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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Cold War (A Synopsis) - Part II - Sep 21st, 2004
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Posted on 09/20/2004 8:10:50 PM PDT by SAMWolf



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

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Berlin: 1948-1949


DIVIDED GERMANY

Following World War II, Germany is divided into four zones of occupation -- Soviet, British, French and American. Germany, and Berlin in particular, are the only places where communist and capitalist forces come into direct contact.



Three and a half million Berliners live deep inside Soviet lines. The Nazis' once-proud capital, reduced to a pile of rubble by Allied anger, is down to its bare essentials.

CURRENCY REFORM

In June 1948, an announcement by the Western Allies brings a crisis to Berlin. They establish a currency reform meant to wipe out the German black market and further tie the vulnerable German economy to the West. The Soviets are not told and are infuriated by the action. Moscow says Berlin is located in the Soviet zone and therefore "economically forms part of it."


Sir Brian Robertson (Great Britian), Pierre Koenig (france), Lucius D. Clay (USA).


Sir Brian Robertson, the British military governor in Berlin, along with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Lucius Clay, respond by introducing a special version of a new German currency, the deutschmark, stamped with a "B" for Berlin.

AIRLIFT

On Thursday, June 24, 1948, West Berlin wakes to find itself under a Soviet blockade -- and in the midst of the first major confrontation of the Cold War. The Western Allies impose a counter-blockade on the Soviet zone. The Soviets hope to starve the West out of Berlin.



The West had been through a similar short-term Soviet blockade of Berlin two months earlier -- and had responded with an airlift using air corridors set up in a 1945 agreement with the Soviets. Now, new plans are drawn up -- for long-term replenishment of West Berlin from the air.

NEW ALLIES

The Berlin airlift brings a new mindset to the Western Allies, who start thinking of West Germany as an ally, rather than an occupied territory. In West Berlin, the airlift brings people sustenance and hope. In one memorable instance, the airlift -- in the form of American pilot Gail Halvorsen -- rains candy on West Berlin's desperate children.


In 1948, Halvorsen’s bunk was a factory for miniature parachutes weighted with chocolate bars. He became known as the 'Candy Bomber,' 'Uncle Wobbly-Wings' and 'Der Schokoladen Flieger' ('Chocolate Pilot'). (U.S. Air Force photo)


As it becomes evident that the Soviets are not going to back down from their blockade, the Western Allies consider how to expand their airlift operations. Larger cargo planes are brought in, as well as bombers with cargo capacity.

WEST-EAST



Berliners are still free to move around their city, despite the Soviet blockade. While West Berlin is suffering through shortages of electricity and other essentials, the eastern sector offers a relatively normal lifestyle. Politically, however, the city is on edge.



Soviet troops harass West Berliners who go to the eastern zone. And in September, a communist attempt to take over the city council sparks mass protests -- which end in violence.

BLOCKADE ENDS

The Soviet Union ends its blockade of Berlin on May 12, 1949. A month earlier, at the airlift's peak, Western cargo planes were landing at one of Berlin's three airports at a rate of one every 62 seconds. By the time the airlift ended, more than 275,000 flights had carried 2.3 million tons of supplies to Berlin -- an effort that went down in history as an aviation and logistical feat.



At least 79 people, including 31 Americans, 39 British and nine Germans, had lost their lives, mostly in plane crashes. But the confrontation proved to be only the opening act in the decades-long Cold War.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: algerhiss; berlinairlift; coldwar; communism; freeperfoxhole; hollywoodten; joemccarthy; koreanwar; rosenbergs; sovietunion; stalin; veterans
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To: Professional Engineer

Need to add an 'ed' to the end of that word. :-)


81 posted on 09/21/2004 8:11:44 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: aomagrat

Thanks aomagrat.


82 posted on 09/21/2004 8:12:04 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: colorado tanker

I remember the CNN series on the Cold War, and the subtle spin they inserted.

Let me take a wild guess. It was all our fault.


83 posted on 09/21/2004 8:12:18 PM PDT by Valin (I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.)
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To: colorado tanker
determined to make himself into McGovern II.

I hope so!

84 posted on 09/21/2004 8:13:23 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: Professional Engineer

If I never have to go to DC again I won't unless it's to see the Vietnam Memorial after construction is finished.

Hope they had a good turn out, we didn't know about it but unless it's at night we couldn't have made it anyway.


85 posted on 09/21/2004 8:16:43 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: Professional Engineer

There are two franchises. Wild Bird Center and Wild Bird Unlimited. We will independently own and operate a Wild Bird Center. We are getting lots of 'general' information that would apply to any retail operation and then of course more specific information for the WBC stores. The design and reasons behind it are coming into focus. I will just have to learn to work within our budget. :-)


86 posted on 09/21/2004 8:20:57 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: Professional Engineer

We thought WBU was too restrictive. At WBC we can carry our own items in addition to theirs. That's a big plus. We have some of our own ideas ya know. :-)


87 posted on 09/21/2004 8:22:55 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf
but like the Center's philosophy and more freedom to operate the store our way.

He heh heh, the market has spoken. I wish y'all luck in your endeaver.

I still wanna ride in your M-16.

