U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum - Historical Discourse http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/ A discussion forum dedicated to history. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:10:46 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.USPoliticsOnline.com/images/misc/rss.jpg U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum - Historical Discourse http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/ 9 November 1989 - In remembrance - http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/57081-9-november-1989-remembrance.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:15:48 GMT A good summary of the events which led to the fall of the Wall of Berlin YouTube - Moments in History - The Fall of the Berlin Wall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM2qq5J5A1s) (German with English sub-titles) A very dramatic video on the... A good summary of the events which led to the fall of the Wall of Berlin
YouTube - Moments in History - The Fall of the Berlin Wall
(German with English sub-titles)

A very dramatic video on the opening of the Bornholmer Strasse, the first "Grenzübergang" to open in that night, giving way to the pressure of the crowd
YouTube - The opening of the Wall at Berlin Bornholmer Strasse 1989
(German with English sub-titles)

Another, very reaslistic, video, at Potsdamer Platz (also German with English sub-titles)
YouTube - The opening of the Berlin Wall 1989 / Reichstag (English Subtitles)

There is a dramatic scene with this woman pleading to go through the Brandenburger Tor, at least once, and swears with blazing eyes that she will return - on the head of her children -

"Ist das so schwer zu verstehen ?"

And the Wall being dismantled piece by piece in front of the eyes of the border police, arguing with the demonstrators:
"Why do you think we built the Wall in 1961 ? We built it to protect ourselves from the West !"

Last but not least : the famous international press conference, where Günter Schabowski announced that "private" people are free to travel.

Schabowski did not attend the ZK meeting in the afternoon. The new rule was a draft and had been packed together with other documents for the press conference. He was reading the content of the announcement for the first time. In fact it was a mistake : the opening of the borders was a proposal drafted on the same morning - When a startled Western journalist called in-between : "When will it come into force ?", Schabowski, obviously puzzled by what he had just read, stuttered ...

"... Ab sofort ... Unverzüglich" (From now on ... Immediately ...)
YouTube - Günter Schabowski - Pressekonferenz über neue Reiseregelung

The last video is a remake of this press conference with consequences, a montage made up of interviews of former witnesses and old footages.

A fascinating reportage on what happened in that dramatic night : how a mistake and bureaucratic mess lead to the fall of the Wall.
YouTube - Schabowskis Zettel - Die Nacht als die Mauer fiel 3/8

Unfortunately, I could not find any video with English translation of Schabowski's press conference. They are all in German.

There will be some celebration tomorrow in Berlin and I cannot see any of these images without tears coming to my eyes. ]]> Historical Discourse Sucre http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/57081-9-november-1989-remembrance.html Sound Familiar? http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56856-sound-familiar.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:27:09 GMT ---Quote--- *Poll Finds Support Is Fading For Reagan Economic Policy* By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 29, 1982 Most Americans are turning against President Reagan because of concerns about the economy and hope he does not seek a...
Quote:
Poll Finds Support Is Fading For Reagan Economic Policy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 29, 1982

Most Americans are turning against President Reagan because of concerns about the economy and hope he does not seek a second term, according to a poll commissioned by Time magazine.

The researchers found that support for Mr. Reagan's foreign policy was waning and that doubts were rising about the potential success of the his campaign pledge to cut taxes, increase the military budget and balance the Federal budget at the same time, the magazine reported in its issue dated April 5.

Asked to assess their confidence in Mr. Reagan's handling of economic problems, 28 percent of those polled said that they had ''no real confidence.'' That figure was up from 22 percent three months ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/29/us...ic-policy.html
Quote:
Reagan Economic Aide Sees Jobless Rate Exceeding 10%

Published: May 11, 1982

The national unemployment rate is likely to continue rising and may exceed 10 percent, William Niskanen, a Presidential economic adviser, said today.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the jobless rate was 9.4 percent in April, the highest in 40 years. Mr. Niskanen, interviewed on the CBS News ''Morning'' program, said the recent surge in joblessness may not reflect the actual health of the economy, since unemployment ''peaks several months after the bottom of the recession.''
Reagan Economic Aide Sees Jobless Rate Exceeding 10% - New York Times

Quote:
March On Washington
Thousands Protest Reagan Economic, Social Policies On Solidarity Day

WASHINGTON - Employing the tactics and march paths of protesters of yesteryear, organized labor and its allies are using sheer numbers to express their dissatisfaction with President Reagan's economic and social policies.

Tens of thousands of union members, civil rights activists, women and environmentalists converged on the nation's capital for the Solidarity Day protest, a march that seemed likely to attract 200,000 people and rival any demonstration seen here in recent years.

