Editing Howard Zinn (section)

===World War II===
Eager to fight [[fascism]], Zinn joined the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and became an officer. He was assigned as a [[bombardier (air force)|bombardier]] in the [[490th Bombardment Group]],<ref>{{cite book| title= The Politics of History| edition= 2nd | first= Howard |last= Zinn | publisher= University of Illinois Press| year= 1990| pages= 258–274 |isbn= 978-0-252-01673-8}}</ref> bombing targets in [[Berlin]], [[Czechoslovakia]], and [[Hungary]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100167600/extras/thebombexcerptcl.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100167600/extras/thebombexcerptcl.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=The Bomb|website=Citylights.com|access-date=2010-01-28}}</ref> As bombardier, Zinn dropped [[napalm]] bombs in April 1945 on [[Royan#Destruction of Royan|Royan]], a seaside resort in western France.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zinn |first=Howard |title=Declarations of Independence |url=https://archive.org/details/declarationsofin00zinn |url-access=registration |year=1990 |publisher=HarperPerennial |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-092108-8}}</ref> The [[anti-war]] stance Zinn developed later was informed, in part, by his experiences.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.c-royan.com/histoire/histoire-contemporaine/les-guerres/1576-la-liberation-de-royan-avril-1945.html|title=La Libération de Royan avril 1945|website=C-royan.com |access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref>

On a post-doctoral research mission nine years later, Zinn visited the resort near [[Bordeaux]] where he interviewed residents, reviewed municipal documents, and read wartime newspaper clippings at the local library. In 1966, Zinn returned to Royan after which he gave his fullest account of that research in his book, ''The Politics of History''. On the ground, Zinn learned that the aerial bombing attacks in which he participated had killed more than a thousand French civilians as well as some German soldiers hiding near Royan to await the war's end, events that are described "in all accounts" he found as ''"une tragique erreur"'' that leveled a small but ancient city and "its population that was, at least officially, friend, not foe." In ''The Politics of History'', Zinn described how the bombing was ordered—three weeks before the war in Europe ended—by military officials who were, in part, motivated more by the desire for their own career advancement than in legitimate military objectives. He quotes the official history of the US Army Air Forces' brief reference to the [[Eighth Air Force]] attack on Royan and also, in the same chapter, to the bombing of [[Plzeň]] in what was then [[Czechoslovakia]]. The official history stated that the [[Škoda Works]] in Plzeň "received 500 well-placed tons", and that "because of a warning sent out ahead of time the workers were able to escape, except for five persons. "The Americans received a rapturous welcome when they liberated the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dspace5.zcu.cz/bitstream/11025/11417/1/Misterova.pdf |archive-url= https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dspace5.zcu.cz/bitstream/11025/11417/1/Misterova.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=The Reception of the Presence of the U.S. Army in Pilsen in 1945 in Local Periodicals |website=Dspace5.zcu.cz |access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref>

Zinn wrote:

<blockquote>I recalled flying on that mission, too, as deputy lead bombardier, and that we did not aim specifically at the 'Skoda works' (which I would have noted, because it was the one target in Czechoslovakia I had read about) but dropped our bombs, without much precision, on the city of Pilsen. Two Czech citizens who lived in Pilsen at the time told me, recently, that several hundred people were killed in that raid (that is, Czechs)—not five.<ref>{{cite book| title= The Politics of History| edition= 2nd | first= Howard |last= Zinn | publisher= University of Illinois Press| year= 1990| pages= 260 |isbn= 978-0-252-01673-8}}</ref></blockquote>

Zinn said his experience as a wartime bombardier, combined with his research into the reasons for, and effects of the bombing of Royan and Pilsen, sensitized him to the ethical dilemmas faced by [[GI (military)|GIs]] during wartime.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://progressive.org/mag_zinn0106 |title= Interview with Zinn |website=Progressive.org| first= Howard| last= Zinn| interviewer= |date=January 2006 |access-date=2010-01-28}}</ref> Zinn questioned the justifications for military operations that inflicted massive civilian casualties during the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] bombing of cities such as [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Dresden]], Royan, [[Bombing of Tokyo|Tokyo]], and [[Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] in World War II, [[Hanoi]] during the [[War in Vietnam]], and [[Baghdad]] during the war in [[Iraq]] and the civilian casualties during bombings in [[Afghanistan]] during the war there. In his pamphlet, ''Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence''<ref>{{cite book |url=http://polymer.bu.edu/~amaral/Personal/zinn.html |title=Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence |first= Howard |last= Zinn |access-date=2008-01-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080725072904/http://polymer.bu.edu/~amaral/Personal/zinn.html |archive-date=July 25, 2008 |via= polymer.bu.edu}}</ref> written in 1995, he laid out the case against targeting civilians with aerial bombing.

Six years later, he wrote:

<blockquote>Recall that in the midst of the [[Gulf War]], the US military [[Amiriyah shelter bombing|bombed an air raid shelter]], killing 400 to 500 men, women, and children who were huddled to escape bombs. The claim was that it was a military target, housing a communications center, but reporters going through the ruins immediately afterward said there was no sign of anything like that. I suggest that the history of bombing—and no one has bombed more than this nation—is a history of endless atrocities, all calmly explained by deceptive and deadly language like "accident", "military target", and "[[collateral damage]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=Zinn |first=Howard |url=http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/28-7 |title= A Just Cause, Not a Just War| work= [[The Progressive]]| date= December 2001 |publisher= | via= Commondreams.org |access-date=2012-03-05 |archive-date=2012-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007045944/http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/28-7 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>