Tom Lehrer’s Wernher von Braun and Britain’s Foreign Minister James Cleverly
"Once the rockets are up, who
cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
When I was an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1960s, a local bard with a wicked tongue was greatly loved by the student body. Tom Lehrer was then an instructor in math at nearby MIT. His songs were always at the cutting edge, sometimes in terrible taste (Poisoning Pigeons in the Park) but always with a message that spoke directly to my generation.
Our view of the world was shaped at the outset by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the near- miss nuclear Armageddon that it signified. At the other end, at our graduation in 1967, there was the call-up by our draft boards to serve in Viet Nam. And so we were particularly receptive to the lyrics of We Will All Go Together When We Go. That song about the very brief but final nuclear war to come had the punch of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove but was much shorter and hit the streets much earlier. See the link below.
However, in my analysis of today’s news I bring up the lyrics of Tom Lehrer from another song, 'Wernher von Braun.' The punch lines are cited just below my title for the day. And what is the relevance to geopolitics in 2023, and specifically to the war in and about Ukraine? The relevance is direct and stunning.
I have in mind the video recorded and widely broadcast answer of British Foreign James Cleverly Minister to a question from a journalist yesterday. She was requesting clarification of Britain’s view of the previous day’s Ukrainian strikes on civilian targets inside the Russian Federation using latest long-range missiles provided by the UK and other NATO member states.
James Loverly was forthright, as these things go: Britain leaves it to the judgment of the Ukrainian authorities to decide what is the appropriate use. Moreover, Britain agrees that Ukraine can defend itself by striking at Russian military objects inside the RF.
The logic here is one to one with that attributed by Lehrer to Wernher von Braun.
The point of Loverly’s statement was picked up at once in Moscow, where the recording of his answer to the journalist was shown on major news stations. The same day, former president Dmitry Medvedev issued a statement that now all British functionaries in civil and military roles are fair game for Russian military attack.
Ladies and gentlemen: all the talk of our Talking Heads in the West these days is about whether the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022 was “unprovoked” as Biden and the US Government insist when they call it a war of aggression and justify the imposition of sanctions and military assistance to Kiev. Or was it a “preventive war” initiated by Putin in response to the immediate threat to the Donbas and to Russian Federation territory by the Ukrainian forces gathered at the line of demarcation and ready to strike?
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023
Link to Wernher von Braun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
Lyrics
And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know how, that's what, as provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun!
Gather 'round while I sing you
of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
"Ha, Nazi, Schmazi, " says Wernher von Braun.
Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department, " says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this
man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
You too may be a big hero,
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero.
"In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.
We Will All Go Together Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go