Originally Posted by
Lookleft
Dresden didn't have heavy war industries but it still had war industries making optics for submarine periscopes and range finders for ships so it was always a legitimate military target. The USAAF also participated in the raid yet they were never "tainted" with the association. Curtis LeMay copied the area bombing concept on Japan when once again the precision bombing fallacy was demonstrated. I'm not sure about Stalin demanding the raid go ahead but it was certainly used to demonstrate to the Russians the capabilities of the RAF and USAAF strategic bombing force. The Nazi then the Communist propaganda apparatus allegedly inflated the numbers to show the West to be merciless killers. The same Communist propaganda that blamed the Katyn Forest massacre on the Germans. As someone else mentioned it was a blot on Churchill's reputation that after ordering the raid he washed his hands of the responsibility for it and denied the brave crew of Bomber Command any post war recognition.
The main problem for Churchill was that Roosevelt had announced trials for "War Crimes" at the Yalta Conference in January, citing German bombing of London, Coventry, Warsaw etc as examples. Dresden gave the Germans the opportunity to counter by releasing footage of large scale raids on Germany for the first time - at the same time exaggerating casualty figures and calling for trials of Allied leaders as well. Unfortunately for Churchill, by the time the German claims hit the UK, he was fighting the '45 General Election and the pacifists, clergy, and Labour Party used Dresden to attack Churchill, which is why he side-stepped Bomber Command and blamed Harris.