Sir: The letter from Mark Klein of Berkeley (19 November)
displays a very klein knowl- edge of history. Kindly inform him (1) that his country was the only one to emerge from the second world war economically better off than before; (2) it was bombed kicking and screaming into it; (3) every bit of material supplied by the United States was paid for, including those obsolete 'four- stacker' destroyers which I saw in Scapa Flow; (4) there was never any possibility that Britain would be an impoverished run- down German colony after she stood alone and beat back the Nazis, making an inva- sion impossible. It would, also be salutary for him to understand (5) that the plight of the European Jews in the camps was well known in America long before that country entered the war, and that (6) Britain entered the war not to save Britain but to honour a pledge. I write not as a 'Brit', knowing well that they are full of sin, but as someone who, on 15 August 1945, and long before, was on the gun-deck of a British battleship off Japan, playing a small part — all we could afford — to help the Yanks beat the Japs, all four of our aircraft-carriers having been hit by Kamikazes during the Okinawa cam- paign, and we ourselves having joined in the bombardments on the coast around Tokyo Bay.
Rory O'Keeffe
6 Rue de Mezieres, 75006 Paris, France
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