re: #218 EPR-radar

Plus the history the US ended up with was deeply corrupted by the compromises that were made along the way. As one example, there was a long span of time after the civil war where the two parties got along reasonably well.

The start of that time span was the compromise of 1877 that ended Reconstruction, the end of that time span was the civil rights era of the 20th century and the fundamental basis of the bipartisan agreement during that time was white supremacy, particularly in the south.

I doubt coming down hard on the Rebels would have either quashed the Lost Cause mythology or improved the lives of the former slaves. Considering there are living people in the South who still hate the Yankees for killing their great-grandpappy, even with a lenient Reconstruction, taking harsh punitive actions against the leaders of the rebellion would have made the situation worse, and made reunification even more difficult to manage. Lee and Davis would have been elevated to martyrdom had they been executed for treason.