Tom McMahon

What Was In The Original CARE Packages?

From Care.org:

The first CARE Packages were U.S. Army surplus "10-in-1" food parcels intended to provide one meal for 10 soldiers during the planned invasion of Japan. We obtained them at the end of World War II and began a service that let Americans send the packages to friends and families in Europe, where millions were in danger of starvation. Ten dollars bought a CARE Package and guaranteed that its addressee would receive it within four months.

When the "10-in-1" parcels ran out, we began assembling our own food packages, greatly assisted by donations from American companies. At first, senders had to designate a specific person as the recipient, but soon CARE was flooded with donations to send CARE Packages to "a hungry occupant of a thatched cottage," "a school teacher in Germany," and so on.

Decades ago, we largely phased out the CARE Package as we expanded the breadth of our work, focusing on long-term projects in addition to emergency relief. However, it remains a powerful symbol of the compassion and generosity of those who support our vision of a world free of poverty and suffering.

What was in the first CARE Packages?

• one pound of beef in broth
• one pound of steak and kidneys
• 8 ounces of liver loaf
• 8 ounces of corned beef
• 12 ounces of luncheon loaf (like Spam®)
• 8 ounces of bacon
• 2 pounds of margarine
• one pound of lard
• one pound of fruit preserves
• one pound of honey
• one pound of raisins
• one pound of chocolate
• 2 pounds of sugar
• 8 ounces of egg powder
• 2 pounds of whole-milk powder
• 2 pounds of coffee

Later CARE Packages included food for different cultural diets and non-food items such as carpentry tools, blankets, school supplies and medicine.

IQ's of the Nuremberg Defendants

Name	Born	Died	IQ
Martin Borman	1900	-	-
Karl Doenitz	1891	1980	138
Hans Frank	1900	1946	130
Wilhelm Frick	1877	1946	124
Hans Fritzsche	1900	1953	130
Walter Funk	1890	1960	124
Herman Goering	1893	1946	138
Rudolf Hess	1894	1987	120
Alfred Jodl	1890	1946	127
Ernst Kaltenbrunner	1903	1946	113
Wilhelm Keitel	1882	1946	129
Constain von Neurath	1873	1956	123
Fritz von Papen	1879	1969	134
Erich Raeder	1876	1960	134
Joachim von Ribberntrop	1893	1946	129
Alfred Rosenberg	1893	1946	127
Fritz Saukel	1894	1946	118
Hjalmar Schacht	1877	1970	143
Baldur von Schirach	1907	1974	130
Arthur Seyss-Inquart	1892	1946	141
Albert Speer	1905	1981	128
Julius Streicher	1885	1946	106

IQ's of the Nuremberg Defendants

More here. Make of it what you will.

Communism and Fascism: Two Socialist Peas In a Pod

From Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change :

Nazism’s one-nation politics by its very definition appealed to people from all walks of life. Professors, students, and civil servants were all disproportionately supportive of the Nazi cause. But it’s important to get a sense of the kind of person who served as the rank-and-file Nazi, the young, often thuggish true believers who fought in the streets and dedicated themselves to the revolution.

Patrick Leigh Fermor, a young Briton traveling in Germany shortly after Hitler came to power, met some of these men in a Rhineland workers’ pub, still wearing their night-shift overalls. One of his new drinking buddies offered to let Fermor crash at his house for the night. When Fermor climbed the ladder to the attic to sleep in a guest bed, he found “a shrine to Hitleriana”: The walls were covered with flags, photographs, posters, slogans and emblems. His SA uniforms hung neatly ironed on a hanger…

When I said that it must be rather claustrophobic with all that stuff on the walls, he laughed and sat down on the bed, and said: “Mensch! You should have seen it last year! You would have laughed! Then it was all red flags, stars, hammers, sickles, pictures of Lenin and Stalin and Workers of the World Unite!…Then, suddenly when Hitler came to power, I understood it was all nonsense and lies. I realized Adolf was the man for me. All of a sudden!” He snapped his fingers in the air. “And here I am!”…Had a lot of people done the same, then? “Millions! I tell you, I was astonished how easily they all changed sides!”

