Nuclear War

  

Genie out of the bottle.

 Turns out Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved 

the bomb wasn't big enough to destroy the city.

The blast needed to exceed twice its current size

if it were to destroy European cities made of stone,

concrete and steel.  Meeting this requirement

meant a whole new bomb for the

engineers to design.

Duck and Cover drills in school.

Get under your desk, knees doubled 

under your body.  Hands behind your neck.

Your mouth should be as open as you can make it.

This protects your eardrums from the burst of

hot air headed your way.

Imagine the plane that could haul this beast.

Only the specially made B-29 "Silver Plate" bomber

was capable of handling this nearly five ton bomb.

There were more than forty of these planes

at war's end.  The number drifted down to eighteen

by 1947.  Stalin knew this through his spies.

He also knew there were very few A-Bombs 

among Uncle Sam's weapons.  

America was not a military threat to Stalin.

Not yet.

One hundred nuclear bombs erases the Soviet Union.

There was confidence the Air Force could evade 

Russian air defense and deliver the goods.

Victory.  No need to maintain a very costly

large army as well as an expensive fleet.

It was the all or nothing strategy and that was

  its problem.  Stalin attacks Berlin and Truman 

annihilates all Soviet cities.  Who would believe

 the Yanks capable of such a response?

A few divisions of soldiers with tanks in Berlin

would provide better protection for the city

than this over-the-top empty threat.

Both Russia and the United States 

quickly learned the skills of crisis management -

preventing a superpower confrontation from 

getting out of hand.

One bomb erases thousands of men and their armor.

All that expensive defense quickly evaporated...

your enemy now passing through the door left wide open.

Just like that.

But first the A-Bomb needed to be reduced to a size

capable of being fired from a cannon or small enough

to be the warhead on a truck launched missile.

 An atomic bomb small enough for cannon to fire.

The nature of war was changed.  Or so it seemed.

Korea broke out in war at a time when Stalin 

already had the bomb.  The fighting remained

conventional for the duration of the conflict.

One reason being that American troops were

fighting Stalin's proxies - Koreans and Chinese,

not Russians... not officially.

The better reason was that life was good.

People were watching Sid Caesar on their 

new TVs while their car sat in the driveway

out front of the family's home.

What person in their right mind would trade

in all this for a nuclear war?

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

coldValentine

good morning justin

  

 1 2 1 0     R I V E R D A L E

love 

   dad

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Divided World

  

Iron Curtain.

East versus West.

Communism confronts capitalism.

Bad guys and good guys.

How do you avoid conflict

when it gets really personal?

It would take more than money to revive the West.

Britain bankrupt.  Germany in shambles.

Both France and Italy collapsed socially and politically.

There needed to be a strategy directing the funding.

Certainly people needed access to food and coal now,

but industry and transportation also needed to be

quickly revived.  Along the way, a measure of 

success would give political institutions

badly needed credibility.

Truman entrusted the State Department to handle 

foreign policy because George Marshall

was his Secretary of State.

What the President got from him was 

an economic strategy for Europe that would

come to be known as the Marshall Plan.

Uncle Sam was glad to give you money right now...

so long as you believed in America's vision.

Not on your life.

Stalin counted on America bringing the boys home

once the war ended.  This Marshall Plan popped

that notion.  America would make policy in Europe with

its money as lure.  Yankee influence would be political

as well as economic.  

Here was a clear challenge to Stalin's leadership. 

He could not afford this persistent and growing threat

to his Eastern Europe alliance.

You can't have economic security without providing 

the means to defend it.  With American aid came

NATO, the transatlantic military alliance between

Western Europe and the United States.

Its reach would increase over the coming years.

Looking at the map Stalin had to wonder:

Who dropped the ball?

Europe today is what George Marshall had in mind.

There was no quick, easy plan to get here.

Diligence helped.  Having the right people mattered.

Luck.  A good amount required.

It's never easy.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 OVER   EASY

coldValentine

good morning jacob

  

 

 S  U  N  D  O  W  N  E  R

 

love

   dad

coldValentine

Post War

  

 Roosevelt surprised Stalin at Yalta when he claimed

Americans would not tolerate occupying Europe for

more than two years.  The one nation capable of 

preventing the Soviet takeover of all Europe would

just up and leave.  What a gift to Stalin were that true.

Western Europe lay devasted by war now, but it had

the ability to recover and become once again a

premier economic jewel of the planet.  

An Iron Curtain economy combined with the financial

and industrial resources of Britain, Germany, France,

Italy and Spain would present a formidable challenge

to America's economic global dominance.  

 Truman would do whatever it took to prevent

Russian control of all Europe.  The United States

would find itself outmatched economically were

they confronted by this hostile behemoth.

 The Communists gained prestige and credibility

for their courageous resistance to the Nazi

occupiers of their land.  In Third World countries

the Communists were identified as nationalists

fighting for independence from repression and

economic exploitation.  They were viewed as

champions of the people.

 It became obvious to Truman's people that Germany

was the key to recovery in Western Europe.

The German nation remained the industrial powerhouse

of Europe and it would be quickest to restore its factories

and assemble its highly skilled workforce.

 The U.S. fought to preserve democracy in Europe but

the Third World nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America

were often treated with a different set of priorities. 

The people of these lands were governed by

repressive regimes that only continued the practices

of colonial rule.  America found itself in partnership 

with dictators in order to prevent the nations' takeover

by communist revolutionaries. 

 MAD.  Mutual Assured Destruction.

