Mao and Stalin
Transcripts of the December 1949 and January 1950 sessions between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin were obtained from Soviet archives by the New York Times in 1995, Moscow December 1949: The first meeting between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin took place only months...
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Einstein Warns of Arms Race
https://youtu.be/K4MjwIFoPn0 Transcript: The Eleanor Roosevelt Show." NBC Radio February 1950 ALBERT EINSTEIN (Physicist): ... The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion. On the part...
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Radio Free Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pQh2PjdziQ&t=65s Headquartered in Munich Germany, Radio Free Europe was founded as an anti-communist propaganda platform in 1949 by the National Committee for a Free Europe (a CIA front organization). Although...
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U.S. Reveals H-Bomb Plans
In 1949 the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. https://youtu.be/ZQOZp4ThymU USSR conducts its first atomic bomb test - 1949 Several weeks after a successful Soviet...
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Memorial Day
https://youtu.be/YChfpVD5xpk PROCLAMATION 2889 - May 22, 1950 PRAYER FOR PEACE, MEMORIAL DAY Since war is the world's most terrible scourge, we should do all in our power to prevent its recurrence.It was the hope of mankind that with the cessation of...
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Don’t Miss a Post
Dear revered subscribers, Unfortunately, the Wordpress automatic notification of new posts has been malfunctioning for some time. But now it appears the problem has been resolved. If you wish to receive an email notification of a new Enemy in the Mirror post, the best...
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Korean War Vets Memorial
I just visited the American war memorials in Washington D.C. All evoke powerful emotions. The Korean War Veterans Memorial is located near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was dedicated on July 27, 1995. The Memorial was designed and...
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The Broad High Road
At the end of WWII, with a Conservative Party defeat in the 1945 general election, Winston Churchill became leader of the British opposition. Midst the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, Churchill warned of an "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and...
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Indonesian Independence
https://youtu.be/-XhCI0tnsT8 Following the defeat of the Japanese in WWII, Indonesia proclaimed its independence in August 1945. What followed was a harsh attempt by the Dutch Empire (with some initial assistance by WWII allies) to recolonize Indonesia. From 1945-49,...
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Kim Il Sung and Joseph Stalin
Did Joseph Stalin approve Kim Il Sung's plan to attack South Korea in June 1950 because he wanted the US to become entangled in a limited conflict in Asia -- or was he reassured by Kim that the South would be rapidly overrun before the US could intervene?...
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Volkswagen in America
https://youtu.be/VUPCl1WUF-E VW Beetle In 1933 Adolf Hitler demanded the production of an inexpensive automobile capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/hr. After WWII British occupation forces in Germany ordered 20,000 Type I VW beetles...
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Soviet Atomic Bomb
https://youtu.be/sXwSbkdVQro In August 1949 the USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb at a remote site in Kazakhstan with the codename “First Lightning.” Buildings, bridges, other structure and caged animals were placed nearby to measure the effects of...
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NATO
https://youtu.be/8MQ59Ij5fkM The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as an intergovernmental military alliance between 12 North American and European countries including: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the...
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Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
https://youtu.be/dx2IUWXBcoQ In 1949, in response to the 1947 U.S.-backed Marshall Plan, eastern European countries established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance...
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Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii catapulted a reluctant America into the Second World War. There are not many...
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America Reinstitutes Military Draft
Although a great proponent of demobilization after WWII, President Harry S. Truman re-instituted the military draft in July 1948 with a proclamation calling for conscription of ~10 million men. > 16 million men and women served in the U.S. military during...
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Armistice Day
November 11, 1918: World War I Ends Veterans Day is an official American holiday that originated after WWI as Armistice Day and was originally intended as a remembrance of November 11, 1918 when major hostilities of World War I formally ended at the 11th hour...
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Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, in response to Allied currency change in West Berlin, the Soviet Union closed vehicular and railroad entry routes through East Germany into the Western sectors of Berlin. The Western allies responded with daily flights to transport goods to West...
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Arab-Israeli War
In May 1948, following the Israeli Declaration of Independence, the ongoing civil strife between Arabs and Israelis erupted into a full-scale war. Armed forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq entered Palestine (Jordan did not attack). Fighting continued for 10...
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Texaco Star Theater
The Texaco Star Theatre with the comedian Milton Berle was first broadcast on radio (1938-1949) before it became an extremely popular American variety show on television (1948 -1956). LISTEN As star of tThe Texaco Star Theater, Milton...
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Marshall Plan Initiated
In April 1948 sixteen nations joined the Marshall Plan's economic cooperation organization. In the Cold War atmosphere, Eastern European countries in the Soviet sphere that did not join were Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Albania. Finland also...
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Tales of the South Pacific
In 1948 James Michener won the Pulitzer Prize for his series of short stories entitled Tales of the South Pacific. Derived from his experience with the US Navy in the New Hebrides Islands during the Pacific Campaign of World War II, the fascinating stories focus on...
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Miracle On 34TH Street
Miracle on 34th Street was a 1947 film written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. It stars Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, a very young Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn as the charming Kris Kringle. The heartwarming story, about a...
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Hollywood Black List
In October 1947 the House Un-American Activities Committee (created in 1938) re-convened in Washington D.C. for public hearings on alleged communist infiltration within the American motion picture industry. 50 top Hollywood executives decided to suspend those who...
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Korean Turmoil
In 1945 the unconditional surrender of Japan led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones. The 1945 division of Korea was meant to be temporary. The stated Allied intention was to reunify the country once a single government could be...
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