Americans Are Losing The Peace In Europe

Life Magazine ^ | January 7, 1946 | John Dos Passos

[TEXOKIE]

You need to see this, Rags! It's deja vu all over again!!

It's a 1946 news report telling the world how US is losing the peace in Europe after WWII. Take a peek at post 8 by usurper.

[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.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks, Weimdog. Rare and refreshing PERSPECTIVE.

TEX, bless you!

The troops returning home are worried. “We’ve lost the peace,” men tell you. “We can’t make it stick.”

A tour of the beaten-up cities of Europe six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone. Europeans. Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American.   ~ Life Magazine, January 7, 1946

* A good mega-media e-mail link site

 Thanks, Tonkin!

If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

[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.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[visitor]

ditto for later read ...rto

[nobdysfool]

Same as it ever was....

[The Iguana]

bump for later read.

[xzins]

It's fascinatingly familiar.

And can you believe that the French.....a mere half year after being PUT back into power are already complaining?

Fortunately, the French aren't reproducing.....

[laotzu]

It was another Viet Nam

[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.

[blackie]

How soon they forget! *sigh*

[ambrose]

ping.

[Prodigal Son]

That's a great read.

[Happy2BMe]

Deja Vu > 1944 Paris into 2003 Baghdad.

The French were whores then - the French are whores now.

[Stultis]

And can you believe that the French.....a mere half year after being PUT back into power are already complaining?

DUH! Hell, the French were complaining before they were put back in power. De Gaulle kept up a constant whine while exhiled under the protection of the Brits, only occassionaly drowned out by the air raid sirens. It's a wonder Churchill didn't have him taken out and shot.