if pop culture had adopted this other heritage from WWII to even a third of the degree, might that have made a difference?

I always think so. It matters what you see, but it matters just as much what you don't see, because then people will say it was never there at all.

I learned about the Allied bombing of Dresden and other cities from Kurt Vonnegut, but I had an atypical and somewhat out of order education. I imagine other people my age were taught it in schools.