...Reagan decided to spend the weekend away from the White House, traveling late Friday from a speaking engagement in Denver to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. The president has made no public statements about the protest march, the first major show of resistance to Reagan's program in the eight months since his inauguration.
The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search

Quote:
Reagan Lashes Out At Media 'Inaccuracies'

WASHINGTON - President Reagan Friday rejected criticism that his administration was in disarray and contended that faulty news stories, not his leadership, was the problem

"I came in to point out to you accurately where the disarray lies," the president said during a brief news conference in the White House press room. "It's those stories that seem to be going around, because they are not based on fact."
Gainesville Sun - Google News Archive Search

America is waking up to this inexperienced Carter Part II. Can't wait until we vote this guy out of office in '84. Hopefully it won't be too late for the country. ;) ]]> Historical Discourse Speakeasy http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56856-sound-familiar.html Nazi assassin trial in Germany http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56850-nazi-assassin-trial-germany.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:22:01 GMT A former SS member, now aged eighty- eight, goes on trial in Germany for the murder of three dutch civilians in 1944. Heinrich Boere will along with John Demjanjuk , who has been extradited from the US to Germany just recently most likely be the... A former SS member, now aged eighty- eight, goes on trial in Germany for the murder of three dutch civilians in 1944. Heinrich Boere will along with John Demjanjuk , who has been extradited from the US to Germany just recently most likely be the last person to be tried for Nazi war crimes.......
In August, another former SS member has been sentenced to life in Germany ( at ninety years old!) for a massacre in an italian village in 1944 that he evidently took part in........


War Crimes: Nazi Assassin Goes on Trial in Germany - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International ]]> Historical Discourse Voland http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56850-nazi-assassin-trial-germany.html Mussolini the British spy http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56641-mussolini-british-spy.html Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:45:00 GMT
Quote:
Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini

Documents reveal Italian dictator got start in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5

Benito Mussolini was paid £100 a week by MI5 to keep Italy in the first world war. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has come to light: his brief career as a British agent.

Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in politics in 1917 with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5.

For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home.

Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time.

Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict. Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today."

Hoare, later to become Lord Templewood, mentioned the recruitment in memoirs in 1954, but Martland stumbled on details of the payments for the first time while scouring Hoare's papers.

As well as keeping the presses rolling at Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he edited, Mussolini also told Hoare he would send Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.

"The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the £4m Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash," said Martland.

"I have no evidence to prove it, but I suspect that Mussolini, who was a noted womaniser, also spent a good deal of the money on his mistresses."

After the armistice, Mussolini began his rise to power, assisted by electoral fraud and blackshirt violence, establishing a fascist dictorship by the mid-1920s.

His colonial ambitions in Africa brought him into contact with his old paymaster again in 1935. Now the British foreign secretary, Hoare signed the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy control over Abyssinia.

"There is no reason to believe the two men were friends, although Hoare did have an enduring love affair with Italy," said Martland, whose research is included in Christopher Andrew's history of MI5, Defence of the Realm, which was published last week.

The unpopularity of the Hoare-Laval pact in Britain forced Hoare to resign. Mussolini, meanwhile, built on his new colonial clout to ally with Hitler, entering the second world war in 1940, this time to fight against the allies.

Deposed following the allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Mussolini was killed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, by Italian partisans while fleeing Italy in an attempt to reach Switzerland two years later.

Martland said: "Mussolini ended his life hung upside down in Milan, but history has not been kind to Hoare either, condemned as an appeaser of fascism alongside Neville Chamberlain."
Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini | World news | The Guardian
.
It's mentioned in the article that the fact of Mussolini having once worked as a British spy was mentioned already in Hoare's memories back in 1954, but for me that is still news.

I do wonder why the Brits haven't used that fact about the duce as a propaganda tool during ww2? Or have they?

Anyway interesting story; not too important for the grand scheme of WW1, but still revealing about Mussolini's character/personality.

The fact that he worked together with a secret service of an back then allied foreign nation and "supported" the war effort in general is not too shocking, but that he did so for cash, gives it a bad taste. ]]> Historical Discourse Stapo http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56641-mussolini-british-spy.html Land In Palestine After The Ottoman Land Reforms of 1865-1871 http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56626-land-palestine-after-ottoman-land-reforms-1865-1871-a.html Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:06:04 GMT One of the best short articles dealing with the myths of Zionist displacement of Arabs in Palestine. ---Quote--- The claim that the Arabs were being driven out was raised as early as the 1930s. This claim was investigated by the British, and... One of the best short articles dealing with the myths of Zionist displacement of Arabs in Palestine.

Quote:
The claim that the Arabs were being driven out was raised as early as the 1930s. This claim was investigated by the British, and rejected almost completely - and this at a time when British policy in Palestine was clearly moving from a pro-Zionist to a pro-Arab position.
Two official British documents from the year 1937 deal with this claim. One is the report of the Peel Commission (Chapter 9, Par. 61), which relates that during the years 1920-1939, 688 Arab tenant farmers were removed from their land as a result of purchases made by the Jews. Five hundred twenty-six of the Arab farmers remained in some agricultural occupation, and four hundred received alternative plots of land in other locations.

