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(Ernst Reuter - first Mayor of Postwar Berlin - no easy gig)

With the 20th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wall coming up, I've been running through some events involving Germany, and most notably Berlin, during the height of the Cold War.

Ernst Reuter had the somewhat herculean task of being the first Lord Mayor of postwar Berlin. In 1948 he was faced with the blockade of Berlin by the Soviet Army which effectively cut off all supplies of food and fuel to the city. Reuter appealed to the West for help and it began the famous Berlin Airlift, which singlehandedly saved the city from starvation.

On March 30, 1949, Reuter visited the U.S. and was invited to participate in a segment of Meet The Press where the subject of Berlin and the Cold War in general were discussed.

May Craig: “Mister Mayor I’m thinking of it in the larger sense, as long as the Communists hold the basic doctrine of world revolution how can there be peace unless everybody else submits?”

Ernst Reuter: “ As long as Western powers and the free world is not insisting on the liberation and not fulfilling the task to liberate these peoples who want to be free, that will be very difficult. But in the long run the Soviets cannot stay against the greater moral strengths of the western peoples, that is impossible. I don’t know, maybe after twenty, thirty years we will have a war, I don’t know. But for the time being I can see the possibility to come to a solution, at least for the time being without a war.”

Reuter, who died in 1953 never got to see the fruits of his labor, but he was a very integral part of the Big Picture.

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(Laying the Cornerstone for the UN Building October 24, 1949)

Further evidence it's impossible to find a week where nothing happened. I've tried. Sixty years ago this week we had deaths, inquiries, strikes, political aspirations and the laying of the cornerstone for construction of the United Nations building in New York. President Truman added his two cents.

Pres. Truman: “I should like to speak of one other problem, which is of major concern to the United Nations. That is the control of atomic energy. The establishment of the United Nations Atomic Energy Committee . . . Commission was one of the first acts of the first session of the General Assembly. That commission worked for three years on the problem. It developed a plan of control which reflected valuable contributions by almost every country represented on the commission. This is a good plan. We support this plan. And will continue to support it unless or until a better or more effective plan is put forward.”

All in all - just another week that wound up on October 29th. And we somehow survived.

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(China - 1949 - The exit strategy got a bit muddled)

October 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the Kuomintang (Nationalist) regime in China and the beginning of the Communist takeover of China.

Clearly evident was the amount of confusion over who was doing what and where they were going that even diplomats were hard pressed to keep up with the rapidly unfolding events.

As witness, this particular broadcast from October 1, 1949. A program produced by United Nations Radio called "Memo From Lake Success", which featured an interview by Nationalist Chinese Representative T.F. Tsiang regarding allegations the Soviets were supplying the Communist insurgents with arms and moral support. The week prior, accusations were made during press conferences quickly organized by the injured parties with denials from Andrei Vyshinksy, the Russian representative.

Dr. T.F. Tsiang: “The Soviet Union has given force, direct and indirect, with moral and material support to the Communist insurrection in China.”

Andrei Vyshinsky: “The statement of the representative of the Kuomintang regime is nothing but a slanderous attack against the Soviet Union.”

Despite the bickering back and forth, China had fallen to the Communists of Mao Tse-Tung by the time this broadcast aired. So the allegations and finger pointing were something of a moot point.

But that was just the start.

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(Sen. Paul Douglas D-Ill. - Stuck in the middle of warring factions)

By 1949 Social Security had become hopelessly out of date, with no cost of living increases since before World War 2 and a system that had largely in place since 1935. While a general revamping and updating the system was before Congress, there was also a movement to make Social Security and Pensions private, one which appeared to be favored by management and certainly not favored by labor.

On October 6, 1949, the program America United featured a panel discussion on the Social Security and Pensions funding issue with Senator Paul Douglas (D-Ill), Emerson P. Schmidt of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, James B.Carey of the CIO and Lloyd Halvorsen of The Grange.

Douglas acknowledged that something needed to be done.

Sen. Paul Douglas: “I think the demand for private supplementary pensions has arisen because the public old-age pension and old-age insurance laws give very inadequate sums to aged people. For example; men who have been employed in private industry are only entitled to $26.00 a month, on the average, under the federal Social Security law. And with the additions for a wife the total for a man and wife is only brought to $40.00 a month. This was inadequate in 1935 with the 70% increase in the cost of living which has occurred since then, it is still more inadequate now. And it is this inadequacy of the public system, which in my judgment has forced the unions to demand a larger amount of private insurance.”