Ghost Army Shoulder Patches

Ghost Army Shoulder Patches

General George Patton fielded a historic-first phony army to fool the Germans in the 1944 Normandy Invasion. The deception was so elaborate it even included counterfeit insignia for the fake army units.

Han van Meegeren, The Art Forger Who Duped Hermann Goering

Vermeer's Christ and the Adultress by Han van Meegeren, The Art Forger Who Duped Hermann Goering

The Wikipedia summary:

As a child Van Meegeren developed an enthusiasm for the marvelous colours used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age, and later set out to become an artist himself. When art critics decried his work as tired and derivative, Van Meegeren felt that the critics had destroyed his career. Thereupon, he decided to prove his talent to the critics by forging paintings of some of the world's most famous artists, including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Johannes Vermeer. He so well replicated the styles and colours of the artists he copied, that the best art critics and experts of the time regarded his paintings as genuine, and sometimes exquisite. His most successful forgery was The Disciples at Emmaus, created in 1937 while living in the south of France. This painting was hailed by some of the world’s foremost art experts as the finest Vermeer they had ever seen.

During World War II, wealthy Dutchmen, wanting to prevent a sellout of Dutch art to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, avidly bought Van Meegeren's forgeries. Nevertheless a falsified "Vermeer" ended up in the possession of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. Following the war, the forgery was discovered in Göring's possession, and Han van Meegeren was arrested 29 May 1945 as a Collaborator, as the officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis. These crimes threatened extensive prison time and so Van Meegeren fearfully confessed to the forgery. On 12 November 1947 Van Meegeren was convicted of falsification and fraud charges, and was sentenced to a modest punishment of one year in prison. He never served his sentence, however; before he could be incarcerated Van Meegeren suffered a heart attack and died on 30 December 1947. It is estimated that Van Meegeren duped buyers out of the equivalent of several million dollars.

And from essentialvermeer.com:

"Perhaps the greatest problem that faced Van Meegeren then was the secrecy in which he had to work. He could hire no models, since they might talk. For the painting below he was forced to rely mainly on his imagination and it is a wonder that he dared such a accomplished composition, involving 13 figures in a variety of poses. ...

Van Meegeren spent four years working out techniques for making a new painting look old. The biggest problem was getting his oil paint to harden thoroughly - process that normally takes 50 years. He solved it by mixing his pigments with a synthetic resin instead of oil, and baking the canvas. Now he was ready to begin. He took an actual 17th c. painting and removed most of the picture with pumice and water, being most careful not to obliterate the network of cracks, which had an important role to play."

Interesting fellow, eh? The only word I can come up with to adequately describe him is "ballsy". On Amazon there's I Was Vermeer: The Forger Who Swindled the Nazis, The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, and The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century

How Superman Would End the War

How Superman Would End the War

From Look magazine February 27, 1940

Ten Things Every American Student Should Know About Our Army in World War II

From an article by Rick Atkinson, here's the first one:

#1. The U.S. Army was a puny weakling when the war began

When the European war began in earnest on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, the U.S. Army ranked seventeenth among armies of the world in size and combat power, just behind Romania. It numbered 190,000 soldiers. (It would grow to 8.3 million in 1945, a 44-fold increase.) When mobilization began in 1940, the Army had only 14,000 professional officers. The average age of majors—a middling rank, between captain and lieutenant colonel—was nearly 48; in the National Guard, nearly one-quarter of first lieutenants were over 40 years old, and the senior ranks were dominated by political hacks of certifiable military incompetence. Not a single officer on duty in 1941 had commanded a unit as large as a division in World War I. At the time of Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, only one American division was on a full war footing.

