Post World War II European Arrogace

The Truman Doctrine, put forth by President Harry Truman when he addressed Congress on March 12, 1947, essentially stated:

"The United States will defend free people and their free institutions at any place at any point in the world where outside communist aggression threatens that nation's internal stability."

The Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift

The United States was now committed actively to opposing the spread of Soviet-style Communism. The first plan that put this policy to use on a large scale was the Economic Recovery Plan of 1947, also known as the "Marshall Plan." In a commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, George C. Marshall, a former general and now Truman's secretary of state, proposed that the nation make a huge economic commitment to rebuild the war-torn nations of Western Europe. 

His objective was to "restore the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole." Marshall believed that the American economy depended on open markets. Thus, rebuilding the economies of Europe would guarantee American prosperity by providing an outlet for the nation's goods. 

Marshall also contended that economic stability in Europe would translate into political stability, that Communism would have little appeal to well-fed and employed Europeans. 

Between 1948 and 1951, the United States sent $13 billion in aid to Western European nations. West Germany benefited the most from the plan. Between 1947 and 1951, a period that historians refer to as the "German miracle," West Germany's economic output increased 312%. 

As the United States invested heavily in the reconstruction of Western Europe, it also struggled with the Soviet Union for influence in Eastern Europe. This struggle became evident during the 1948 Soviet blockade of Berlin. After the end of World War II, the Allies had divided the city of Berlin, and the country of Germany as a whole, into four zones, one controlled by the Soviet Union, and the other three controlled by Great Britain, France, and the United States.

In response to growing American economic and military power  in Europe, the Soviet Union cut off western links to Berlin, which was located inside the Soviet-occupied zone.

Truman, in turn, ordered a massive, year-long airlift of medical supplies, food and clothing for West Berliners. Eventually, the Soviets lifted the blockade. In 1948 and 1949, however, the Soviet Union sponsored Communist revolutions in Eastern-bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary.

In response, in April 1949, twelve nations of Western Europe and North America signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The goal of NATO was to coordinate the defense of Western Europe. An attack on any of its member nations was equal to an attack on all, with each nation obliged to battle their common foe. 

Primary support, both militarily and monetarily, came from the United States.

A re-post from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture24.html

Book Review: "Broke" by Glenn Beck

Ok, so I finished this on off about a month ago and am just now getting around to writing the review.  I can honestly say that I have never read a text book from cover to cover.  I the case of this book, which is laid out in a similar fashion as text book, I did, minus of course the fifty or so pages of citations.  Facts can be such stubborn things.  

There are some great lessons on our nations history and some good quotes from the Founding Fathers and other notable leaders and thinkers through the ages.  If anything, Mr. Beck has gotten me in to the books and expanded my knowledge of America and its history.  I think my next major read after finishing the Federalist Papers is going to be Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

So much to read and I am such a SLOW reader.

Book Review "The Imperial Cruise"

Now that I do not have the History Channel to entertain me in the evenings after the girls have gone to bed, I have re-engaged a hobby that I have long neglected, reading.   The most recent book consumed was Imperial Cruise by James Bradley.

An interesting read mostly about Teddy Roosevelt's politics in Asia and the Pacific rim.   Gives a really interesting and new perspective about America view of Asia at the turn of the century and sets the stage for World War II in the Pacific.

Brunch in Hampton Roads

Ok, so we have been living here in the Tidewater now for seven years.  After living in San Diego and being offered the opportunity to eat the Sunday Brunch at the Officers club on North Island, I, we, have become a little spoiled.  So ever since moving here, we have been on the look out for a good Sunday brunch Buffet.  We tried some local places like the Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown, a couple of resturants here in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and really have not been too impressed.  The USCGTC is actually pretty decent if you want to make the trip. 

Today, we tried the Sunday Brunch at the Chamberlin Hotel at Ft. Monroe.  For $25 you get eggs to order, seafood to include crab legs, shrimp and other assorted seafood treasures, a desert table and of course a lunch table with chicken and prime rib.  All the food was very good, the location awesome and the company even better.  Although lacking ice sculptures and complementary mimosa's, the Chamberlin is where it is at in the Central Tidewater area.  I would recommend reservations....

Of course while you are there, walk off your brunch with a stroll along the grounds of America's oldest, continuously manned fortification and visit the casemate museum.