If Lee Harris writes that Dresden had no military value, I question his scholarship. Kurt Vonnegut certainly had me convinced, but deeper reading reveals a more subtle story. As the Soviets were advancing on the eastern front, American and British forces were softening up the Germans and preventing them from redeploying forces effectively. Dresden was but one city in a line of attack. Whether the bombing was overkill is debatable. But we do know that Joseph Goebbels immediately exaggerated the number of dead for propaganda purposes. I suppose this notion of Dresden as an Allied war crime is enduring proof of Goebbels' Big Lie thesis.