Did IBM Aid the Nazis in World War II?
A new book and lawsuit accuses one-time IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson of collaborating with the Nazis by using his company’s technologies to help them become more efficient at putting people to death in the early days of World War II. But I don’t believe it’s true. According to IBM researchers, Watson abhorred the Nazis and worked to prevent the war in the days before World War II, a task for which the president of the United States rewarded him. And when the Nazis overran IBM’s Germany subsidiary, there wasn’t much Watson could do about it. The notion that even primitive computing devices could be used to aid in mass destruction doesn’t really come as a surprise, but the way that Watson and IBM have been dragged through the mud–unfairly, it seems–does. Have the days of frivolous lawsuits returned? Compaq Releases New Alpha Chip: Is It Too Late? I remember walking through Digital’s Alpha display at Comdex years ago and marveling at the curiosity of Windows NT running on that high-end
