Post-War Reconstruction

December 20, 2003 3:40 PM

Foreign Affiars magazine is running an account of post-war Germany. It's written by Allen Dulles, who served in the OSS in World War II and later as head of the CIA. A long but interesting read in light of the events in Iraq.
posted by MrAnonymous (16 comments total)

And, if the mods dare allow it, it would certainly be interesting to discuss the comparisons to the reconstruction effort in Iraq.
posted by MrAnonymous at 3:40 PM on December 20, 2003

stop that, please.
posted by machaus at 4:06 PM on December 20, 2003

Of course there are comparisions. But, alas, anyone left of center will claim the Hussein wasn't bad enough to be compared with Hitler, so our invasion was wrong! WRONG!
posted by ParisParamus at 4:30 PM on December 20, 2003

Hussein did much the same thing that Hitler did, just to a lesser degree.

But the point is that rebuilding Germany was far from perfect. Afterall, it was split in half for 50 years. There are some key things that we can apply to Iraq to make its reconstruction more successful.
posted by MrAnonymous at 5:20 PM on December 20, 2003

But alas, anyone to the left of Bin Laden will claim that Bush/USA wasn't bad enough to be compared to Hitler, so our bombing of the WTC was wrong! WRONG!
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 5:38 PM on December 20, 2003

Didn't follow that one.
posted by MrAnonymous at 5:48 PM on December 20, 2003

Paris - funny you should mention that word.

Allen Dulles worked with George W. Bush at a certain US bank which in - 1942 (during World War Two) had it's assets seized under the "Trading With The Enemies Act" - due to the fact that Union bank was laundering the German war profits of the largest industrial conglomerate operating during the Nazi era - the Thyssen group.

Dulles evaded any charges from this embarrassment, probably due to the fact that "Trading With The Enemy" was commonplace - Ford, GM, IBM, and many other large industrial concerns did the same.

After the Union Bank embarrassment - Prescott Bush laid low for a time but after the war's end recieved a large postwar payment from the reconstituted Thyssen group - and rode the money to a US Senatorship, thus establishing the Bush political dynasty. Meanwhile - after the Union bank scandal - the young George Bush Sr. joined the air force - to redeem the Bush name, some have speculated and Dulles, for his part, joined the OSS and proved instrumental in helping with the relocation of Werner Von Braun's Peenemunde V-2 factory to the US, during the liberation of France. The V-2 plants used slave labor. The project was touch-and-go but ultimately successful (and so the US space program begun).

Dullles became the first director of the newly minted US CIA. In the aftermath of World war two, he contravened Truman's explicit orders barring the importation of nazis (for national security purposes) into the US. Dullles violated that order and initiated project "Paperclip", which brought in Nazi SS, intelligence personnel, and scientists implicated in war crimes.

Richard Gehlen, the head of the Eastern European SS who was brought into the US under "Paperclip", has been credited with inflating the postwar military capabilities of the Soviet Union at that time and so fanning the flames of the Cold War.

I posted some corroborating material here and also posted a thread on the subject. Warning : GW Bush is not responsible for the sins of his grandfather or father .
posted by troutfishing at 7:50 PM on December 20, 2003

lame
posted by signal at 8:20 PM on December 20, 2003

Hussein did much the same thing that Hitler did, just to a lesser degree.

The Washington Snipers did much the same thing that Hitler did, just to a [much] lesser degree. If, that is, by 'the same thing' you mean kill people - because that's about where the similarities between Hussein and Hitler end.

It's weird the way we use Hitler to personify 'bad and evil'.

Hitler performed a genocide and invaded foriegn countries. Hussein was a brutal dictator, killed many people for a variety for political and personal reason. He also waged war with Iran (with US consent of sorts), and Kuwait. The former came to an end, as many wars do. The latter was the start of Gulf War I. None of those things seem all similar to Hitler's acts.

Saddam = Bad.
Hitler = Bad.
Saddam != Hitler.
posted by sycophant at 4:53 AM on December 21, 2003

Invaded foreign countries and killed people?

Hmmmmm. The silly syllogism could be applied to the leaders of a LOT of countries.
posted by GiantRobot at 6:19 AM on December 21, 2003

Henry Kissinger participated in decicions which killed an awful lot of civilians. Kissinger=Saddam ?
posted by troutfishing at 6:21 AM on December 21, 2003

Richard Gehlen, the head of the Eastern European SS
Reinhard, but whats in a name.
he also a general in the Army not SS. (though he may have had an honorary comission in the SS)

Dullles became the first director of the newly minted US CIA.
wrong, he was the fifth director.


"Young Allen Dulles, due to a tennis date, declined a meeting in switzerland in 1917 with the then-unknown Lenin jusy before the latter boarded the famous train to Finland station"

-R. James Woolsey
posted by clavdivs at 9:41 AM on December 21, 2003

clavdivs - Thanks for the corrections. I was bashing all of that out from memory. The 5th director, you say - OK. They went through a few between '46 (when the CIA was created) and '53 (when Allen Dulles picked up the directorship). You're quite right on Gehlen ("Major General Reinhard Gehlen headed the Foreign Armies East section of the Abwehr, directed towards the Soviet Union.") Here's why I thought Gehlen worked for the SS : " In early March 1945 a group of Gehlen's senior officers microfilmed their holdings on the USSR. They packed the film in steel drums and buried it throughout the Austrian Alps. On 22 May 1945 Gehlen and his top aides surrendered to an American Counter-intelligence Corps [CIC] team. "

Dulles and Lenin, huh. Pretty weird.
posted by troutfishing at 3:17 PM on December 21, 2003

no prob, er (1947:)

yeah the more I look at Dulles, the more I wonder.
posted by clavdivs at 8:04 AM on December 22, 2003

But Lenin.....tennis? It seems so surrealistic, like a detail Pynchon might have thrown in.

And then there's John Foster Dulles...he was bananas, er...um...United Fruitish
posted by troutfishing at 10:59 AM on December 22, 2003

Clavdivs - Dan Hartung just emailed me to point out a whopper of an error I made that you missed. "Allen Dulles worked with George W. Bush at a certain US bank which in - 1942" - This would have been hard for little GW, as he was knee high to a sperm - he had not been born yet!

That should have read "Prescott Bush". I think I need a break from obsessive commenting for a few days.
posted by troutfishing at 11:13 AM on December 22, 2003