Some American coastal defense guns had not been test fired in 20 years, and the Army lacked enough antiaircraft guns to protect even a single American city. The senior British military officer in Washington told London that American forces “are more unready for war than it is possible to imagine.” In May 1940, the month that the German Blitzkrieg swept through the Low Countries and overran France, the U.S. Army owned a total of 464 tanks, mostly puny light tanks with the combat power of a coffee can.

There was also a mental unreadiness in many quarters. In 1941, the Army’s cavalry chief assured Congress that four well-spaced horsemen could charge half a mile across an open field to destroy an enemy machine-gun nest, without sustaining a scratch. This ignored the evidence of not only World War II, which was already two years underway, but also World War I.

via my Aunt Mary and Uncle Fred

GAF, The Company That Made View-Master A Household Name And Was Seized By The American Government 67 Years Ago

GAF, The Company That Made View-Master A Household Name And Was Seized By The American Government 67 Years Ago

The story:

In 1929, German chemical manufacturer I.G. Farben founded a subsidiary in the United States, named American I.G. Among its other chemistry-related activities, American I.G. took charge of the American operations of Agfa, which had just acquired an American photographic equipment company called Ansco and was now going by the name Agfa Ansco.

Within 10 years, with anti-German sentiment growing, American I.G. attempted to disguise its German ownership by changing its name to General Aniline & Film, GAF for short. As it turned out, following the U.S.'s entry into World War II in late 1941, the GAF company was placed under the ownership of the U.S. government anyway. During the war, GAF made cameras and film for the U.S. military, as well as blue and khaki uniform dyes.

In 1946, GAF returned to private ownership, now American, and continued its chemical and photography businesses, challenging Kodak fairly successfully with products such as slide projectors and Super 8 cameras and projectors.

Diversifying during the 1960s, GAF made two key acquisitions. One was the Ruberoid company, a manufacturer of roofing and other home finishing materials. The other was Sawyer's, a company whose principal product was the View-Master, a device used to view 3-D photographs. GAF added its logo to the View-Master viewers and picture disks and became a household name among children. (In 1968, the company's name was officially changed from General Aniline & Film to GAF Corporation.)

Except the return to private ownership wasn't quite that smooth:

The second major ownership problem facing General Aniline was continued government control. Plans to privatise the company were stalled when Interhandel, the Swiss successor to I. G. Chemie, sued the U.S. government in 1948 to recover the stock. Interhandel claimed the dividend/option agreement with I. G. Farben had been cancelled in 1940 and that the United States had illegally seized the assets of an independent firm headquartered in a neutral country. The case would be argued in the United States and international courts for years. During government ownership, General Aniline could not raise capital through a stock issue or use company stock for a merger to grow and diversify its businesses. ...

After a two-decade legal battle (Figure 18) over the ownership of General Aniline, the Justice Department finally reached an agreement with Interhandel, the Swiss holding company, in March 1963. The agreement would give a 62 per cent share of the company’s value to the government and a 38 per cent share to Interhandel. The government therefore gave some credence to the claim that the ties to I. G. Farben were severed in 1940. The stock was sold to the public in 1965 for US$328 million with Interhandel receiving $122 million. (96) The government’s proceeds went into the war claims fund, used to pay claims to American citizens for injuries and property damage suffered at the hands of enemies during World War II.

Vyacheslav Molotov

• 9 March [O.S. 25 February ] 1890 – 8 November 1986 
• Protégé of Joseph Stalin
• He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).  
• The Molotov cocktail was named after him by the Finnish military during the Winter War. 
• He was the only Bolshevik leader who always wore a suit and tie 
• In the postwar period, Molotov's position began to decline. In 1949, he was replaced as Foreign Minister 
• Molotov's downfall began in February 1956 when Khrushchev launched an unexpected denunciation of Stalin 
• Eventually he was banished as ambassador to Mongolia.  
• Molotov was one of the few, if not the only person to have shaken hands with Soviet Premiers Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong, German leader Adolf Hitler, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov  

President Franklin Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy Speech Delivered December 8, 1941.

From the World War II History Blog:

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy— the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.