But the solutions were anything but unanimous.

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(Oddly, still is)

Since its enactment in 1947, the famous (or infamous) Taft-Hartley Act (or Slave-Labor Bill as some call it) has been in an almost constant state of proposed revision. But never getting off the ground. Initially vetoed by Truman in 1947, it was overridden and set into law by the Republican led 80th Congress. Amendments have been proposed ever since.

In 1949, part of the America United Series, moderated by David Brinkley, approached a panel consisting of a young Eugene McCarthy newly elected Congressman, Thruston Morton, Anthony P. Alfino from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Harris who represented the CIO.

Tom Harris (CIO): “The question you ask, ‘How Should The Taft-Hartley Act Be Amended’ is an easy one in our judgment to answer. It shouldn’t be amended at all but should be replaced with an entirely different statute, along the lines of the Wagner Act. That is essentially what the Thomas-Lezinsky Bill does. We think that should be done because the approach of the Wagner Act to industrial relations was sound. While that of the Taft-Hartley Act is wholly wrong. The ideas behind the Wagner Act were very simple; they were first, to permit workers to form strong unions if they wanted to. Secondly, to require employers to deal with those unions on wages, hours and so on. The authors of the Wagner Act hoped by these means to promote industrial peace and to raise the living standards of workers. With consequent benefit to the entire community. The idea behind the Taft-Hartley Act is also very simple; it’s to weaken unions. The men who wrote the Taft-Hartley Act just didn’t believe in labor unions. The Taft-Hartley Act is a composite of all the anti-union devices which reactionary congressmen were able to think up during the years of the New Deal. When they got into power, briefly as it turned out, in the 80th Congress, they wrote these numerous devices into law. That’s the Taft-Hartley law. And its bad in its entirety and should be stricken from the books.”

In 1949 they wanted to amend it. It's 2009 - still waiting.

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(Lake Success 1949 - John Foster Dulles and Andrei Gromyko - between them, an iceberg)

With the upcoming General Assembly meetings at the UN, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back sixty years, before the United Nations headquarters was built and meetings were held in New York at Lake Success. In 1949 it was about forming the Atomic Energy Commission and the subject was inspections. The USSR had only announced a few weeks earlier that it had tested its first Atomic Bomb, adding one more name to the club that has grown increasingly ever since.

But in 1949 the UN was still grappling with the ground rules - where was this new potentially devastating power heading - and who else was going to get it?

During the weekly radio program Memo From Lake Success, co-produced by CBS, the CBC and United Nations Radio, the subject of regulating nuclear energy high on the list.

Future Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson is interviewed, explaining his take on the situation.

Interviewer: “Mister Pearson, the West maintains that atomic energy can be controlled internationally only by this proposed agency which will manage and operate the Atomic Industry. Would it be possible to set up, by treaty beforehand, a system of quotas, allocations of atomic plants and nuclear fuels. And then a system of continuous rigid inspection be set up for the international agency, which might be effective and perhaps necessitate a little less of the insistence on ownership and operation?"

Lester Pearson (Canadian Foreign Secretary): “ Well, of course naturally that point had occurred to people, but you must remember that the representatives of the majority in this commission, have gone through this matter very, very carefully. And they have come to the conclusion that the only safe way is to have international operations and control. But if it were possible to give more power of operations to nations, and take away some power from the international agency, then that would make it all that more important that you had complete international power of inspection at any time without any reservation of qualification. And that means a really . . well . . .quite important interference in what our Russian friends call National Sovereignty. And they have given no indication whatever at any time that they are willing to accept that kind of international supervision or inspection. And that seems to me to be the fundamental difference between the two positions now. We are willing to go very far in the direction of international inspection and supervision. They are certainly not willing to go so far."

The climate has changed considerably since 1949. There is no more Soviet Union for one thing - only now there's North Korea and Iran.

Two more members of the ever-expanding club.

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(Ode To The Eternal Bogeyman)

A little history - this time it's August 1949. Sixty years ago and the world, aside from the personalities, hairstyles, customs and technology is just about the same.

