C H O R U S
love
dad
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025
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
Sunday, April 20, 2025
Saturday, April 19, 2025
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
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Saturday, April 12, 2025
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
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Objective
Center of the Soviet universe.
Located here is the vast bureaucracy that enables
Stalin's rule. Communications are governed from here.
Moscow is the nation's transportation hub. It harbors
many industries. German generals believe Russia's
capitol is indispensable to communist rule.
Take it and your other objectives fall into place.
You win.
Not so fast. Napoleon captured Moscow and still lost
the war because he had not destroyed the Russian army.
This was Hitler's rebuttal to his generals' focus on Moscow.
The Fuhrer's strategy was to encircle the Russian army
nearby and then quickly destroy it. Moscow and Hitler's
other objectives would be left relatively undefended.
It takes a lot of troops to restrain a couple of hundred
thousand armed enemy soldiers. The biggest problem
was there weren't enough Germans to close the noose
because most Nazi soldiers traveled on foot.
They couldn't keep up with their tank force up front.
Rich in mineral wealth, industry and agriculture,
Ukraine was a treasure for resource poor Germany
to acquire. Here was Hitler's lebensraum - true
living space for an expansive Third Reich.
Where does the Russian navy go when the Soviets
lose this vital Baltic port? What does Moscow do
when it loses the defense industries centered in
Leningrad? The Nazis lay siege to the city when it
became clear their army couldn't capture it.
Leningrad's population became the bull's eye
in a years long battle.
Energy problem solved. A gusher of oil for thirsty Germany.
The area is a peninsula of petroleum products located
on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, just beyond
the Caucasus mountains. Follow the Volga River south.
You can't miss it.
Kick in the door and Stalin's whole rotten structure
collapses like a house of cards. That was the fantasy
Hitler counted upon to conquer Russia in eight weeks.
Baku supplied Stalin over seventy percent of his oil.
If Germany captured Baku then Russia was hard up
for fuel while Hitler became a screaming dynamo.
Defeat Russia and Germany became a continental
power, like the United States. Hitler's power would
span Europe, from the Urals of Asia to Gibraltar,
guarding the Mediterranean Sea. Here was
Nazi power capable of taking on Roosevelt,
anywhere across the globe. Equals. A fair fight.
It was just a matter of time.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)