Iron Curtain: 1945-1947

HOMECOMINGS

The United States emerges from World War II with both its government and economy intact. In fact, the American war machine has revitalized the nation's businesses and brought affluence to more people on levels unimaginable during the pre-war Depression.

In the Soviet Union, soldiers return home to a nation ravaged by war. Most are amazed to find themselves alive following a war that has killed an estimated 27 million Soviet civilians and military personnel.

CONQUERED, DIVIDED

Germany, which had terrorized and occupied much of the European continent, now finds itself divided among the victors. Four occupation zones are established, and each of the Allies sets up a sector in Berlin.

Meanwhile, national borders are being redrawn in an attempt to settle old scores. Millions of ethnic Germans are expelled from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

SOVIET CONTROL

New regional power struggles spring up in Europe following World War II, as communist and capitalist factions vie for control. The most notable and brutal example of these is the drawn-out civil war in Greece.

Some of the bitterest fighting was along the mountain border with Albania. Here a priest sips his coffee as officers plan the assault on Mount Kiapha.

Although he did not support the Greek communist cause during that country's civil war, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has succeeded in establishing a buffer zone between his nation and the West -- by creating a series of Soviet satellite states.

WARNINGS

Comments by Stalin in early 1946, that capitalism and imperialism made future wars inevitable, set off alarm bells in the West. George Kennan, a career U.S. diplomat in Moscow, was asked by the State Department for his view on Soviet motives and intentions. His famous cabled response warned there could be no permanent, peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union.

George Kennan

Days after Kennan's telegram, Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister, arrives in the United States. He later speaks at a college in Fulton, Missouri, the home state of his host, U.S. President Harry Truman. Although the speech was not well-received at the time, it coined the phrase that best described the political and ideological divide between the Soviets and the West as the Cold War began.

TRUMAN'S DOCTRINE

Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech set the tenor for the growing tensions between the Soviet Union and its former allies.

The chill in relations between communists and capitalists coincides with the unusually bitter winter of 1946-47. As shortages and famine gripped an exhausted Europe, President Truman announced what became known as the Truman Doctrine.

Marshall Plan: 1947-1952
POSTWAR EUROPE

The events that brought about the Marshall Plan were spurred on by a combination of man-made and natural disasters. Immediately following World War II, much of Europe was in chaos.

Millions of refugees roam the continent, some attempting to return home after the war, others fleeing westward, away from Soviet domination. Governments lie toppled, national economies remain in ruin.

Meanwhile, the harvest of 1946 is poor, and the winter of '46-47 is one of the worst in memory. The strife leads many in Western Europe to consider communism as an end to the hard life and injustices they suffer.

TRUMAN DOCTRINE

After decades as a global power, Britain finds itself unable to cope with the growing postwar crisis on the European continent. Exhausted by World War II, London wants to hold on to its traditional, imperial role. But the winter of 1946-47 brings an end to Britain's longtime status as a main player in world politics.

Harry Truman

In February 1947, Britain informs the United States that London is ending aid to Greece and Turkey. U.S. President Harry Truman then seizes the moment. At a joint session of Congress, Truman successfully persuades lawmakers to authorize $400 million in aid for Turkey and Greece.

During that speech, he also establishes the Truman Doctrine -- a clear distinction between the capitalist and communist worlds.

GEORGE MARSHALL

Truman turns to his secretary of state, George Marshall, to put Europe back on its feet economically. Marshall had been famous for his logistical skills while U.S. Army chief of staff during the war.

George Marshall

Marshall meets with others from the so-called "Big Four" in Moscow, in an attempt to determine the future of then-occupied Germany. But the talks go nowhere.

THE PLAN

Marshall formally announces what will become known as the European Recovery Program during a ceremony at Harvard University. The Marshall Plan offers billions of dollars in U.S. aid to European countries -- including those under Soviet occupation.

Soviet spies in London keep Moscow up to date on the Marshall Plan, which the Kremlin views with growing suspicion. Stalin orders his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, to pull out of a Paris conference designed to frame Europe's response to the Marshall Plan.

As Molotov leaves Paris, he accuses the West of working to divide Europe into two hostile camps. In fact, Czechoslovakia considers attending the Paris conference on the Marshall Plan -- only to be told in no uncertain terms that Moscow is against it.

COUP

In September 1947, as the Marshall Plan gets under way, the Soviets set up the Cominform, the Communist Information Bureau. They also establish Comecon, the Warsaw Pact's version of an economic trading bloc.

President Benes is signing - under the supervision of Communist Klement Gottvald - the appointing of the new government on the 25th February 1948.

