Charlie Rose

Laocoon  02/26/2010 10:14 PM Report

I respectfully disagree with the above. Disbanding the military after the war fit in with the founders' concept of no standing armies. Moreover, it was time for the country to resume civilian life.

Of course the settlement terms at the end of the war with Stalin were not the best, we can debate that. However, it was clear that Stalin was pushing the limits.

It really was a very courageous and strong move to run the Berlin Airlift, with its challenges internally and the strong message it sent externally. Standing up to Stalin showed the strength that the US and its allies might not have been able to show at, say, Yalta.

I am not in favor of American intervention in many locations during the second half of the 20th century, but I do think that standing up to Stalin was a key move to prevent him from bulldozing his way across Europe and worsening an already bad situation where a severely weakened Western Europe was recovering from the war.

The U. S. did commit significant resources and leadership. I don't think that Reeves ever said that the U.S. was the only factor in this effort. He did mention the importance of this joint effort in the creation of NATO.

REMant  02/25/2010 01:47 PM Report

Of course, it was Truman's disbanding of the military after WWII that helped cause the problem in the first place, not to mention the idiocy of the postwar settlement. The airlift was a laudable episode with regard to those who carried it off, but I hardly see any purpose to this account except to proselytize on behalf of the kind of things admins since JFK, both Democrat and Republican, have involved this country in to our economic and social detriment and diminution in world opinion. Reeves is the kind of guy who writes half-assed, flag-waving articles for Reader's Digest and American Heritage and no real historian at all.

Evsie  02/25/2010 12:25 PM Report

"I'm not sure anybody else in the world could have or would have done what...."

That statement right at the start put me right off him, it was an allied effort involving the British and Canadian air forces as well as the USAF. Writing the bravery and dedication of these young men out of history is sadly typical of the American view of WWII, which they seemingly think they won all by themselves.