Shot at/Shot back

From:

displaying other obvious qualities, became the
administrator of the city.

And one of those qualities was total fluency in German, rare among US
troops..

At an AEI dinner recently, Ben Wattenberg asked Kissinger if, while reigning
with absolute authority over Krefled, including having the unquestioned power
of life and death, whether he was not tempted to mete out violent justice to
local Nazis, not only because he was a German Jew, but because he had just come
through some very hard combat in which many of his comrades died.
Kissinger acknowledged that, since he was operating under the harsh military
directive JCS 1067, not modified and softened until 1947, he certainly could
have done so, especially since its primary author, Harry Dexter White,
suggested that a list of war criminals based on Stalin's list of 50,000 be
prepared and sent to American soldiers in Germany, who could, after verifying
their identity, shoot any of them on sight.
However, Kissinger said he felt it was more important to show the Germans that
their conquerers were better than they, and did not stoop to barbarism. So,
although both the temptation and authority existed, he did not order any
executions or conduct any himself. Considering that Kissinger was 22 years old
at the time, that shows considerable maturity on his part.
White, a very large figure in postwar events, was, of course, later accused of
being a communist spy in cahoots with Stalin, dying "mysteriously" within a few
days of appearing before a congressional hearing into his activities.


Chris Mark