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Cold War myths
The International Herald Tribune ^ | June 13, 2008 | Paul Steege

Posted on 06/13/2008 10:16:15 PM PDT by neverdem

VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania:

As the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift approaches, recycled myths about its accomplishments drop from the sky like candy into the waiting arms of Americans hungry for a foreign policy alternative to endless war and secret torture. But politicians and pundits looking for a humanitarian policy to win the world's hearts and minds should look back to the airlift with caution.

Sixty years after British and American planes began to fly supplies to West Berliners facing a Soviet blockade, even the faux news program "Colbert Report" has reprised the Cold War refrain that the airlift saved the population from starvation and halted the Soviet advance across Europe. But the airlift never provided everything West Berliners needed to stay alive.

While the airlift delivered more than 2.3 million tons of supplies to Berlin, this amount failed to meet West Berlin's food needs, and the planes never even attempted to supply coal to heat private homes. The Western victory in this first Cold War battle came in spite of the fact that the airlift never achieved its ostensible purpose: to fully supply West Berlin.

That the West "won" depended first and foremost on Berliners' survival practices in the face of ongoing scarcity - practices that the great powers could not control and failed to understand. And this Western victory came with costs that were not obvious at the time and have largely been ignored in retrospect.

After World War II, the four victorious allies - Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States - divided Germany into occupation zones. Berlin, located more than 100 miles into the Soviet zone, was likewise divided into four occupation sectors. By spring 1948 the four-power structures designed to administer occupied Germany had collapsed.

On June 24, 1948, the Soviets halted rail and...

(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 60thanniversary; berlinairlift; bs; coldwar; communismkills; libmyths; myths; paulsteege; revisionism; revisionisthisotry; starkravingsocialism; steege; unclejoestalin
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Paul Steege, associate professor of history at Villanova University, is author of "Black Market, Cold War: Everyday Life in Berlin, 1946-1949."

Maybe he's hawking his new book?

1 posted on 06/13/2008 10:19:05 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

My guess is he has a few myths of his own.


2 posted on 06/13/2008 10:28:53 PM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: neverdem

So he goes on to say the West Berliners were also able to deal under-the-table with the Easterners and purchase and barter for what they needed (before the Wall sealed them off thirteen years later) in addition to what came off the planes. And that the East German commies were never in control of the situation and that (Nyah! Nyah!) the situation was never so desperate as we like to think.

The good professor goes on to say that it was our dangerous mythologizing of the event that solidified the Cold War in the public mind and led to us simple-minded Amerikaners seeing it as a fundamental good vs. evil conflict.

Which we have then simple-mindedly extrapolated to our current “War on Terror.”

So there. Even when we’re good, we’re stoopid. Again, nyah, nyah.


3 posted on 06/13/2008 10:38:58 PM PDT by sinanju
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To: neverdem
What is this, “The Joy of Historical Revision” week. First Buchanan and some left wing dolt label Churchill a war criminal for starting WWII and now this. It isn't really worth the time to contest it but likely this is the crap that will live on in American history books as the left sweeps to victory.
4 posted on 06/13/2008 10:43:15 PM PDT by JimSEA (Kaffur and proud of it.)
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To: neverdem
That the West "won" depended first and foremost on Berliners' survival practices in the face of ongoing scarcity - practices that the great powers could not control and failed to understand. And this Western victory came with costs that were not obvious at the time and have largely been ignored in retrospect.

So, it wasn't that the USA won the war that fed them...

it was their will to lose that saved lives?

5 posted on 06/13/2008 10:46:56 PM PDT by Nitro (Nitro does it with a BANG!!)
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To: neverdem
While the airlift delivered more than 2.3 million tons of supplies to Berlin, this amount failed to meet West Berlin's food needs, and the planes never even attempted to supply coal to heat private homes.

Well, there you have it. Next he'll say we didn't really take Normandy on D-day.

6 posted on 06/13/2008 10:57:43 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Barack Obama--the first black Jimmy Carter.)
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To: neverdem

The IHT probably should try to hire some competent web folks. They can’t manage to get their pages to display on Firefox; I had to use IE to access the story.

In an effort to achieve his agenda, he glosses over the fact that Berlin would have fallen without the airlift.

Indeed, the airlift started not to fully supply West Berlin, but to supply the Allied troops in Berlin.


7 posted on 06/13/2008 11:06:03 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: neverdem
With an exciting subject like that it should sell its self. I expect to see him on Oprah bringing the audience to tears with a reading of a few snippets of his endless prose.
Ian Fleming and John LaCarre’ move aside for Steege!
8 posted on 06/13/2008 11:07:55 PM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: neverdem

In the Spring of 2000, approaching the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, we suddenly learned from the press of the “No Gun Re Massacre” - which later turned out to be a total lie but served the left’s purpose by denying the men who served in the US forces in Korea the proper credit and honor they deserved.