But these new ties among European communists mean an end to Eastern European hopes for different types of socialist governments on the continent. That reality is driven home in February 1948 -- when a communist coup topples the government of Czechoslovakia.

AID TO EUROPE

Just weeks after the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the U.S. Congress approves the first $5 billion in Marshall Plan aid. Twenty percent of the aid is in loans, 80 percent in grants. The first shipments are food and fertilizer, followed by machinery.

A shipment of U.S. wheat arrives in the Netherlands.

In the four years of the plan, the Marshall agency spends $13.5 billion in 16 countries. In turn, Europe's purchase of U.S. goods and machinery brings many Marshall Plan dollars back into the American economy, fueling a postwar boom.

One of the European countries most desperate for aid is Greece -- devastated by years of Nazi occupation and civil war. One novel and successful program sent big U.S. mules to Greek farmers.

FEAR AND RESPONSE

The Soviet Union urges its communist colleagues in Western Europe to take action against the Marshall Plan. In response, a series of strikes and demonstrations sweep through Italy and France. Threats by the United States to withdraw Marshall Plan aid have an impact, though, and the strikes eventually fail.

Marshal Tito

Fears that Italy's Communist Party would win the 1948 elections bring about a propaganda campaign in the United States, as well as a campaign of covert operations from the newly formed CIA. Following the Christian Democrats' victory in Italy, Washington unleashes a wave of aid, reviving the Italian economy. Meanwhile, Yugoslavia under Marshal Tito breaks with Moscow after several years of uneasy alliance. Those nations that remain within the Soviet embrace would eye the West for 40 years -- and wonder.

Additional Sources:

www.cnn.com
www.4to40.com
www.mohonasen.org
worldatwar.net
www.curme.co.uk
library.thinkquest.org
www.iupui.edu
www.multied.com
www.rb-29.net
www.opb.org
www.informationwar.org
www.upress.state.ms.us
www.bbc.co.uk
www.grunts.net
iws.ccccd.edu
www.turnerlearning.com
www.kssursee.ch
www.marshallfoundation.org
www.politika.co.yu

Once allies against Hitler, the Soviet Union and the United States confront each other at the end of World War II. Looming over the postwar landscape is the awesome, mushroom-shaped cloud of the atomic bomb.

In the months following their victory in World War II, the alliance between the Soviet Union and the West quickly proves to be little more than a marriage of convenience. Suspicion clouds relations -- while a curtain descends over Europe.

With hunger and discontent plaguing postwar Europe, the U.S. proposes an aid program to rebuild the ruined continent. But the Marshall Plan also solidifies the deep ideological differences between East and West.

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004

The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

Good morning everyone!

You are early. I'm not even caught up yet.

I love that eagle!

Morning Feather

Sorry. :-(

We're on East Coast time this week.

September 20, 2004

If Doubtful, Don't!

Read: Romans 14:14-23

He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. —Romans 14:23

Bible In One Year: Ecclesiastes 4-6; 2 Corinthians 12

In his book Illustrations of Bible Truth, H. A. Ironside tells about a man who was getting ready to attend a banquet. He wanted to put on a white shirt he had worn on a previous occasion, so he was inspecting it carefully to see if it was too dirty. His wife noticed what he was doing and called out, "Remember, dear, if it's doubtful, don't." The issue was settled. The man threw the shirt into the laundry hamper.

That wife's advice reminds me of the principle in today's text. It's a principle that can be applied to questionable matters of conscience. If doubtful, don't.

The doubtful things the apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 14 had to do with meat and wine considered to be "unclean" by some but not by others (vv.14,21). He indicated that if we have doubts about whether an action is right or wrong and we do it anyway, our action is not from faith and is therefore a sin (v.23). He also pointed out that it is wrong to do anything by which a brother in Christ "stumbles or is offended or is made weak" (v.21). We must never give another Christian a reason to violate his or her conscience.

When faced with questionable practices and a troubled conscience, we would do well to make this our guideline: If it's doubtful, don't! —Richard De Haan

There is a treasure you can own
That's greater than a crown or throne;
This treasure is a conscience clear
That brings the sweetest peace and cheer. —Isenhour

One little word can spare us a lot of trouble. It's NO.

Back from the Body and Fender Shop Bump for the Foxhole.

Hope everything is going well out back East for y'all.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

G'morning PE!

