Whopper: Arnold Schwarzenegger What were Soviet tanks doing in Austria's British-occupied sector?

Slate ^ | 9-3-04 | Slate

[Jeff Blogworthy]

ByTimothy Noah Posted Friday, Sept. 3, 2004, at 3:56 PM PT

When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes. I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector. Growing up, we were told, "Don't look the soldiers in the eye. Look straight ahead." It was a common belief that Soviet soldiers could take a man out of his own car and ship him off to the Soviet Union as slave labor.

My family didn't have a car -- but one day we were in my uncle's car. It was near dark as we came to a Soviet checkpoint. I was a little boy, I wasn't an action hero back then, and I remember how scared I was that the soldiers would pull my father or my uncle out of the car, and I'd never see him again. My family and so many others lived in fear of the Soviet boot. Today, the world no longer fears the Soviet Union and it is because of the United States of America!

As a kid I saw the socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left. I love Austria and I love the Austrian people - but I always knew America was the place for me.

--Arnold Schwarzenegger, Aug. 31, 2004.

"It's a fact -- as a child he could not have seen a Soviet tank in Styria," the southeastern province where Schwarzenegger was born and raised, historian Stefan Karner told the Vienna newspaper Kurier.

[Uncle Vlad]

It's a true sign of desperation on the left when they start to hysterically nitpick at things that are either trivial or easily refuted. They're really having a meltdown, and they don't know what to do about it. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

[Columbine]

Gotta love the sight of desperate libs but gullible conservatives are not quite as attractive.

[68 grunt]

... I would like an explanation.

Why on earth would this be at all similar? What do you do when you get in a car? The word I'm looking for is 'travel'. Can't you smell the desperation of the liberal scum?

[G.Mason]

"I would like an explanation."

I would like a new pick up truck.

Think we can pool our resources and solve both problems? I'll read Arnolds speech to you and you give me the money for the truck. ;)

[Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok]

o it's not as bad as Christmas In Cambodia for any number of reasons. The main one being ARNY IS NOT NOR CAN NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT,

secondly I'm not so sure they aren't taking him out of context. Thirdly if they spend all there time attacking Arny who people love (Kerry at best they don't know) Kerry gets less press coverage, and it won't hurt Bush. There's more I could say but they rain just stopped here in Bangkok that is the only time when it's the least bit cool so i want to go running.

[Larry Lucido]

I lived in Michigan my whole youth, but I remember seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum. It's even seared into my memory. Got pictures, too. Go figure that out!

[igoramus987]

Timothy Noah is the author of the article.

Congratulations Timothy!!!

You win this year's MORON of the Year Award!!!

Arnold didn't say they were where he lived. He said when he was travelling in his car, he had to cross a checkpoint into the Russian section.

Timothy needs to go back to school.

[KeyWest]

Welcome to FR

[Shortwave]

Actually, I've been told that Al Franken wrote the "Girlie Man" skit. That even makes it more ironic. Lighten up.

[Larry Lucido]

"Has anyone yet pointed out that the whole "girlieman" thing is actually from a Saturday Night Live parody of Arnold - Hans and Franz? Is it not strange that he is still using it? It is not something he ever said in a movie, it belongs to Dana Carvey."

I once told someone to "make my day." Didn't know it was copyrighted.

[TigersEye]

That the Schwarzenegger family would have wanted to take such a trip seems doubtful in the extreme. Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times, in an earlier examination of this claim, noted the obstacle of "British and Soviet antipathy during the occupation."

The very fearsomeness of the Soviets would have made any sensible Austrian reluctant to enter their jurisdiction.

Doubt all you want, lefty. All this says is that Arnie's dad and uncle had as big a set as the Terminator. There's no proof here that they didn't visit the Soviet sector just a validation that the Soviets were nasty, mean and scary.

[AmericanMade1776]

My Father in law is 89, a retired colonel, who was in Austria during the Occupation, my sister in law was born in Austria. My father in laws once very, very sharp mind is muddled now, or I would ask him. But I will check out the facts. I believe Arnold, it was a child's remembrance....and sometimes those can also be a bit muddled.

[sharkhawk]

I remember growing up seeing the Soviet tanks in the streets.
Oh my gosh I grew up in Downers Grove Illinois, how can I remember seeing Soviet tanks.
Oh yeah, my parents took me to visit relatives in Poland in '77.

[RGSpincich]

Stefan Karner was once arrested by Arnold's father for being a peeping Franz. /payback is hell

[Jorge]

Now if he said he saw Soviet tanks in California nobody would doubt him.....

[montag813]

Maybe he was confusing himself with the Von Trapp family, and the Soviets with Nazis.

[Knute]

Hasta la vista BABY!
Jeff Blogworthy is not worthy of a second thought.
What tripe!

[SirLurkedalot]

Or Helen Thomas waxing nostalgic about changing Methuselahs diapers.

[Novel]

They are really reaching. They're picking these speeches apart trying to find the least little bit of inconsistency. Something they didn't do with the DNC speeches, I might add. Noah's full article complains that Arnold never said the Soviet tanks were in his hometown, but he "sure as hell implied they were there." I love this word, implied. It's the most over used word in political arguments today. It's akin to the Dems invention of the phrase "It's the seriousness of the charges that matter." It's all mumbo-jumbo political spin. Arnold never said the Soviet tanks were in his hometown. Period. End of story. Unless Arnold's uncle had a car that for some reason was able to travel through Soviet check points and enter Soviet occupied areas of Austria, this is the lamest "Gottcha!" I've ever seen.

[Piquaboy]

You would have to be a brick shy of having a full load to believe anything that Slate puts out.