Berlin, Friday, June 25 Well, there’s bluster and posturing in the city, and a CYA attitude in response. Prof. Reeves told us that Colonel Howard, one of Gen. Clay’s subordinates and effectively the city-manager of the American Sector, went on RIAS (the Radio in the American Sector, apparently without Gen. Clay’s express permission and peremptorily announced, “We are not getting out of Berlin. We are going to stay. I don’t know the answer to the current problem – not yet – but this much I do know. The American people will not allow the German people to starve.” And General Clay himself, Prof. Reeves said, was talking up breaking the blockade with a military convoy, and General LeMay, commander of the U.S. Air Force Europe (USAFE), seems to agree. Apparently there’s no firm response from Washington, but the Gen. Clay’s British counterpart General Robertson, was reported to have told Gen. Clay, “If you do that, it’ll be war, it’s as simple as that. If you do that, I’m my government would offer you no support – and I’m sure the French will feel the same.” For their part, the French have been blaming the Anglo-American consortium for snookering them into the London Agreement and the introduction of the new currency, and they even seem to be leaning to abandoning Berlin. For their part, the Soviets are ratcheting up the pressure. When they introduced their new currency beginning today, they insisted that the Western currency will not be allowed to circulate in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany “and in Berlin, which is part of the Soviet occupation zone.” Today they also announced that neither the Soviet forces nor their East German puppets in the SED would supply food or other supplies to the Western Sectors of the city. This really surprises me, because I assumed that they would want to ingratiate themselves with the citizens of all of Berlin, not least because of the upcoming elections where the SED is not expected to do well. Probably they’re playing the bad cop hand now, so that in a couple weeks the good cop hand will look even better But then someone in the office said that they want to take the expected bumper crop this year back to the USSR, like they have before. He said that the million rapes the Soviet soldiers participated in during the first two months in the summer of 1945 the USSR was preventing the Westerners to enter Berlin traumatized almost all women in the city and humiliated their fathers, husbands and sons. Besides, when the Soviets dissembled the major industries to ship to the USSR, they also took well over two thousand mechanics and machine operators with them, essentially from what I gather slaves or at least involuntary labor. And they have imprisoned many of the communists and Leftists whose complete loyalty they doubt. The Berliners don’t seem to like the Soviets but seem to tolerate them. I wish I could understand the Berliner accent, because there seem to be a lot of jokes about them I can’t follow. The British and the French are complaining that they don’t know what the Americans are going to do. I don’t think Washington knows what the American are going to do, either. Apparently the armed convoy pushing in from the west if off the table, and I’m not persuaded all this talk is useful. We’re looking into how many supplies of what products are in the Western Sectors already; it looks like the city can come through several weeks without serious problems. The Soviet-run S-Bahn is still running through the Western Sector, people are still going from one zone to another for work or shopping. The rumor about the Soviets shutting off water seemed hysterical. Our army is essentially in charge of the American Sector, much to Gen. LeMay’s displeasure because he really believes the strategic bombing campaign 1943-45)read “destruction of the urban cores”) won the war instead of destroying the civilian economy and driving the workers to the armaments industry. That’s part of why he can bluster about going hand to hand against the Soviets, whereas the Army understands full well that the city is not defensible. If the Soviets want to take it militarily, we Westerners may all become hostages. Indeed, I’m going to the opera tonight, just a block from the massive Soviet Embassy that is being constructed on Unter den Linden, the main street of the city and in the Soviet Sector. Walter Felsenstein helped reopen that opera house at Christmas time last year and is leading the new resident opera company, the Komische Oper. I’ll certainly keep my ears open, because many Soviet Generals and high-level functionaries go there on the weekend, getting the best seats. Well, enough for now, off to the opera, which is probably going to put on yet another “Die Fledermaus.” I bet I’ll hear the audience grown when the party scene changes to the jail scene, or maybe they’ll laugh at the jailer, hoping the Soviet Generals will get the point. I’m groaning myself at all the meetings that have been called for both this Saturday and Sunday. BOB
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 02:01:02 +0000
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