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On Hitler’s Very Stationery
National Review -- The Corner ^ | 1-28-15 | Jay Nordlinger

Posted on 01/28/2015 10:38:27 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

In today’s Impromptus, I have occasion to mention Richard Helms, just in passing. He was CIA director from 1966 to 1973. Then he was ambassador to Iran. He was one of my favorite people in public life. (Sometimes the CIA isn’t very public, true.) I had a couple of exchanges with him — one by letter and one in person — and am grateful for them.

In my column, I mention that, as a journalist, he interviewed Hitler. This was in ’36. In the war that came, he was an intelligence operative. And he snuck into the Chancellery after Hitler offed himself (with Eva).

I pause for a language note: Good old Americans are allowed to say “snuck,” instead of “sneaked.”

On Hitler’s letterhead — swastika and all — Helms wrote a note to his three-year-old son, Dennis. It was addressed to “Master Dennis J. Helms / c/o Mrs. Richard Helms” in Orange, N.J. That is redolent of an age. We used to address little boys as “Master” on envelopes. And we said things like “Mrs. Richard Helms.”

The father and future DCI wrote,

Dear Dennis,

The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe — three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins. He had a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evil in the world. His passing, his defeat — a boon to mankind. But thousands died that it might be so. The price for ridding society of bad is always high.

Love,
Daddy

This letter now rests in the CIA’s private museum at Langley. To see an article about the matter, go here. Link

There is, as you have seen, a great deal of wisdom packed into Helms’s few lines. For one thing, we should beware anyone who has “a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty.” That describes Ali Khamenei and many others. (Helms, incidentally, left Tehran two years before the Iranian revolution won.)

I would like to add a coda. On Christmas Day 1991, Helms wrote a letter to that same son, Dennis, saying,

My life has spanned an historic period, and I am rather awed by that fact. As I recalled other events, I realized that … Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and how many others bit the dust during this century. Now I am afraid that we are entering a troubled time, but of a different kind. … So-called “terrorism” may get a new lease on life. … But why be pessimistic?



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: 3rdreich; helms; hitler

1 posted on 01/28/2015 10:38:27 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

For one thing, we should beware anyone who has “a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty.” That describes Ali Khamenei and many others. (Helms, incidentally, left Tehran two years before the Iranian revolution won.)

...

It describes Barry Obama.


2 posted on 01/28/2015 10:41:57 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

My very thought.


3 posted on 01/28/2015 10:46:39 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

What a gift!

4 posted on 01/28/2015 10:47:10 AM PST by CptnObvious
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To: Moonman62

yes, all leftists really


5 posted on 01/28/2015 10:50:14 AM PST by GeronL
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To: CptnObvious

BTT!


6 posted on 01/28/2015 10:50:27 AM PST by onedoug
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Wow. Mr. Helms did indeed see a lot. And was at the forefront of some great events in the 20th Century.

And he was correct at how the 21st Century would develop into “terrorism”.


7 posted on 01/28/2015 10:52:56 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (See Ya On The Road; Al Baby's Mom!)
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To: CptnObvious

I was puzzled by Nordlinger saying Helms “snuck into the Chancellery” when as of VE Day it was under Soviet control. Had trouble picturing the NKVD tolerating an OSS operative getting in and stealing anything. Thanks for clearing up the confusion by posting the actual letter, address Obersalzberg, location of Hitler’s Alpine retreat then under control of the 101st Airborne. Whatever the circumstances, what a gift indeed.


8 posted on 01/28/2015 11:18:59 AM PST by katana (Just my opinions)
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To: CptnObvious

That is very cool.


9 posted on 01/28/2015 11:45:47 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: katana

I suspect he got that detail wrong. The stationary says Obersaltzburg, which was the mountain retreat the Nazis built above Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, which was in the American Zone. Hitler had his mountain home there, the Eagle’s Nest.


10 posted on 01/28/2015 11:58:41 AM PST by colorado tanker
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To: CptnObvious

Thanks for posting a copy of the letter.

The letterhead address is “Obersalzburg”, which would have been the Berchtesgaden “Eagle’s Nest” compound.

It’s possible that there would have been some Obersalzburg stationery in Hitler’s Berlin bunker in 1945, but it seems more likely that this stationery was recovered in Berchtesgaden.


11 posted on 01/28/2015 12:06:46 PM PST by 04-Bravo
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Fascinating.


12 posted on 01/28/2015 12:41:50 PM PST by ryan71 (The Partisans)
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To: CptnObvious
This is not stationery from Hitler's Bunker in Berlin, which was captured by the Russians. No Americans were anywhere near Berlin on V-E day. This is from Obersalzberg, Hitler's complex on the hill above Berchtesgaden,

which included the Eagle's Nest further up the mountain.


13 posted on 01/28/2015 12:47:18 PM PST by Jabba the Nutt (You can have freedom or government schools. Choose one.)
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To: Jabba the Nutt
No Americans were anywhere near Berlin on V-E day.

There is a film clip I have seen a few times that shows a huge swastika atop a building in Berlin being dynamited. Do you know when this occurred and who was doing the demolition?

14 posted on 01/28/2015 1:05:50 PM PST by wideminded
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To: CptnObvious

That’s pretty amazing.


15 posted on 01/28/2015 1:20:21 PM PST by Kommodor (Terrorist, Journalist or Democrat? I can't tell the difference.)
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To: wideminded

The Ruskies.


16 posted on 01/28/2015 1:35:49 PM PST by Jabba the Nutt (You can have freedom or government schools. Choose one.)
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To: CptnObvious

Is the story incorrect in some details? Why was Hitler’s Obersalzberg stationary in the Reichskanzler’s office in Berlin? And wasn’t the place pretty well looted once the western allies got there? How would there have been anything left?


17 posted on 01/28/2015 2:09:27 PM PST by cookiemcbride
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