August 3rd 1948 - a day loaded with contrasts. The Berlin Airlift was cause for a lot of people, world leaders especially, to wonder if another war was in the offing. Closed door sessions were held over the looming crisis. In London they were celebrating another day of new records being set in the first Olympic Games since before the war. Meanwhile, rumors were circulating over whether or not Joseph Stalin was really in charge or held hostage by the Politburo. In Washington, the Red Scare was alive and well and taking up residence at the Whitacker Chambers Hearings. Chambers was busy rattling off names of "fellow travelers" including Alger Hiss and claiming a Red Underground was actively running the State Department. Accusations of Communist sympathy were also directed towards economist William W. Remington and his alleged relation with purported Red Spy Elizabeth Bentley. Remington gave spirited testimony and invoked his generations long relationship with the Republican Party, which brought waves of laughter from the Hearing room. And despite all the Red Scare, Red Baiting and rhetoric associated with the Cold War, it was disclosed the U.S. was still actively involved in trade with the Soviet Union. So the subtext became "we hate you, but we love your money".
And so it went on August 3rd 1948 via NBC Radio's News Of The World.