On this Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 20:
0357 BC Alexander III the Great, king of Macedonia, emperor
1810 Alpheus Starkey Williams Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1820 George Washington Morgan Brig General (Union volunteers)
1820 John Fulton Reynolds Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1842 Lord James Dewar, physician who invented the vacuum flask and cordite, the first smokeless powder.
1878 Upton Sinclair novelist (Jungle)
1885 Ferdinand Lamenthe (Jelly Roll Morton), jazz pianist, composer and singer, one of the first to orchestrate jazz music.
1902 Kermit Maynard Vevey Ind, cowboy actor (Saturday Roundup)
1917 Arnold "Red" Auerbach NBA coach/GM (Boston Celtics)
1920 Alexander Thereat
1928 Dr Joyce Brothers NYC, pop psychiatrist ($64,000 question winner)
1929 Anne Meara Bkln NY comedian/actress (Stiller & Meara, Archie's Place)
1934 Sophia Loren Rome, actress (Desire Under the Elms, Black Orchid)
1938 Tom Tresh NY Yankee (1962 AL Rookie of the Year)
1941 Dale Chihuly Tacoma Wash, artist in glass (Louis Tiffany Award 1967)
1951 Guy LaFleur Quebec, NHL right wing (Montreal, NY Rangers)
1954 Silvio Leonard Cuba, 100m sprinter (Olympic-silver-1980)
1957 Fran Drescher NYC, actress (The Nanny)

Deaths which occurred on September 20:
0019BC The Roman poet Virgil
1168 Paschal III, [Guido di Crema], Italian anti-Pope, dies
1327 King Edward II of England was murdered under the connivance of the queen.
1586 Anthony Babington, page/conspirator to Mary Stuart, executed at 24
1803 Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist, executed
1863 Jakob Grimm, writer, dies at 78 (Grimms Brothers)
1947 Fiorello La Guardia (Mayor-R-NYC), dies
1957 Jean Sibelius Finnish composer, dies at 91
1959 Olin Howlin actor (Swifty-Circus Boy), dies at 63
1973 Jim Croce singer/songwriter (Time In A Bottle, Bad Bad Leroy Brown), dies in a plane crash at 30
1973 Glenn Strange actor (Sam the Bartender-Gunsmoke), dies at 74
1974 Gail A. Cobb, a member of the Metropolitan Police Force of Washington, D.C., became the first female police officer to be killed in the line of duty.

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 BLACK ARTHUR N. BETHLEHEM PA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 CURTIS THOMAS J. HOUSTON TX.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 FORBY WILLIS E. ONAKA SD.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1965 HAWKINS EDGAR LEE LAMESA TX.
1965 MARTIN DUANE W. DENVER CO.
[REPORTED KILLED BY NATIVES]
1965 ROBINSON WILLIAM A. ROBERSONVILLE NC.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 SMITH PHILIP E. ROODHOUSE IL.
[03/15/73 RELEASED BY CHINA, ALIVE IN 98]
1966 BLOOM RICHARD MCAULIFFE SAN FRANCISCO CA.
1972 LESTER RODERICK B. MORTON WA.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0480 BC Themistocles and his Greek fleet win one of history's first decisive naval victories over Xerxes' Persian force off Salamis.
0451 General Aetius defeats Attila the Hun at Chalons-sur-Marne
0622 Mohammad's Hegira
1519 Magellan starts 1st successful circumnavigation of the world
1565 Spaniards capture Fort Caroline Fla & massacre the French
1664 Maryland enacts 1st anti-amaglmation law to prevent widespread intermarriage of English women & black men
1777 Paoli, PA massacre of sleeping Continental troops by British Dragoons
1792 French defeat Prussians at Valmy
1784 Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in America, appears on the streets.

