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Posted on 09/19/2004 7:44:37 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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REVOLUTION  Lenin Russia's treaty with Germany ends fighting on the Eastern Front. But from 1918 to 1920, civil war rages in Russia -- with the anti-communist forces receiving support from the West and elsewhere as part of an unsuccessful attempt to oust the Bolsheviks. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin rapidly rises to power. By the 1930s, Stalin's "Great Purge" is under way. Millions are arrested, and many are executed or sent to prison camps, as Stalin tightens his grip on the nation. DEPRESSION At the end of the 1920s, the Great Depression plunges much of the world into economic hard times. In the West, there is growing support for the Soviet Union -- where socialism offers an alternative to the harsh realities of capitalism. Around the same time, Stalin begins the first of the Soviet Union's five-year plans for economic development. Many in the United States and elsewhere chose to ignore reports of the widespread calamities caused by Stalin's policies of collectivization.  In the United States, President Roosevelt promises a New Deal, a series of sweeping reforms. And among those policy changes, the United States recognizes the Soviet Union. American politics also shifts to the left during the Depression, especially as the trend toward fascism grows in Europe. WARTIME ALLIANCES Despite European attempts at appeasing Hitler, Nazi Germany continues its war preparations. Stalin, in an attempt to buy time for the Soviet Union, signs a non-aggression pact with Berlin on August 23, 1939.  German troops storm into Poland just over a week later, starting World War II. Soviet forces take over the Baltic states and invade Finland. Stalin's treaty serves to keep Moscow out of the greater war, while the Nazis conquer much of Western Europe. But Hitler's appetite for territory isn't sated. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, "Operation Barbarossa," takes the Soviet military by surprise.  After months of retreats and millions of casualties, the Red Army begins to beat back the German forces. The costly Soviet victory during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 ends the German advance and signals the beginning of the end for the Nazis. SUMMITS In 1943, the leaders of Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States gather in Tehran, Iran, where they agree to work toward the defeat of Nazi Germany. They also begin to map out the future of post-war Europe.  The so-called "Big Three" meet again in February 1945 in Yalta, a town on the Black Sea and a resort for Russia's former czars. While in Yalta, Joseph Stalin, now marshal of the Soviet Union, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt consider the fate of Poland, which is already occupied by the Soviets. Yalta ends with Britain and the United States securing Stalin's agreement that the Soviets will attack Japan once Germany is defeated. Victory over the Nazis, meanwhile, is fast becoming reality. Soviet and U.S. troops meet on the Elbe River in April 1945, effectively cutting Germany in two.  Roosevelt dies soon after the Yalta summit, just weeks before V-E Day. Vice President Harry S. Truman then assumes the presidency and represents the United States at the first post-war "Big Three" meeting -- which takes place in Potsdam, just outside Berlin. But there are already signs that the wartime alliance between the West and the Soviets is quickly unraveling. HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI The Potsdam conference ends on August 2, 1945. Four days later, the United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A second atomic device is dropped on the port city of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima. Japan soon surrenders, ending World War II.  But the world has entered the Nuclear Age, a time of unprecedented danger. And that nuclear threat would overshadow all the future Cold War confrontations to come.
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I stand corrected.
Hi Sam.
I look back on my post to you and see that I was throwing my weight around, sounding like a swelled head. Character flaw of mine.
Sorry, Valin.
Good afternoon Aeronaut.
LOL. And here I thought Kerry was pointless. :-)
LOL. Although I wish Dan would have retired, I did enjoy his apology. I bet that hurt!
Thanks AJC. We're having a good time. Busy but we are learning a lot!
ROFLMAO!! I just about fell out of my chair.
They cost Lt. Jack Daly his pilot's vision and rank in that 1997 boomer-spy lazing from the bridge of Kapitan Man.
Bill and Hillary's good buddy Strobe Talbott tipped the Russians to the search for the laser.
Al Gore was up to his fat ass in corruption with Chernomyrdin and the pair's "commission".
Chernomyrdin threatened to sue Bush after the latter mentioned the former's role in laundering $4.8 billion in IMF loans--but gee willikers I guess John Edwards wouldn't take the case.
From Russia with love--but first, we take your wallet and watch.
Between Putin's refusal to cooperate with us vis-a-vis Iraq, and our State Department's cozying to Chechans, there's no progress yet.
But after Beslan, there's a crisp edge to the fall air.
Isn't it a given that terrorist rats will do a big blood spat before November 2? Don't they hate Bush almost as much as Democrats?
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