HIDDEN HISTORY.

In the first half of Sunday's program, George Knapp was joined by film director, Oliver Stone and Professor of History, Peter Kuznick, for a discussion on how the notion of American exceptionalism still warps Americans' understanding of their nation's history and role in the world. Stone was critical of the country "only seeing history through American eyes" and, as a result, "it's unable to have a global empathy." Beyond merely this skewed perspective on the past, Kuznick noted that research shows "only 12% of high school seniors are proficient in U.S. history." Over the course of his appearance in the first hour, Stone shared his thoughts on a number of historic topics which have served as subjects for his critically acclaimed films, such as the 1980's economy, the JFK assassination, and Vietnam.

The idea that the United States had to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in order to avoid an invasion was one belief which Kuznick called "one of the great myths" of American history. He explained that Japan knew by July of 1944 that they could not win the war and their strategy became "how to get the best surrender terms" via working with the Russians diplomatically and inflicting American casualties in the event of a ground war. However, Kuznick said, this plan dissolved when the United States convinced the Soviets to invade Japan following the end of the European conflict. As such, Kuznick declared, "the thing that finally ends the war was not the atomic bombings, which most Americans believe, it's the Russian invasion." Since Japan had been trying to surrender, he said, the Soviets actually saw the atomic bombing as unnecessary and more of an indirect attack of the Russians.                          
                                                                           
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