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Origins of the Cold War, Part One,1917-1945 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 p.15 August 6, 1945 The US military drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan--- this city being chosen because it was the "largest untouched target" on the bombing priority list. [80,000 people were killed instantly and another 50-60,000 died of burns and infection in the next few months. General Groves, head of the atomic bomb project, ridiculed the stories of "radiation sickness" among the Hiroshima survivors as "hoax or propaganda". An untold number would die through the years from the effects of radiation received. [The United States had detailed plans for the use of chemical weapons on Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and nearly two dozen other Japanese cities with the prospect of killing 5 million people and injuring another 5 million. This from the country that had ondemned the Soviet Union in 1939 for bombing and machine-gunning ivilians in Finland! (Japan had used chemical weapons in China and Southeast Asia.) (57) ] August 8, 1945 Stalin informs Ambassador Harriman that the Soviet Union has declared war against Japan and Soviet troops are already moving into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, as per the terms of the Yalta agreement. [He had wanted to enter the war earlier, but the Chinese had been stalling since the end of the Potsdam conference--- in response to Harriman's conniving--- in their negotiations about the exact concessions the Russians would receive at war's end.] (58) August 22, 1945 Reinhard Gehlen, in the uniform of a one-star US Army general, and 6 aides disguised as US Army captains are secretly flown to the United States. [Housed in very comfortable accommodations at Fort Hunt, Gehlen made an agreement with the US military. He would head a secret unit in Germany funded and supported by the US to continue gathering intelligence on the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. (Their first year's budget was about $3.4 million.) This "Gehlen Org" would operate under German leadership, giving its intelligence findings to the US, with the understanding that if ever German and American interests should diverge, the Gehlen Org would put the interests of Germany first! In 1955 the Gehlen Org was incorporated into the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) of the New Federal Republic of Germany. There were two sinister outcomes of this pact of the military with Gehlen: The Gehlen Org became
a cover for ODESSA in helping many SS officers escape justice. Among
these were: Klaus Barbie, "the Butcher of Lyon", Franz
Six and EmilAugsburg, who had both led extermination squads that
sought out Jews and communists in eastern Europe and who had been
associated with the Wannsee Institute, the Nazi think tank that
created the formula for the "final solution" of the Jewish
problem.
In a long memorandum Secretary of War Stimson urges HST to share the secrets of the atomic bomb with Russia. "If we fail to approach them now, and merely continue to negotiate with them, having this weapon rather ostentatiously on our hip, their suspicion and their distrust of our motives and purposes will increase . . . The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him." Under-Secretary of State Dean Acheson supports his proposal; the rest of HST's cabinet disagrees. (60) |
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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
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