Replies

I know Ford built truck factories in the USSocialistRepublics at the same time our guys were trying to plug up the Ho Chi Minh trail. Ford had a long history of building truck factories in the USSR, going back to the thirties.

33 posted on 11/14/2004 11:02:45 PM PST by investigateworld (( .... Father Watch over our servicemen, for their task is righteous and the danger is great....))

Yes. Julius and Armand Hammer, who the Soviets assigned to attract US investors, persuaded Henry Ford to set up Ford operations in Russia starting in 1919, and by the late 30s Ford was doing multi-million-dollar business there (this is mentioned in Edward Jay Epstein's biography of Hammer). I believe Ford stepped up production in the Eastern bloc in the 60s following Zbigniew Brzezinski's 1965 recommendation to ease US-Soviet trade restrictions, though I'm not sure on the specifics about that--would need to look that up.