Berlin Blockade Broken
May, 1949
After 320 days the roads and tracks supplying the people
of West Berlin were once again open to traffic from the
NATO allies. The attempt to heat and feed two and
a half million residents with supplies airlifted into the
city involved an unprecedented number of cargo planes.
A plane flew into the airport, unloaded its cargo, then
it was off on its return to West Germany to pick up
another load. All this in the space of seven minutes.
Organization and relentless effort beat Stalin
in Berlin.
Adenauer Elected German Chancellor
August, 1949
Konrad Adenauer ran as a conservative, anticommunist
in this first democratic election of the newly formed
West Germany. He wanted reunification for Germany
but he realized this goal could not be met without
first, developing a close personal relationship with France.
Second, Germany becomes an equal partner among
the members of NATO.
Adenauer had a clear idea of what he wanted.
Communists Topple Czech Government
February, 1948
Fearing an election loss in May, Communist forces
overthrew the democratic Czech government and
replaced it with a leadership that took their orders
directly from Stalin.
Political opponents were rounded up. Voices
opposed to the new government were silenced.
Jan Masaryk was the son of a national hero,
Tomas Masaryk. He was also his nation's current
foreign minister. The communist coup left him
feeling betrayed. People said he was bitter.
Depressed maybe. But Suicidal?
One way or another he sailed out the window
to a pavement a couple of floors below.
Strategic Bomber Takes to Sky
August, 1946
The mission of the B-36 was to deliver a nuclear weapon
from its base in the United States to a target in Russia,
thousands of miles away; nonstop. It was state-of-the-art,
hi-tech expensive, but these planes saved taxpayers the
cost of stationing tens of thousands of more American
troops in Europe. They just had to appear a credible
threat to the Soviets.
The Pentagon built 380 of these bombers before
Russia's jet powered MiG-15 made them all scrapheap
obsolete by 1950, just 4 years later. The U.S.
countered with the all jet B-52. The Soviets
came back with surface-to-air missiles: SAMs.
These systems required ever changing engineering.
First in weapons was key. You win with the edge
in innovation. It's a victory that is fleeting.
Don't let up.
China Falls to Communists
October, 1949
A Communist led, peasant-based army has defeated
the American supplied Nationalist army of General
Chiang Kai-shek. The General fled with his army
to the nearby island of Taiwan while Mao Zedong,
his political nemesis, took control of the new
People's Republic of China.
Mao's peasant-oriented revolutionary strategy
became the model for Third World political movements
through Asia, Africa and South America - all nations
oppressed by colonialism.
U.S. Stands with Taiwan
October, 1949
Chiang Kai-shek's government was a model of
corruption and incompetence. Ask the Americans
assigned to advise him. But that wasn't the story
being told back home. Chiang was a staunch ally of
America. He fought beside us against the Japanese
in WW2. He was a lifelong anticommunist.
And everyone knew the Chinese loved Americans.
The loss of China was a stunner,
bigger than the Russians exploding an A-Bomb
that same year. People got the feeling
the forces of democracy were suddenly losing
the battle. It made no sense.
Something underhanded was going on here.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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