A nuclear war would be unwinnable.

Civilization would be destroyed.

Survivors of the holocaust would envy the dead.

How does any leader navigate between surrender

and the likely destruction of organized humanity?

The nations would soon enough be tested

with just this threat.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor 

 OVER   EASY

coldValentine

good morning jack

  

 

O  L  D     E  N  G  L  I  S  H

   

 

love

   dad

coldValentine

Stalin

  

Only the most paranoid and ruthless of leaders

survived the cutthroat Kremlin politics. Still, 

rising through the ranks required a prospective leader

to control his emotions.  Success required cold

pragmatism - a sober but cynical view of reality.

Human relations were calculating, tactical.

Anyone not under Stalin's control was judged to be

his rival.  The three friends he shares company with

above were all put to death for disloyalty to Stalin.

Stalin was an unpredictable, overpowering personality.

You never knew how you would be treated by him -

cool and controlled or in a fit of rage.

You could be the scapegoat of one of his mistakes.

Someone has to pay for this outrage.

During Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s 

you didn't have to be guilty to be convicted.

Having any reason to be disloyal to Stalin was

itself an act of disloyalty, requiring cleansing punishment.

Your agony would set the proper example.

Stalin was surrounded by a world that wanted him dead.

For Stalin, loyalty was based on fear.

Eisenhower honored Roosevelt's promise to Stalin

and let the Red Army take Berlin.  

Twenty-seven million Russians dead.  They earned it.

On his drive to Yalta, Roosevelt viewed mile after mile

of landscape ravaged by war.  Roosevelt said of the 

invading Germans - I hope they get what they deserve.

Cold War Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was

influenced by Stalin's belief in Eisenhower.

The General was a decent man.

You could trust him to be honest... 

for a bourgeoise capitalist. 

Roosevelt felt he could persuade Stalin into making

concessions to the West.  FDR had faith in the bond

he had made with the Soviet leader.  Despite their

clashing ideologies, they could find shared values

and outlooks on the future.

Stalin found Roosevelt agreeable.  He liked the president

even more than he liked Eisenhower.  Roosevelt

understood his nation's problems.  Not like Truman.

You couldn't work with this man.

But Roosevelt had the gaunt appearance of one 

who could die at any moment.  Slump in a chair

and expire.  Just like that.

Roosevelt vanishes from the American scene.

So begins a new chapter.  

The Cold War.

 The Soviet Union dominated Europe.

The Red Army was the largest in the world.

Russia was consistently increasing its industrial capacity.

Mao led a successful revolution in Asia and brought

Communist rule to China.  Suddenly the Soviet Union

had a powerful ally in the East.

U.S. global dominance was broken.

*  *  *  *  *

 OVER   EASY

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good morning jessicca

  

H  O  M  E  C  O  M  I  N  G

love

   dad

coldValentine 

Roosevelt's Vision

  

 Roosevelt was a gifted politician, a leader of

historic proportions.  His embrace of idealism was

tempered by shrewdness and cunning.

He remained always aware of which direction

the political wind blew.

Humanity had a way of twisting principle 

into something closer to the needs of

human nature.  Love.  Fear.  Power.

Strong feelings that often overlook principle.

"It's easier to fight for one's principles than 

to live up to them."  

Alfred Adler, psychologist.

 Democracy is not just about counting votes.

What democracy denies the people open and honest

debate?  In a true democracy only the people's will 

gave leaders the authority to govern them.

Self determination.

Making one's own choices.

The population of any colony had little, if any,

ability to make decisions about their welfare.

Colonizers based their authority to rule on

governing by force.  They took valuables from

the land's native people because they could.

The higher society rules.

More primitive cultures serve.

Imperialism.

 Roosevelt would have Churchill free Britain's colonies.

How could you claim to be fighting for democracy  

when you were repressing people worldwide?

Colonies must become free nations.  Roosevelt insisted.

This provision in the Atlantic Charter was non-negotiable.

Churchill signed.

Churchill was alone fighting Hitler.  The rest of the world

watched the drama, spectators to a battle pitting the

forces of democracy against the authoritarian's minions.

Signing some document about ridding the world 

of colonies didn't matter.  It was a splendid gesture.

Churchill was at war.  Winning was everything.

Do what you must.

 The promise of prosperity across the globe made 

world markets, free of tariffs, so appealing.

Capitalists would work their magic by efficiently 

directing seed money to the most capable performers.

Competition creates wealth.  There are also losers.

Lost jobs.  Lost careers.  Lost communities.

Free Trade may have been an economic win overall

but tariffs were in the national interest.

Often they were protection against unfair

competition instigated by the predatory practices 

of foreign governments and corporations.

 

 Collective security.  No more every nation for themself.

This was to be League of Nations 2.0.  The U.S. would

play the leading role.  There would be a council made up

of the four great powers: U.S.A., Soviet Union, Britain

and China.  They would provide the oversite of  

smaller nations.

A world body of peace could not be based upon

lack of trust.  War's end revealed new threats

to peace.  The unnatural alliance between the Capitalist

West and Communist East ended with the death of Hitler.

Cooperation was no longer in the national interest.

 The oppressed workers eventually win the struggle

with their capitalist overseers and find real freedom.

Lenin predicted the class struggle would end with

spontaneous worker revolts in the most advanced

industrial nations worldwide.  Stalin saw a more

traditional victory of territorial conquest, peaceful

or otherwise, and with the Kremlin in control.

The East and West were now adversaries.

It would be up to the diplomats to keep

them out of war.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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