88 posted on 09/21/2004 8:28:51 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Grand Poobah~Benevolent & Protective Order of Irascible Fellows. That's right, I'm a Curmudgeon.)
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To: snippy_about_it
I will just have to learn to work within our budget. :-)

I do this on a daily basis. Some budgets are bigger than others, but it's still all in a day's work. It usually isn't alot of fun trying to explain to a building owner why he has to spend ANOTHER 100 grand, whne the project is already overbudget. Usually. Sometimes it's fun.

89 posted on 09/21/2004 8:33:39 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Grand Poobah~Benevolent & Protective Order of Irascible Fellows. That's right, I'm a Curmudgeon.)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf
At WBC we can carry our own items in addition to theirs. That's a big plus. We have some of our own ideas ya know. :-)

I hear Remington makes a fine line of shotguns. ;-)

90 posted on 09/21/2004 8:40:54 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Grand Poobah~Benevolent & Protective Order of Irascible Fellows. That's right, I'm a Curmudgeon.)
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To: SAMWolf

No disagreement here. I seem to recall a movie made of "Salem's Lot".


91 posted on 09/21/2004 9:06:04 PM PDT by Valin (I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.)
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To: SAMWolf

more freedom to operate the store our way.


And this is a good thing.
I've got a brother in Fargo, and (I swear) every bird within 30 miles knows his house.


92 posted on 09/21/2004 9:09:19 PM PDT by Valin (I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; bentfeather; manna; Valin; Iris7; alfa6; E.G.C.; The Mayor; GailA; ...
Sean Hannity said on his radio program today that tomorrow night he will have Lech Walesa as guest on Hannity & MUTE.

The above account of the Cold War smells like CNN's moral equivalence.

Per The Black Book of Communism 100,000,000 were murdered by Communists.

CNN likes to call the pukes who cut Olin Edward Armstrong's head off "militants".

What I call CNN is [expletive deleted].

The work of Senator Joseph McCarthy was vindicated by the publication of the Venona decrypts.

One very useful summary is Ann Coulter, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terror, Crown, 2003.

Coulter's Acknowledgements begins with "Deserving of the most hysterical liberal blacklisting for helping me with this book are: M. Stanton Evans, the world's leading authority on Senatory Joseph McCarthy. . . ."

As I never tire of recalling, I had the pleasure to watch Evans, then editor of the Indianapolis News slice, dice and julienne Dr. Robert Risk of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union in 1964.

Afterwards fellow YAFers and I had a shouting match with Risk's hangers-on, bearded marxists no doubt from under rocks at IU where R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. would've been keeping their heads down with withering barbs.

The same ComSympstm are alive and well today--

Case in point, Jean FifthColumn Kerry, who told Fulbright the racist Clinton-mentor "we cahn't fight Communism all over the globe, and I thought we should've learned that lesson by now."

Strobe Talbott at the end of the reign of traitorrapist42 predicted the withering away of the nation state--yet all we see is the withering away of the Kerry Koup attempt on the last bastion of capitalist freedom.

Ted Turner, what is the Western equivalent to Stassi machinegunning Berliners scrambling to freedom, or Fidel sinking and drowning the ferryboat fugitives from the Cuban paradise of universal literacy and exquisite health care?

Thanks to Ronald Reagan--whom John Forges Kerry "proudly" opposed--we defeated the Soviet drive for world domination.

Not peaceful coexistence, not moral equivalence, not UN-brokered conflict resolution--

American resolute strength beat Soviet corrupt totalitarianism.

And John Kerry and Dan Rather and Ted Kennedy and Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings and Katie Couric et al were and remain deeply saddened.

To these I say a profound nyah nyah nyah nyah.

In other news, CBS' Dan Rather announced he would apologize and resign "when Hell freezes over".


93 posted on 09/21/2004 9:45:58 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: Valin

"Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives... by make-believe."

That is good. Who said it?

May I use it for my tagline? I will remove it at once if you wish.


94 posted on 09/22/2004 12:36:23 AM PDT by Iris7 ("Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives... by make-believe.")
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To: Valin
Let me take a wild guess. It was all our fault.

Close, they kept mentionionig some guy named Bush" as being to blame. ;-)

95 posted on 09/22/2004 2:53:16 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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To: snippy_about_it
I will just have to learn to work within our budget. :-)

You said it, I didn't ;-)

96 posted on 09/22/2004 2:55:21 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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To: Professional Engineer
I still wanna ride in your M-16.

Thanks PE. You and the family get the first ride. :-)

97 posted on 09/22/2004 2:56:40 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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To: Professional Engineer
I hear Remington makes a fine line of shotguns. ;-)

OOOO! I like it!!

98 posted on 09/22/2004 2:57:41 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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To: Valin
I seem to recall a movie made of "Salem's Lot".

I think they did two, not sure though. I do know the first one was really bad.

99 posted on 09/22/2004 2:58:44 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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To: Valin
I've got a brother in Fargo, and (I swear) every bird within 30 miles knows his house.

LOL! Sounds like my house. :-)

100 posted on 09/22/2004 2:59:35 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Why be difficult, when with a bit of effort, you can be impossible.)
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