Only then it was corruption in Government (the Five Percenters), Free German Elections, Voice of America versus Radio Moscow, China, Polio, The Voodoo Murder Case, Herbert Hoover, John Barrymore and the Vanishing World of Burlesque.

It is probably all quaint by comparison, a curio of a deep-distant past. Most, if not all the people whose voices you hear are gone. The situations completely forgotten, and never brought up in any conversation.

Why is any of this important or even worth the half-hour it takes to listen to this? In each of these stories is some shred of what we're about today, this moment. Fear and apathy, for two, are with us constantly. In 1949 they took the form of the Soviet Union and The Red Scare. Today it's fear of the unknown - fear we won't get what we want and fear we will lose what we have. Fear based on someone telling us we should be fearful, but not knowing exactly why.

At least in 1949 you could point your finger directly at Russia and lay all blame on them. Today it's not so easy - the lines are intentionally blurred, the causes complex. People who should know better don't and people who don't know are blind and scared.

Strangely, it was always this way.

Even 60 years ago.

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(Blue Cross to America - Don't Get Sick)

Why don't they get it? Why is it, every time the question of Universal Health Care comes up a wave of hysteria breaks over the country like an Indonesian Tsunami? It's been that way in 1941. It's been that way in 1945. It's been that way in 1948. It's been that way in 1949. It's been that way in 1961. Do I have to go on?

You get the picture - everybody reading this blog gets the picture. Everybody with half a brain gets the picture. And we all know who the enemy is. The ones thumbing their noses and laughing and dreaming hysteria up.

I've been running entries regarding the historic aspect of this argument for months now. I am always turning up new items that point out just how old this question is and just how insane the argument against it has become, and just how scared the Insurance industry has become and how well entrenched they are to wage war.

But in case you were curious to hear more - I found an episode from the radio series "America United" which was moderated by a David Brinkley. This show is from November 13, 1949. It features CIO spokesman Harry Reid (no relation), Nathan Robertson of the Labor Press Association, A.L. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and W.R. Williamson, referred to as a "consulting actuary"(in actuality, a spokesman for the Insurance Industry).

Reid kicks it off:

Harry Reed (CIO): “Well, of course we have arrived at this present situation that confronts us for the simple reason that the group that has assumed responsibility for medical care has completely failed to live up to that responsibility. Any group that assumes responsibility, any voluntary group in our country, is required by the people to carry out the responsibility. The American Medical Association, to which you referred, has stifled the overwhelming desire of the medical profession itself throughout the country to give the people health care. So now the people are turning to the only agency that is left to them and that is the Congress to obtain this needed health care. Inasmuch as Free Enterprise has failed in this instance, we turn to our government for assistance. That is the time-honored method of the American people.”

Sixty years ago. The argument and the fears are the same - exactly the same. Only the faces are different and the check books are fatter.

Other than that. The Health Insurance lobby and their warm regard for people boils down to this - "We like your money - it's you we're not crazy about."

Don't get sick.

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( . . and then there was that "do nothing Congress" to deal with)

Improved Healthcare and the idea a National Healthcare system were on the Truman Administration agenda since 1945. It became a plank in the platform of the 1948 election and would be something he tried to keep active all the way until his leaving office in 1953.

But even in 1948, when it was a hotly contested issue, the massive lobbying and fearful resistance, every attempt was shot down.

This clip comes from an address on the occasion of Democratic Womens Day on September 27, 1949.

Truman:

“We must also act promptly to improve the health of our nation. The women of the country particularly know, in many areas there are not enough doctors or hospitals, and that many families cannot afford the medical care they need. This administration has proposed a program of improved medical care. Some parts of this program, such as an expanded health care for school children and additional aid for hospital construction have already passed the Senate. Our medical program will mean happier homes, healthier children, greater opportunity for useful lives for all the people.”

And sixty years later, almost to the day . . . .

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(Visions of the Fear Card: Priceless)

Historically, one would imagine every time any kind of reform is contemplated, the right wing quickly jumps in and pulls out the fear card. Socialism being the new paranoia. In 1949 as now, Socialism is lumped in with Fascism, Communism, Nazism, the entire spectrum - a whole stew of extremes geared solely to generate fear, paranoia and hate.