1797 US frigate Constitution (Old Ironsides) launched in Boston

1830 1st National Black convention meets (Phila)
1850 Slave trade abolished in DC, but slavery allowed to continue
1854 British & French defeat Russians at Alma, in the Crimea
1859 Patent granted on the electric range
1860 1st British royalty to visit US, Prince of Wales (King Edward VII)
1863 Battle of Shepardstown VA
1863 Civil War Battle of Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, Tenn, ends
1873 Panic sweeps NY Stock Exchange (railroad bond default/bank failure)
1881 Chester A Arthur sworn in as president
1884 Equal Rights Party nominates female candidates for Pres & VP
1927 NY Yankee Babe Ruth hits record 60th HR of season off Tom Zachry
1932 Gandhi begins hunger strike
1944 Nijmegen free
1944 Polish forces free Terneuzen Neth
1945 German rocket engineers begin work in US
1946 Churchill argues for a "US of Europe"
1948 Mexican Baseball league disbanded
1949 Tennis player Pancho Gonzales turns professional
1951 Swiss males votes against female suffrage
1951 1st North Pole jet crossing
1951 Ford Frick elected commissioner of baseball
1954 1st FORTRAN computer program run
1954 1st National People's Congress adopts Chinese constitution
1958 Martin Luther King Jr stabbed in chest by a deranged black woman in NYC
1960 UN General Assembly admit 13 African countries & Cyprus (96 nations)
1961 After 84 1/3 innings Bill Fischer gives up a base on balls
1961 Roger Maris hits home run # 59 & barely misses # 60 in game 154 of the season. Yanks clinch pennant #26
1962 James Meredith is blocked from entering Miss U as its 1st black
1966 US Surveyor B launched toward Moon; crashed Sept 23
1968 Mickey Mantle hits final career homer # 536
1970 Luna 16 lands on Moon's Mare Fecunditatis, drills core sample
1972 Police find cannabis growing on Paul & Linda McCartney's farm
1973 Billy Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match
1973 Willie Mays announces retirement at end of 1973 season
1975 Gary Sentman draws a record 176 lb longbow to a maximum 28¬" draw
1976 Playboy releases Jimmy Carter's interview that he lusts for women
1977 Voyager 2 launched for fly-by of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
1979 Bloodless coup in Central African Rep overthrows Emperor Bokassa I
1979 NASA launches HEAO
1980 Plaque dedicated in Thurman Munson's memory at Yankee Stadium
1980 Spectacular Bid runs in Belmont alone as 3 horses drop out
1982 NFL players begin a 57 day strike
1983 3,112 turn out to see the Pirates play the NY Mets at Shea Stadium
1984 Suicide car bomb attacks US Embassy annex in Beirut
1985 Walt Disney World's 200-millionth guest
1986 Wichita State blow a 35-3 lead; lose 36-35 to Morehead State
1987 Walter Payton scores NFL record 107th rushing touchdown
1990 Both Germanys ratify reunification
1990 Saddam Hussein demands US networks broadcast his message
1991 On Capitol Hill, Senate hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court concluded.
1992 French voters narrowly approved the Maastricht Treaty on European unity.
2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray announced the end of the Whitewater investigation, "insufficient evidence to warrant charges against President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton".
2001 America demanded that Afghanistan hand over Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Otherwise, he said, the Taliban wouild share his fate.
2001 Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania was named by President Bush to head the new Office of Homeland Security.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Laos : Thanksgiving
Birthday of Quetzacoatl (Incan holiday).
Pleasure Your Mate Month

Religious Observances
Ang, RC : Ember Day
RC : Commemoration of St Eustace & his companions/martyrs
RC : Mem of SS Andrew Kim, Paul Chong & companions, Korean martyrs
Ang : St John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia/companions

Religious History
1378 The Great Schism in the Catholic Church began. It was touched off when Gregory XI died, shortly after returning the papal seat from Avignon, in France, to Rome. Continuing for nearly 40 years (until 1417), the Schism at one point produced three concurrent popes!
1883 Birth of Albrecht Alt, German Lutheran Old Testament scholar. "Biblia Hebraica" (13th ed., 1962), which Alt edited with Rudolph Kittel, became a standard critical Hebrew text of the Old Testament among students of the Bible for years.
1932 Four branches of Methodism in England united to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland. These were the Wesleyan Methodists (founded 1784), the Primitive Methodists (1811), the United Methodist Free Churches (1857) and the United Methodists (1907).
1947 English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Those who suffer the same things from the same people for the same Person can scarcely not love each other.'
1948 American missionary Jim Elliot -- eight years before his martyrdom at the hands of the Auca Indians of Ecuador -- penned in his journal: 'I am Thine at terrible cost to Thyself. Now Thou must become mine -- as Thou didst not attend to the price, neither would I.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense....dancing."

Things You Wouldn't Hear a Southerner Say...
We're vegetarians.

How Many Dogs Does it Take to Change Light Bulb?
Greyhound: It isn't moving. Who cares?

The Ultimate Scientific Dictionary...
Bunsen Burner:
A device invented by Robert Bunsen (1811-1899) for brewing coffee in the laboratory, thereby enabling the chemist to be poisoned without having to go all the way to the company cafeteria.

What's Your Business Astrological Sign?...
PARTNER, PRESIDENT, CEO
You are brilliant or lucky. Your inability to figure out complex systems such as the fax machine suggest the latter

GM, PE!!

Nice Flag-o-gram today! Thank you!

Where's snippy and Sam????!!!
How many days now??LOL

Iron Curtain bump

Hiya miss Wise. How's Middle Earth today?