End of the Third Reich
I discovered Eric S. Raymond's blog today. ESR is a noted technology pundit and open-source advocate, and he apparently has many other interests, too. In this article, he notes the similiarities between the Nazi resistance at the end of World War Two with the current Iraq Baath party resistance. The reference to this article is particularly interesting, as it details the Nazi Werewolf guerilla movement.
Comments
Is this my birthday party write-up?
Posted by: elizabeth | November 12, 2003 04:44 PM
Bets -- I doubt this topic has anything to do with your birthday unless the cryptic reference to "werewolfs" suggests that someone is growing a beard as part of your birthday celebration.
But more directly on the subject of Nazi resistence after WWII, I have to pass on a commentary I heard on the radio today. Surprisingly it was on NPR where I don't expect to hear anything that might suggest the Iraq is unfolding about how we should have expected. The basis of this assessment is an address to the "Foreign Affairs Council" made in November, 1945 by Allen Dulles. Mr. Dulles was the head of the CIA at that time (it was just being formed from the OSS that Dulles led during the war). The report read a lot like dispatches from Bhagdad in that the results of the occupation were far from certain. There were a lot of guerilla attacks and there were very few Germans who could be found to run the country who did not have Nazi ties. The Marshall Plan idea had not yet be formulated so there was no obvious way to start re-building the German economy. In general, things looked pretty bleak.
I'll see if I can find a link to the text which is a website related to the Council on Foreign Affairs.
I wonder if the Republicans in November 1945 were complaining that Truman and the Dems had failed to plan for how to win the peace?
Betsy's Uncle and Godfather -- Tom Standing
Posted by: Tom Standing | November 17, 2003 07:29 PM
I found the link to the Allen Dulless remarks about German re-construction after WWII.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20031101facomment82601/allen-w-dulles/that-was-then-allen-w-dulles-on-the-occupation-of-germany.html
Posted by: Tom Standing | November 17, 2003 08:12 PM
Tom - Your link was very interesting. Thanks! The parallels seem so striking. We don't have a major power assailing us (like the Russians), but the Iraqi people don't have the same history of liberal culture that the Germans did. In any case, it is somewhat reassuring that people in the past struggled with vast uncertainties, but still managed to get things basically right.
Posted by: Jeff | November 17, 2003 10:40 PM