In this particular debate, part of the "Americas Town Meeting" series on December 4, 1949, the question "Are we slipping into Socialism" is asked of Republican Congressman Clarence J. Brown of Ohio and real-life Socialist Norman Thomas.

Typical of their exchange:

Brown: “ You can call any one of a dozen things, it all comes out of the same bottle. Socialism, communism, fascism, nazism, whatever it may be. It’s where the state becomes all powerful and the individual no longer counts”

Thomas: “I think, to be very . . . brutally frank, this sort of talk in itself is very dangerous. We’re not going to manage our very complicated civilization when you talk about fascism, socialism and communism being the same. When you talk about a movement like socialism, which has proved recently in New Zealand where it allowed itself very peacefully to be voted out of office, where you’ve got a movement that cares primarily for the individual and his rights, and you then equate it with a movement of that false renegade Mussolini, or with the communists and their tyranny, you’re mixing things up for the confusion of issues and the glorification of those who have power and property and don’t want to meet the challenges of democracy.”

Repeatedly during the exchange, Brown skirts the issues and solutions, instead throwing distractions around. It's typical of what's going on now - creating fear and hysteria in order to confuse. Thomas isn't exactly a saint either and his solutions aren't exactly concise.

But the fact is, whenever anyone tries to bring about some dialogue towards solution to a real problem, the Republicans have had a long track record for sand bagging and sleight of hand.

In 1949 we were knee-deep in the Cold War. It was very easy to play the fear card to gather support - the looming presence of the Soviet Union and the threat of nuclear war was very real, at least in the minds of most people. But in many ways, playing that card created an opportunity for many in the right wing to exploit the fear to their own advantage. And many have created huge fortunes and massive presences by scaring the shit out of you.

It was the same in 1949 and it's the same 60 years later.

If the fear ain't broke, why fix it?

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(Lobbies - like Baseball and Character Assassination, an American institution)

Lobbies have been part of our political landscape forever it seems. The cartoon above is from 1892, to give you an idea.

In 1949 it became the topic of much discussion and hand wringing. But as history proved in a Shakespearean way, it was Sound and Fury, signifying nothing.

The radio series American Forum of The Air ran a panel discussion on the problem. And on November 27, 1949 invited Herbert Q. Nelson from the National Real Estate Board, Joseph D.Keenan from the AF of L (pre-CIO) and Col. Robert S. Allen, a beltway columnist to discuss the situation and what could, if anything, be done about it.

Clearly, if they had any great ideas, nobody listened - or if they did they've been long forgotten.

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(Almost that time again)

As you know, one of my biggest guilty pleasures is listening to old live concerts - really old ones. A few weeks ago I posted an excerpt of a New York Philharmonic concert from 1960 featuring Fritz Reiner. This time it's the famous Besancon Festival in France featuring L'Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire (Paris Conservatory) conducted by Andre Cluytens from September 1949 performing Dukas La Peri. Summer is festival season in Europe and there are a ton of them going on . They are mostly all broadcast, as is the tradition going back to the beginning of radio. Luckily, for poverty-stricken culture vultures like myself it's a matter of finding the stream or podcast and downloading it. If you're addicted to time travelling, it's a matter of digging into your archive and pulling out what some radio station tossed in the trash.

Either way, it makes for a non-stress afternoon - especially when the regular Sunday diet consists of televised talking heads.

(President Truman and members of the NATO Alliance, April 3, 1949)

"A simple document. Had it existed in 1914 and in 1939, supported by the nations that are here today, I believe it would have prevented the acts of aggression which led to two world wars." President Truman

Sixty years ago today, President Truman signed the treaty that created NATO, a document which basically stated that an aggressive act towards one member nation constituted an aggressive act towards all member nations. Viewed as another block of ice in the already frozen Cold War, it was largely a reaction to the increased presence of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and a rise in tensions brought about by the situation in divided Germany. Six years later, in response, the Eastern Bloc nations would form The Warsaw Pact, pledging to do pretty much what NATO was doing.

In his opening statement, President Truman remarked if NATO was in existence in 1914, World War 1 and World War 2 would have been prevented. I'm not entirely sure that would have been the case in 1914 since the heads of most of the warring nations were, in fact cousins. Perhaps family counseling, but not NATO would have been a good idea.

But that's another story.