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Cryptonomicon (a fictional book) basically argues cryptography won the war.
by AtlasBarfed 4y ago
Cryptonomicon (a fictional book) basically argues cryptography won the war.
- WalterBright 4y agoIt's not an unreasonable point of view. It certainly played a large role in the victory at Midway, and the defeat of the U-Boot campaign.
- Bud 4y agoThis is all very fascinating as a minor theoretical discussion, I'm sure, but we all know that WWII was actually won by Wolverine and Captain America. ;)
- kayodelycaon 4y agoRadar won the tactical battlefield. Intelligence won the strategic war.
- sgt101 4y agoIndustrial capacity won WW2. 90% of the merchant vessels in the world belonged to the British. The British Empire and the the USA were the 2 largest economies in the world. Once the USA entered the war the outcome was not in doubt, even if the German army hadn't been given mission impossible vs. the Russians - although if they hadn't then the Russians would have attacked them.
- jhallenworld 4y agoAlso access to oil was a big deal. Hitler attacking the Soviet Union was at least partially to secure access to oil.
- WalterBright 4y agoRadar had the effect of doubling the firepower of the US's guns. It's hard to overstate what an advantage that is.
- trothamel 4y agoThe best discussion of this I've heared was from a docent at the National Crypologic Museum, located on the NSA grounds. His version was that the war was won by those fighting it, but if it hadn't been for good intelligence, they could have fought just as hard and been less effective.