[rcocean]

The reason I say this is Boot leaves out one important fact.

Per the official Marine Corps History, the OSS & the JCS (Marshall, King, etc.) and Nimitz had approved a plan to jam Iwo's radio transmitters and bombard (i.e plaster every inch) of Iwo Jima with Mustard Gas.

It would killed every Jap on the island in 24 hours & Marine Corps losses would have been minimal.

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.

[xone]

'Mustard Gas.' 'It would killed every Jap on the island in 24 hours'

No doubt it would have killed some, no way it kills all or even a large percentage. Maybe phosgene.

[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.