good morning jeremy

  

C   H   O   R   U   S

 

love

   dad

coldValentine

Brave New World

  

Nuclear weapons command deference.

They are an option quietly waiting to be used.

Fear of annihilation has so far prevented leaders

from choosing nuclear war.

But this remains a viable option, always.

Did anyone honestly think Stalin would allow free elections

in countries occupied by his army?  His promises to 

Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta were mostly worthless.

In truth, the Big Three were tired of arguing among

themselves.  When it came to controlling Eastern

Europe, Stalin had the winning hand.

The countries in dispute were already his.

So they signed a gentleman's agreement

saying Stalin owed them an election and such.

Useless verbiage.

Stalin's military controlled all the great capitols -

Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest, Prague.

Twenty-six million Russians dead from this war.

Russia earned her prize.  Countries friendly to Moscow.

They were an important buffer, providing military

defense for the Soviet Union.  The West was not

to be trusted. No Kremlin leader would ever sanction 

ceding any of these countries to Anglo-American control.

Moscow would not yield on this matter of Russian security.

Roosevelt dead.  Hard to imagine.

Elected to the presidency four times.

Many people had known no other man

as president.  He was a legend.  War hero.

The nation's leader in years of Great Depression.

Roosevelt led the revolutionary New Deal.

There would never be another like him,  

ever again.

Folksy.  Harry Truman.  Missouri senator.

Head of the Foreign Relations Committee.

He may be from hardscrabble but he was no one's boob.

Grieving New Dealers thought otherwise.  Hopeless.

Someone needed to be with him.  Show him

how to be president.

Congress knew Truman and they thought he was 

up to the job.  Barely three months as Vice President,

then suddenly here he was.  The White House.

A haberdasher from Kansas City presiding in the Oval Office.

Truman wasn't even Roosevelt's pick for vice president.

He became a compromise running mate when Labor 

vetoed the President's choice.

Turns out the people liked Harry.  Straight talker.

Authentic.  Direct.  He was one of them.

Their President.

Refreshing.

 War has ended.  But the turmoil only grew.

There were no jobs.  People needed shelter.

Mass amounts of food must continuously

be brought in from the other nations,

themselves not much better off.

Power out in many places.  Transportation

in short supply.  Security - what a joke.

Britain was exhausted by the war.

This situation was not sustainable.

Only the U.S. could provide the fortune in aid

Europe needed.  The real question became:

would America allow it?

Did Washington have the will?

*  *  *  *  *

OVER   EASY 

coldValentine

good morning justin

  

M A Y     Y O U R     S U N     R I S E

 

love 

   dad

 

coldValentine

RealPolitik

  

1940, 22 June

Britain is now alone in its battle with Hitler's Germany.

Winning is not an option.

Churchill is fighting for survival.

1941, 22 June

Germany invades Russia.

Britain is no longer alone in the struggle 

against Hitler.  The Fuhrer has bet on 

Stalin's quick collapse.  Intelligence fed him

what he wanted to hear.  His generals fought him

over how to win the war.

France gave him the confidence needed to make 

this fatal error.

1941, 7 December

Game changer.  America is at war.

Hitler declares war on the U.S.

Churchill is exultant.  The globe's two 

industrial giants are suddenly his allies.

Britain will be on the winning side.

1941, winter

The Nazis come up just short of Moscow,

a spent force.  Add Leningrad and Baku to

Hitler's objectives.  None of them achieved.

German forces ravaged the country and, still,

they couldn't deliver the knock-out blow.

1942, winter

Germany's best army in Russia is destroyed.

There is no recovery from this one.  Hitler's chance

at victory in Russia has passed.

1943, November 

The tide had turned.  The Big Three were comfortable

talking of their plans as victors.  Churchill stood as the

lone advocate of France's restoration to great power status.

He resisted Germany's dismemberment and fought 

Stalin's draconian demands for reparations.

Stalin called this Churchill's "soft peace".

In fact it was the Prime Minister's attempt at restoring

the Balance of Power to continental Europe.

Equilibrium between competing powers helps prevent

acts of war.  In this instance the Soviet Union was

the clear dominant power of Europe.  With war's end

came the realization that Germany, France and Italy

were all vulnerable to Communist rule.

Only U.S. forces in Europe could provide a 

credible defense to the Red Army.

1944, 6 June

Allies gain a second front on continental Europe.

For Hitler, the end is in sight.

1945, February

Roosevelt was weeks from death.

It was an exhausting journey from Washington

to this Russian resort along the Black Sea.

Roosevelt talked about principles and providing

global peace through harmony and good will.

Stalin didn't concern himself with the wistful 

musings of this worn-out old man.

Stalin already had what he wanted.

His army occupied all of Eastern Europe.

Each of these countries quickly became ruled 

by leaders who were Kremlin friendly.

Here was Moscow's protective barrier.

Here would be Russia's reward.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

coldValentine

good morning jacob

  

J   A   C   K   P   O   T

love 

   dad

coldValentine

Cold War

  

Distrust.

Stalin's allies, Britain and the U.S., couldn't give him

a straight answer on when they would open up a

second front by invading France.  They didn't know 

themselves.  Stalin wasn't buying it.  Russia's friends

were content to let the Soviets take the brunt of the war.

Stalin's story.  What else would you expect from 

the capitalists? 

  

The alliance of Britain, the Soviet Union and the

United States no longer made sense once Hitler

was gone.  National interests overrode cooperation.

Suspicions rose with the mounting tension.

Germany's collapse enabled Stalin to fill the power

vacuum in Eastern Europe.  The new rule for these

countries would be Kremlin friendly.  These satellites

would provide a strong buffer to prevent future

invasions of the Soviet Union.

Roosevelt's death early in his fourth term gave

Truman the reigns of government.  Up until

this moment the Vice President got his news

 about the White House from the newspapers,

like everyone else.

Suddenly it's 'welcome to the White House'.

What do we to do with this atomic bomb?

For starts, the U.S. had its hands on 'the Bomb'.

Churchill and Roosevelt felt it best Stalin didn't know.

But he did.  That's what  spies are for.

Stalin's response - we need that bomb.

Make it happen.

The alliance wasn't based on friendship.

 France belonged among the great global powers.

With the war over it was time Southeast Asia

be returned to France as its colony.  Despite U.S.

aid, the French colony was lost to the backers of 

the communist leader, Ho Chi Minh.  

The war left much of western Europe with devastated

economies atop the destroyed infrastructure of entire

nations.  Millions of people were displaced, clogging

the roads as refugees, looking for a place to call home.

Germany was crushed.  Their enemies occupied the

land and called the shots.  Konrad Adenauer became

a rallying point for those wanting Germany rebuilt

into a strong democracy. 

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

coldValentine

good morning jack

  

A  F  T  E  R  N  O  O  N

love

   dad

coldValentine