[Weimdog]

Found this interesting piece of History at Instapundit.com -

Money quote:

"We have swept away Hitlerism, but a great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease."

[eureka!]

Wonderful find...

[tiamat]

Great article

[dighton]

Bump for an outstanding find.

[sauropod]

Good find.

[xzins]

You should mail this to all the radio talk show hosts.

[usurper]

It’s interesting to note that the mainstream media has been bashing the US for quite some time. This article contains most of the tricks used today such as trying to make a comparison between out troops and those of the USSR. Then there is the notion that because the Europeans don’t like us it must be our fault. It ends basically espousing a euro centric ideal the British are doing it right and us gringos are all screwed up.

Funny how their BS never changes.

[holdmuhbeer]

and the beat goes on doesn't it?

[xzins]

Ping to a January 1946 Article.

Awesome Find!!

[Cacique]

Just curious. Where's Eurpoe (title)? Is that anywhere near Europe?

[wimpycat]

Great find!

[DannyTN]

Is that New Europe or Old Europe?

[samtheman]

What? No quagmire???

Didn't Dos Passos know about quagmire???

The word's been around since 1580, according to Webster. And Dos Passos couldn't find a way to work it in to a general description of how Its-All-Americas-Fault!

Another big failing: How could he fail to blame the war on the Republicans???

I know, it was a Demo administration. But nevertheless, he could have at least blamed the capitalists. Joe Stalin did. When asked to participate in the Marshall Plan, he said he would not to contribute to such an obvious exercise of "capitalist domination of Europe". (Maybe Dos Passos picked up on that thought after Uncle Joe spoke.)

[alloysteel]

We very nearly DID lose the peace in Europe in the reconstruction period after WW II. Eastern Europe was firmly under the iron control of the Red Army, and everywhere there was a call for retreat to our own shores to regroup after a long and exhausting war. The Germans at that time (1946) were not that happy for the Russians to be there, and the only reason we stayed was a bulwark against further expansion of Soviet occupation. Literally, millions of homeless and stateless persons were pouring into the zones occupied by US, France and Great Britain, fleeing the Soviet zone. And what did we do? Sent them back, some to almost certain fates as "enemies of the state". But some of the "refugees" were in fact ringers sent in to infiltrate and sabotage reconstruction efforts. Remember, this was BEFORE the Marshall Plan was instituted, and it took several years for that plan to finally yield positive results.

Like Iraq today, western Europe was a very dangerous place.

[Billthedrill]

“You must be prepared,” he warned them, “for further efforts of mind and body and further sacrifices to great causes, if you are not to fall back into the rut if inertia, the confusion of aim and the craven fear of being great.”

Winston Churchill. Yeah.

[samtheman]

I just sent this to Fox News.

[cwb]

I love a little perspective when discussing current events. It's also important to see how the seeds for WWII were laid from the discontent coming out of WWI and the Treaty Of Versailles. We can either follow the path of punitive abadonment as we did to Germany after WWI, or build a better and more secure future as we did for Europe with the Marshall Plan after WWII. It would've been very easy for these devestated Western European nations to turn to the Soviets and communism following this war if not for our support. Let's hope we see this lesson when dealing with Iraq.

[The Iguana]

bump for later read.

[stck]

John Dos Passos' observations were 100% correct! If you believe otherwise you should work on brushing up your history.
Articles like this one and the impressions a General Marshall had in Europe were the reasons America finally had to come up with a "Marshall Plan".
Europe WAS almost lost after WWII! Up until 1947 the victorious allies were only busy looting, or blowing up what was left of German factories. Until 1948/49 Germans were at the point of starvation.

[ambrose]

ping.

[Prodigal Son]

That's a great read.