The second document is one of a series of memoranda prepared by the mandatory government and published in London (Colonial No. 133, p. 37). It contains the findings of the 1931 investigation of Lewis French, which totally refute the claim that the Zionist undertaking in Palestine caused the creation of "an entire landless people among the Palestinian Arabs".
The memorandum notes that the total number of applications of registration as landless Arabs reached 3,27 1. Of these, the claims of 2,607 were rejected as not belonging to this category, and only 664 heads of families were recognized as having legitimate claims. Approximately half this number - 347 - agreed to accept the government's offer of resettlement. The rest refused, either because they had found employment elsewhere, or because they were unaccustomed to the agricultural methods, such as irrigation, employed in the new locations, or because of other reasons. In his investigation of the hill country, where the Jewish purchases were minimal, French found that out of seventy-one Arab claims of eviction, sixty-eight were rejected (The Esco Foundation for Palestine, Inc., Vol. II, p. 716).
Land Ownership in Palestine : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

A very well researched article.

The Moshe Auman article here:

Middle East Reader ]]> Historical Discourse picaro http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56626-land-palestine-after-ottoman-land-reforms-1865-1871-a.html NAZI-Zionist Secret Pact http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56614-nazi-zionist-secret-pact.html Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:32:05 GMT There was a secret pact between Nazi Germany and the Zionist movement in 1933, it was called The Transfer Agreement. Read: The Jewish Declaration of War on Nazi Germany: The Economic Boycott of 1933. M. Raphael Johnson, Ph.D.... There was a secret pact between Nazi Germany and the Zionist movement in 1933, it was called The Transfer Agreement. Read:

The Jewish Declaration of War on Nazi Germany: The Economic Boycott of 1933. M. Raphael Johnson, Ph.D. ]]> Historical Discourse joyb http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56614-nazi-zionist-secret-pact.html The peaceful revolution that started on October 9th http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56594-peaceful-revolution-started-october-9th.html Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:21:45 GMT October 9th is an important, but not very well known day in german and GDR history. On October 9th 1989 for the first time thousands of demonstrators were assembling at the famous Nicolai church in downtown Leipzig/ Eastern Germany and marched... October 9th is an important, but not very well known day in german and GDR history. On October 9th 1989 for the first time thousands of demonstrators were assembling at the famous Nicolai church in downtown Leipzig/ Eastern Germany and marched under the banner : "We are the people", sparking peaceful protests all over the country ,defying the communist regime and paving the way for the fall of the Berlin wall one month after and the peaceful revolution the next year :

'We Are the People': A Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International ]]> Historical Discourse Voland http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56594-peaceful-revolution-started-october-9th.html City of Dachau plans sister city agreement with israeli town http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56526-city-dachau-plans-sister-city-agreement-israeli-town.html Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:49:37 GMT Few german place or city names are as synonymous for Nazi terror than Dachau near Munich, the site of the first Nazi concentration camp, where more than 40 000 detainees perished before the Allies liberated the camp in 1945. Now Dachaus mayor is... Few german place or city names are as synonymous for Nazi terror than Dachau near Munich, the site of the first Nazi concentration camp, where more than 40 000 detainees perished before the Allies liberated the camp in 1945.
Now Dachaus mayor is about to sign a sister citys agreement with an israeli town as a sign of reconsiliation and provokes outrage in Israel.......



'An Outstretched Hand for the Future': Dachau Plans Sister-City Agreement with Israeli Town - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International ]]> Historical Discourse Voland http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56526-city-dachau-plans-sister-city-agreement-israeli-town.html Might McCain Have Won? http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56466-might-mccain-have-won.html Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:49:37 GMT I know this is recent, and I hope it doesnt become too Partisan, but I think he could have done it. The first thing he should have done was disaavow his own base. He had them already, all this backtracking on supporting torture etc just lost him... I know this is recent, and I hope it doesnt become too Partisan, but I think he could have done it.

The first thing he should have done was disaavow his own base. He had them already, all this backtracking on supporting torture etc just lost him what few independent votes any Republican still had.

He should have come up with a REAL healthcare plan, and with a public option. That way O's only choice was to go for supporting single payer, a minority position at best.

His second real mistake was this suspending the campaign idea. He should have ignored or even downplayed the banking meltdown, saying it was a temporary glitch and pointing out how he'd warned of it, if mentioning it at all.

But mainly, he should have played up his experience and kept pounding on O's lack of same. He would have done particularly well if he'd kept asking O to get specific as to HOW he was going to do all the things he promised, because O didn't ,and really couldn't have, known at the time.

Things he shouln't have done? appointed Palin, appointed Palin and appointed Palin, she not only effectively kiboshed his experience argument but was a bimbo beside. Next he should have dropped the silly Rev Wright and the other guy I forget arguments, which noone but his own rabid followers even cared about and finally, never, ever, admitted he couldn't get his own email. I wasn't going to vote for him anyway but that really assured me he would never be Prez;

*old man's quavery voice "What...this newfangled contraption they call a telephone?....not for me...nope, pidgeons always fly home and Edgar here has been with me since Sedan, let Stalin say that....eh? ]]> Historical Discourse John Drake http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/historical-discourse/56466-might-mccain-have-won.html