Posted on 06/13/2008 10:16:15 PM PDT by neverdem
Maybe he's hawking his new book?
My guess is he has a few myths of his own.
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.
So, it wasn't that the USA won the war that fed them...
it was their will to lose that saved lives?
Well, there you have it. Next he'll say we didn't really take Normandy on D-day.
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.
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?
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.
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... )
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.
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.
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.
Unless, of course, he's alluding to some touchy, feely, dim lib “cost”-—like someone's hurt feelings or some such nonsense.
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....
Great comment! Thanks for the link!
Looks like reeducation camp for you, my friend!
CA....
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.