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Chilling chapter from the past
Washington Times ^ | December 4, 2005 | John O'Sullivan

Posted on 12/04/2005 4:34:32 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

A top secret map for a 1979 Warsaw Pact war game -- titled "Seven Days to the River Rhine" -- was released at a press conference that marked the opening of the Poland's heretofore secret communist-era military intelligence files.

It was chilling. The map showed large red mushroom clouds along a line from the Danish border through Germany and Belgium to the French border. They blotted out such cities as Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Antwerp and Brussels.

Massive SS-20 missiles were being planted in Eastern Europe and aimed at Western cities. (The red mushroom clouds show their destinations.) "Peace rallies" throughout Western Europe, partly funded by the KGB, were frightening governments into rejecting installation of America's deterrent missiles. A world-class Soviet navy was being built up. The Kremlin, about to invade Afghanistan, boasted that the international "correlation of forces" was tipping in its favor. And U.S. President Carter was still bemoaning our "inordinate fear of communism."

A NATO invasion of Eastern Europe therefore was not really thinkable. The Warsaw Pact's "counterattack" looks very much like a plan for a first-strike invasion of Western Europe. One tipoff: Neither Britain nor France is attacked in the war game. This is a plan for a lightning dash to the Rhine followed by a cease-fire, an offer of negotiations, and a "peace settlement" allowing the Soviet Union to swallow all Germany and dominate a nominally independent Franco-British rump of NATO.

That it never happened is partly because three extraordinary people -- a Polish pope, Britain's first woman prime minister, and a Cold Warrior from Hollywood -- all arrived in power to rebuild Western strength and morale and to give hope of liberation to "captive nations" behind the Iron Curtain.

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


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coldwar; johnosullivan; nato; warsawpact

1 posted on 12/04/2005 4:34:33 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

may history tell such a great story about our battle with evil unmasked.


2 posted on 12/04/2005 4:44:41 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (whatever)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
A great story Tailgunner Joe about those three pivotal people.

Once again America was pretty much alone against the threat.

Wolf
3 posted on 12/04/2005 5:06:24 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
"'Peace rallies' throughout Western Europe, partly funded by the KGB, were frightening governments into rejecting installation of America's deterrent missiles."
Yes, the enemies of freedom and of the United States still use the same tactics. They obviously succeed, to some extent, in manipulating the unintelligent. Otherwise, such tactics would have been abandoned. Fools are their insturments and their enablers.
"U.S. President Carter was still bemoaning our 'inordinate fear of communism.'"

Anyone unintelligent enough to give serious attention to this dimwit can be expected to be manipulated by the malevolent.
"Thus we had a narrow escape."
Yes. And, if we escape the machinations of the Fools and Scoundrels of today, our escape will be every bit as narrow.

The Left is the movement of Scoundrels and the Fools they manipulate. The Democrat Party is their political machine.

4 posted on 12/04/2005 5:10:38 PM PST by Savage Beast ("Oprah: The light that shines so gently on those who need it most." ~Sidney Poitier)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I remember the violent "Peace rallies" also.

Not to say that all protesters are provocateurs, but always be wary of a subversive element somewhere within them.

Wolf
5 posted on 12/04/2005 5:15:53 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Right out of Red Storm Rising, well kinda.


6 posted on 12/04/2005 5:16:38 PM PST by fuente
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To: the invisib1e hand
I haven't looked at the article yet, but I'm giddy and short of breath with anticipation.

Could this drive Jimma Cottah to suck wind and and explode?!

7 posted on 12/04/2005 5:21:29 PM PST by skeptoid
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To: RunningWolf

Bullshxt. Two of the other pivotal players were not US folks.
Do try to be rational about historical fact.


8 posted on 12/04/2005 5:53:04 PM PST by 5050 no line (zip)
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To: 5050 no line
I did not say that they were. I agree with the article for the most part.

In that post I was speaking more to the strategic factor. I should have been more clear about that.

Imagine a scenario where US did not play back then.

Wolf
9 posted on 12/04/2005 5:59:09 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Peace rallies" throughout Western Europe, partly funded by the KGB, were frightening governments into rejecting installation of America's deterrent missiles.

The media never puts these idiots on the wrong page of history.

10 posted on 12/04/2005 6:09:40 PM PST by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghanistan Honor Roll students.)
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To: armymarinemom
The media always finds a way to forget about them after they have served their purpose. Just look at that Sheehan movement.

Wolf
11 posted on 12/04/2005 6:44:58 PM PST by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Back in the Cold War days I was involved in analyzing various related information. I remember the day that, looking at all the info from the various sources, I suddenly came to the realization that the groundwork was being laid by the USSR for a first strike.

It was a sobering (and frightening) moment. Fortunately history took a different turn, although the threats facing us today may be every bit as serious.

12 posted on 12/04/2005 6:59:41 PM PST by The Duke
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Until now knowledge of these and other communist-era crimes has been quietly suppressed throughout Eastern Europe. "Post-communism" has been a transition to democracy in which the truth about communism has been sacrificed in the interests of social peace. As a result, communist-era public figures have survived and even flourished; post-communist networks have exercised a shadowy political influence; and, in response, cynicism about democracy has spread.

The reason is that Communism never went away. It just went underground. As O'Sullivan suggests a commission to expose Communism's past our academics and media are actively rewriting history to make them the heroes and us the evil ones.

13 posted on 12/04/2005 7:59:40 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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