Michael Cimino Quotes
All one has to do is look at old footage of the firebombing of Dresden during World War II and think of the people beneath those bombs. It's horrific.
Elton, Charles. Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Epic Crash of Hollywood. Abrams Press, 2022.
On March 9-10, 1945, over three hundred B-29 Superfortresses, loaded with 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs flew over Tokyo bombing the city in waves for 6 hours. Over 250,000 buildings were destroyed and more people killed than would be in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki which were destroyed by atomic bombs. The fact that the Japanese would not surrender even after such complete destruction of their capital and largest industrial city, was used by American leaders in assessing whether to use the atomic bomb afterwards. There were many who believed that the atomic bomb would not be enough for motivate a Japanese surrender as Japanese culture prohibited surrender. Indeed, even after the 1st atomoc bomb, the Japanese did not surrender, and after the 2nd, the war council was split 3-3 and the Emperor historically broke the tie. Even the atomic bomb might not have worked. Later generations found this resistance to surrender hard to understand but Japanese culture was amazingly strong then.
60,000 English men, women, and children had been killed by German terror bombing of London and other English cities. The policy had been to retaliate and bomb German population centers. Over 4 million British homes had been destroyed by the blitz and Churchill was becoming concerned that when the Allies would occupy Germany shortly, there would be no German housing left for the civilian population much less for the Allied occupying forces. Churchill’s Air Attaché persuaded him NOT to send the memorandum with it’s references to the terror bombing in retaliation. The memorandum was rewritten with the references to “terror” removed. The bombing of cities did stop as a result.
The convoy was heading for the city of Alleppo that had been under siege by the government for weeks. 22 UN Aid Workers were killed and half the cargo was destroyed. Syria had been in a Civil War for a number of years, and the Government of Bashar al-Assad had committed one atrocity after another. A cease fire had been agreed to and the UN notified all parties to the war about the humanitarian convoy’s schedule and route. It was not known whether the government had decided to attack the convoy to put more pressure on the people in Aleppo to end their rebellion or the attack was made by local commanders of government troops who did not want to see the pressure on Aleppo lifted.
Although the Yugoslav casualties were horrific, they inflicted great casualties on the Germans who lost more men fighting the Yugoslavs than they lost to any other of the allies except the Russians.
In 1936, Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in an effort to obtain an African colony like other European Countries had. Over 50 nations had promised aid to Ethiopia if attacked but then the Italian attacks came, it was not just soldiers with some small artillery and vehicles. Instead it was a full modern army with not only heavy artillery and tanks, but extensive use of air power against villages and towns which generally hardly had rifles. The airplane carnage of civilian populations was a shock to the world. However, the tactics were studied by the Italian German Fascist allies who further developed air power use against unarmed towns and cities in the Spanish Civil war. The aid promised to Christian Ethiopia never materialized because there was a worldwide depression and the great powers would have had to commit to major war—not just send some arms and ammunition. The Ethiopians mostly fought with spears and knives. The Fascists were thus emboldened for the invasion of Europe a few years later.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
Paul tended to be one of the very few Republicans who did not favor American intervention in Syria.
Michael Cimino was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and author. He achieved fame as the director of The Deer Hunter (1978), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned him Best Director. However, Cimino's reputation would be tarnished by his follow-up Heaven's Gate (1980), a critical failure that became one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time.
