Chapter 60: Jan 1946 the New Two Germanys and the Cold War

The alleged accident that killed General Patton at the end of World War Two was a terrible awakening to the American people that suddenly they had lost the most outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and the dictator Joseph Stalin taking the place of Hitler and his Nazi goons as the primary threat to continuing peace in Europe. He had plenty of critics for his outstanding views on politics and the world around us but he was one hell of a combat commander and inspired deep loyalty in his subordinates. He viewed the Russians as future opponents on a battlefield, distrusted the French and General De Gaulle and considered the British as a drain on the logistical supplies he desperately needed to keep moving forward until the war was over in Europe.

He joked with his staff that he couldn’t wait until VE day so he could move over to the Pacific and share his thoughts on ending the war over there with General MacArthur whom he considered too soft on the Japanese when he really needed to kick some ass.

It was mostly the recently arrived troops that remained in Germany after the war due to crazy “point system” that seemed more like a lottery than real orders. Training was fairly slack in the years closely following the end of the war and the troops were acting more like policemen and they established the systems of distribution of food, clothing and equipment to restore the German government to pre-war order. The Americans seemed to be a lot more flexible in using former Nazi administrators for a labor force than the French or the British but it was due to the melting pot attitude of the Americans that preferred selecting the best man or woman for the job rather than using the European way of fostering nepotism or giving preference to males over females in all positions. That did not include the SS members that had seen service in one of the concentration camps. Those involved in that genocidal endeavor were excluded from most areas of employment except for the most undesirable jobs imaginable.

The western sector comprised of the American, British and French zones soon evolved into a single sector with similar processes for almost all areas of operation. They encouraged the West Germans to pursue education and start businesses and allocated all available land areas into family farms to allow the people to sustain themselves with their harvest gleaned from the sides of the railway tracks and the highways that belonged to the government and not some private enterprise.

The British had a similar system of self-sustainment with an allotment scheme that put aside council land for use of permanent residents that tended the private land areas for their own personal consumption.

Once the American had at first folded in the British sector to their zone and then the French reluctantly followed along complaining all the way about the American interference in European affairs, the western sector became West Germany as a solidified country that included the former American, British and French zones in Berlin.

The entire Berlin question was foreseen by Churchill as something that would come back to bite the allies in the ass when they least expected it and he was absolutely right.

The Soviet Union did their best to make things difficult for the west to operate in Berlin and eventually resorted to shutting the door on ground travel and resupply along the prearranged corridors through the Soviet zone of East Germany. The west was forced to confront the Russian directly with the “Berlin Airlift” and defeat the Soviet Union at their own game of one-upmanship.

The Soviets continued to expand their conventional warfare capabilities in East Germany keeping firm control over the East German militia and the “Vopos” or the East German Police. During the period of the cold war (1946-1985) they consolidated their hold on all of Eastern Europe installing puppet governments that adhered to the Kremlin line. The only exception was Yugoslavia under General Franz Joseph Tito the famous Partizan of World War Two fame. He continued to walk a tightrope of control playing East against West until his demise that resulted in the breakup of the Yugoslavian state into separate countries under Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian control. What followed was a civil war that eventually drew the United States in against the Serbs in the name of fighting against suspected war crimes and genocide against the Bosnians. Air strikes were called in destroying essential infrastructure in the capitol of Belgrade and other military targets were fired upon by the American aircraft to make it a more level field of battle.

Eventually, the Soviet Union imploded due to major economic reverses at home and a disastrous war in Afghanistan that destroyed the Soviet Army with unintended consequences. At the same time, the declining economy found that they could no longer keep up with the United States in the Space Race and the Arms Race that wiped out all of their financial assets to make the communist government viable.

The Soviet Union passed into history in the mid-1980s unable to compete with the United States under President Ronald Reagan any longer. The Kremlin maintained control of the core country of Russia and some of the adjoining Republics in a much smaller country that had to retreat from the status of super-power.

With the power of an oil-driven economy and a resurgent military under the control of a former KGB officer called Putin, Russia is again threatening the west and the European Union with their expansionary dreams of greatness. They have invaded Georgia and the Ukraine taking back the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea as part of their Russian Federation.

East Germany is no longer in existence and the whole of Germany is now under the banner of the single German State. The new Germany is a powerhouse of industrial production and they have the best economy in Europe. It will remain to be seen if the European Union will remain a viable force in Europe as the British are due to withdraw from the EU no later than October of 2019.