Kiev looks apocalyptic:

[neverforget]

25. Robert Sherrod convinced FDR to release the film about Tarawa showing

the tremendous amount of American casualties.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124631492

'The Public Had To Know'

More than 1,000 Marines died at Tarawa — that's more American dead in 76 hours than in almost nine years of fighting in Afghanistan. The film of American casualties at Tarawa was too gruesome for some military officials. The question of whether to show the footage to the American people went all the way to the White House.

President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to the film's release — after being persuaded by his friend, journalist Robert Sherrod.

"Sherrod said, 'You've got to let the public know what's going on, or you won't have any support.' And Roosevelt said OK," Hatch says.

With the Marines at Tarawa was shown in theaters in 1944 — months after the battle. The film went on to win an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.