Posted on 07/12/2008 12:59:13 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Sixty years ago this month, the top story in campaign year 1948 was not the big poll lead of Republican nominee Thomas Dewey or the plight of President Harry Truman. It was the Berlin airlift.
On June 23, the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin. Gen. Lucius Clay, the military governor in Germany, called for sending convoys up the autobahns, but Allied troops were vastly outnumbered by the Red Army, and everyone feared they would overrun Western Europe unless the United States retaliated with the atomic bomb.
Air Force generals said that there was no way planes could ferry the 8 million pounds of food and coal Berlin would need every day. Secretary of State George Marshall and Joint Chiefs Chairman Omar Bradley, two of America's most respected generals, felt Berlin was indefensible and we should withdraw. One man disagreed. President Harry Truman, in one crucial meeting after another, said, "We're not leaving Berlin."
And we didn't. Truman had no idea how Berlin could be supplied. But Clay persuaded him to order the Air Force to send more planes that it wanted to keep, pristine and at the ready for other missions, at home. Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg, at the prompting of Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, appointed Gen. William Tunner, who had run the airlift "over the hump" from Burma to China, to run the airlift in Germany.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Great read and reminder. Ping
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
General William Tunner:
“After the Burma Road was cut by the advancing Japanese in early 1942, he organized the Allied logistical airlift from India in to China over the Hump to support Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese forces and the Flying Tigers until the opening of the Ledo Road.
After the war, he was the organizer of the Berlin Airlift (1948–49), and took a direct hand when the early efforts bogged down. Under his hand, the operation amassed more than 250,000 flights, cycled a plane every ninety seconds, and broke the will of the Soviet Union with the so-called ‘Easter Parade’, delivering nearly 13,000 tons of supplies in a single 24 hour period. In addition, when Tunner learned of pilot Gail Halvorsen’s initiative of airdropping candy for the children of Berlin, he ordered that idea expanded into Operation Little Vittles which saw tons of candy dropped for a major propaganda success.
As a general in the new United States Air Force, he was head of Military Air Transport Service in the darkest days of the Korean war, and instrumental in reinforcing the nearly conquered south, and in post-Inchon operations while the United Nations Forces had yet to join the perimeters and secure the south. In the rough Korean terrain the air supply by parachute techniques he pioneered in the Burma theater kept the UN forces supplied and healthy throughout the campaign despite medieval roads, and brutal winters.’
>> Wikipedia
As a child, I recall the Berlin airlift discussed in class. I had no idea it was a plane every 90 seconds, 8 million pounds a day. Demorats would not vote for a Truman today.
With the majority of republicans seemingly left of Truman I'm not sure many republicans would either.
Today, we're lucky to find REPUBLICANS with a pair...Democrats who have them are booted (see: Joe Lieberman).
Leadership is on the wane and is being replaced with "let's get along with the world community" bs.
LLS
Agreed. I only wish I were younger, so that I would still be walking around on this planet to be part of those best days.
btt
Thanks for the ping!
No doubt, many folks today especially if under 40 and not instructed good or diligently self taught, have no clue that many Democrats used to be more socially conservative and willing to fight wars even more so than their then GOP contemporaries.
So many youngsters and northern GOP today like to think Republicans always good and Democrats always bad from the beginning.
The history of party affiliation with conservatism is much more convoluted and complicated.
As is I suppose the history of conservatism and events specific to that specific time.
This article gets me so pumped. Every word rings true. Barrone is the man. And he always plays it straight, telling both sides. I hope the folks in our military are aware of how the great job they are doing is still leaking out despite the Obama Camp's best efforts to misrepresent the status in Iraq.
That is why, despite all the things we don't like about McCain, we need to do everything we can to make sure Obama does not become our next President. The only thing I trust McCain on is supporting the troops and seeing that we are victorious in Iraq.
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