[bravo whiskey]

However, FDR on his way to Yalta, disapproved of the plan for political reasons. I guess dropping the A-bomb, or firebombing Dresden was OK, but using Poison Gas on Iwo would have made us look bad. Of course, FDR was sick man at this point, and died a couple months later.

we knew the germans had poison gas before ww2 started but they never used it because hitler feared retaliation. even as germany was collapsing they didn't use poison gas. if fdr had used it, it would have opened the door for the germans to use it.
this is a good article about decision making and, in no way, insults the courage of the men fighting there. when studying the past too many revisionists think in terms of 2001 morality instead of trying to understand the decisions in the times they were made.

[rcocean]

"we knew the germans had poison gas before ww2 started but they never used it because hitler feared retaliation. even as germany was collapsing they didn't use poison gas. if fdr had used it, it would have opened the door for the germans to use it."

Thanks for the response but I based on my reading I disagree.

1) the plan was to jam Radio communications then use the Gas. So, the Germans never would have known we used gas on iwo.

2) German was on the point of collapse in Feb 1945 with the Soviets on the Oder River -90 miles from Berlin we had no reason to believe the Nazi's would have used Gas at that point in the war.

3) The War Department and JCS agreed with points 1 & 2.

4) FDR disagreed and for POLITICAL reasons banned the use of Gas at Biak and Iwo.