Now, on the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift we learn that it really wasn’t that big a deal and had very little to do with why the west ‘”won”’ the cold war.

Is this a pattern?


9 posted on 06/13/2008 11:08:40 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF ("Gun Control" is not about the guns. "Illegal Immigration" is not about the immigration)
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To: JimSEA
The simple fact is Democrats are traitors....

Republicans are flawed, but they love the country.

We are all online, so "google" the 'Venona intercepts' and you will read messages from agents that worked in the Whire House.

Republican Americans support America, that is my idea.

Democrats trash America, they are commie lovers.

10 posted on 06/13/2008 11:09:37 PM PDT by Nitro (Nitro does it with a BANG!!)
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To: neverdem
That the West "won" depended first and foremost

What's this "won" business??? We WON! Where are the Soviets and Communists now?

(Well, okay, under a new name they're running for president, I guess... )

11 posted on 06/13/2008 11:11:45 PM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: neverdem
More revisionist history. I've known too many people who lived in Berlin through the airlift—and some of the pilots involved.
12 posted on 06/13/2008 11:23:12 PM PDT by singfreedom
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

supply coal to heat private homes.

Just a thought; why would the people need coal in the summer.
The temp right now in Berlin is lows in the fifties to sixties and highs in the sixties to eighties.

If they had airlifted coal in the summer the criticism would now be that the airlift was a waste as coal was not needed in the summer and how dumb we were.


13 posted on 06/13/2008 11:23:34 PM PDT by smoketree (the insanity, the lunacy these days)
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To: PAR35

It also was to show the Soviets that we still had enough aircraft to face down any challenge to our occupation of West Berlin. They might have been able to take it, but they knew we would make it costly.


14 posted on 06/13/2008 11:30:41 PM PDT by VanShuyten ("Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares.")
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To: neverdem
"the planes never even attempted to supply coal to heat private homes."

COAL: BERLIN'S KEY TO SURVIVAL

The single most critical necessity for Berlin to survive was fuel. Coal became the major cargo of U.S. Air Force C-54s and ultimately made up 65 percent of the total tonnage flown into Berlin. Coal was dirty, dusty and heavy, all of which created major problems for both aircraft and crew. Coal dust seeped into every part of the aircraft, causing damage that included corrosion of control cables and erosion of electrical connections. It caused equal problems for crews, who complained of breathing problems and headaches. The only way to effectively handle the coal, as a cargo, was to place it in bags. Many types of bags were tried, but finally one-half million army surplus duffel bags were found for this purpose. The average USAF C-54 carried 10 tons of bagged coal. The Airlift flew a total of 1.5 million tons of coal into Berlin.

National Museum of the United States Air Force

15 posted on 06/13/2008 11:32:00 PM PDT by endthematrix (Now that we use our corn for fuel, when do we eat coal for dinner?)
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To: Nitro
I kept waiting for the guy to explain what “costs were not obvious at the time and have largely been ignored in retrospect”. In the intervening 60 years, I imagine most of the “costs” have been addressed—one way or the other.

Unless, of course, he's alluding to some touchy, feely, dim lib “cost”-—like someone's hurt feelings or some such nonsense.

16 posted on 06/13/2008 11:38:10 PM PDT by singfreedom
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

No, they won’t go that far. They can’t. There’s too much evidence around to the contrary.

At this time!

However, I do think it’s more than likely that one of these useful idiot eggheads will give us a tome that proves unequivocally that Hitler sired George Bush.

Appearing soon on a bookshelf at your favorite neighborhood bookstore!

CA....


17 posted on 06/13/2008 11:38:29 PM PDT by Chances Are (Whew! It seems I've at last found that silly grin!)
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To: endthematrix

Great comment! Thanks for the link!


18 posted on 06/13/2008 11:40:22 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: endthematrix
Not only are you not supposed to know stuff like that, you are most assuredly NOT supposed to show it in public!

Looks like reeducation camp for you, my friend!

CA....

19 posted on 06/13/2008 11:44:16 PM PDT by Chances Are (Whew! It seems I've at last found that silly grin!)
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To: neverdem
They embarked on foraging trips into the surrounding Soviet zone, made under-the-table arrangements with shopkeepers and bartered and traded on the streets and squares of Berlin. Berliners had practiced these black market strategies since war's end and were used to depending on them for their survival.

Well, DUUHHHHH. If they hadn't they might have died! History is repleat with examples of people doing extraordinary things to survive extraordinary conditions. The Airlift did one thing very, very well and that was to prove to the Soviets we were not going to be bullied out of Berlin. Of course, this nitwit writer misses the point choosing to instead concentrate on the failures of the airlift to completly supply Berlin's needs.

Lastly, the Berliners of that era, those who LIVED thru it and many of their offspring KNOW what would have happened had the airlift failed.

20 posted on 06/13/2008 11:49:58 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Save the Earth! Kill a tree!)
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