invested so much time and money in the program? They knew they could win the war without it, and that its invention would put them at risk. I would suggest that Nazi Germany is the true father of the A-bomb. No Josef Goebbels, we still would be a nuclear free world!

Quick, with the Knife

http://baiyun.net/classical/032.htm Quick with the Knife The Ming dynasty was infested with robbers. Some in particular Were especially good killers, A patrolman said, In memory of his missing leader. One day, They'd captured a dozen or more, But they had spies amongst our soldiers, Our leader said: "Wenjun is Quick with the Knife, You're beheaded without