Interesting piece, I thought this bit about so many German factories being left untouched during the war very interesting:

Since the main aim of the bombing was supposed to be to put German industrial production out of commission, Americans expected to hear that German industry had been knocked for a loop. Strangely enough, however, it turned out that while over 20 per cent of all German housing was destroyed, most of the factories were left untouched. U.S. News, for example, reported on June 3, 1949 that a survey of Germany showed “productive capacity still intact.”

How come?

Part of the answer was supplied, perhaps unknowingly, by the late, General Hap Arnold, war-time Air Force chief:

“There have been many criticisms,” wrote the General in the New York Times on December 6, 1949, “of our strategic bombing in Germany and Japan. […] As far as we knew, we were using the best available information for target selection. We were using as advisers men who had been in Germany and Japan; who had helped build their industries, loaned them money, studied their industrial problems, sold them their factory equipment and visited their factories. What better source of advice could we have obtained.”

What better source, indeed!

Can’t you just see the big guns of General Motors and Dillon Read, of Standard Oil and U.S. Steel marching into the Pentagon, stepping up to a map and saying—Here are the plants we’ve got a couple of million bucks sunk in. Bombs away, General. Knock them to smithereens.