Blog Mirror: What do the children of dictatorships know about democracy?

Hopefully something we'll avoid finding out first hand:

What do the children of dictatorships know about democracy?

Tuesday, September 18, 1973. The United Nations and the two Germanys.

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were admitted to the United Nations.

King Hussein issued a general amnesty for Palestinian terrorists held by Jordan.

Friday, September 10, 1943. Betrayal.

Prime Minister Badoglio and King Victor Emanuell III made their way through German lines to escape to Allied held Italy.

Twenty-two Italian ships arrived at Malta.

The Vatican closed the doors of St. Peter's Basilica and blocked the Sant'Anna Gate at noon to give sanctuary to Italians who had fled there.

The Berliner resistance movement the Solf Circle was betrayed by an uncover Gestapo agent, Dr. Paul Reckzeh, following a tea party attended by the group.  Reckzeh was a Swiss physician.  The groups downfall would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Abwehr as the group had connections with it.

Most of the members of the group, although not all of it, would later be executed.  Reckzeh was arrested by he Soviets and held after the war until tried by them in 1950.  He was released in 1952 and lived in East Germany, where he betrayed his daughter Barbara to the East German authorities when she tried to flee to the West. He died in 1996 in Hamburg, having spent most of his adult life in Germany and having had a role in two hideous acts for two hideous regimes.

P-39 Airacobra  at Berry Field, Tennessee, September 10, 1943.

Friday, May 11, 1973. Charges dropped, sovereignty recognized.

Espionage charges against Daniel Ellsberg were dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Ellsberg is still alive, but suffering terminal pancreatic cancer.  He's 92 years old.

The Federal Republic of Germany ratified the Grundiagenvertrag treat with the German Democratic Republic, in which both countries recognized the sovereignty of the other.  The Bundestag also voted to join the United Nations, accepting the condition that East Germany also be allowed to join.

Thursday, February 21, 1963. Training SEALs.

US Navy Seals in training in the Virgin Islands, February 21, 1963.  Note the original verion of the M16 in use here, before it had been actually adopted as a theater rifle by the U.S.

I don't normally put posts from 60 years ago, but as I don't anticipate being around when these photos hit the 75 or 80 year mark, I thought I'd go ahead and post them.

As we have these up, we'll note a few things about the day.

The Telstar 1, the first privately funded satellite, became the first satellite destroyed by radiation.  The U.S. had conducted a high altitude nuclear test the day prior.

Oops.

The satellite had inspired a hit instrumental by the Tornados.

The Soviet Communist Party wrote the Chinese one, proposing a meeting in hopes of clearing up differences between the two bodies of thuggery.

In East Berlin, the Communist government yielded in the face of a student protest which simply assigned occupations to graduating students, rather than allow them to pick their own paths, prior to being able to attend university. The occupations that had been chosen were all manual labor jobs.

Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago received a shipment of surplus Mannlicher-Carcano rifles.  One of them would later be purchased by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Friday, January 5, 1973. Airport Screening makes its US debut.

Mandatory screening of airline passengers went into effect in the United States.

Salt Lake City Airport.

The Canadian Parliament unanimously condemned the 1972 "Christmas" bombing of North Vietnam by the United States.  This infuriated President Nixon, who was otherwise busy with an Executive Order designed to reorganize the Federal Government and cut the number of White House staff, 4,000, in half.

Mali and Niger broke diplomatic relations with Israel and the Netherlands recognized German Democratic Republic, i.e., East Germany.

The Republic of Ireland amended its constitution removing the "special position" of the Catholic Church, making reference to other religions present in Ireland, and reducing the voting age from 21 to 18.  The special position had been resisted by the Catholic Church at the onset of its inclusion but included due to the insistence and influence of Éamon de Valera.

Joe Biden was sworn in as Senator from Delaware at a chapel at the Wilmington, Delaware hospital where one of his sons was hospitalized following a December 18 accident that killed Biden's first wife and his daughter.

Aerosmith released its first album, which was called Aerosmith.  On the same day, Bruce Springsteen released his famous debut studio album, Greetings from Ashbury Park, N.J.  Both albums showed an evolution away from the Rock & Roll of the 1960s.

Thursday, December 21, 1972. Things German.

Flag of the former East Germany, the German Democratic Republic.

The Gurndlagenvertrag between the two Germany's was entered into, paving the way for wider recognition of both states by other nations.  

Flat of the Federal Republic of Germany.

It provided:

The High Contracting Parties,

Conscious of their responsibility for the preservation of peace,

Anxious to render a contribution to détente and security in Europe.

Aware that the inviolability of frontiers and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all States in Europe within their present frontiers are a basic condition for peace,

Recognizing that therefore the two German States have to refrain from the threat or use of force in their relations,

Proceeding from the historical facts and without prejudice to the different view of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on fundamental questions, including the national question,

Desirous to create the conditions for cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic for the benefit of the people in the two German States,

Have agreed as follows:

Article 1

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic shall develop normal, good-neighbourly relations with each other on the basis of equal rights

Article 2

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic will be guided by the aims and principles laid down in the United Nations Charter, especially those of the sovereign equality of all States, respect for their independence, autonomy and territorial integrity, the right of self-determination, the protection of human rights, and non-discrimination.

Article 3

In conformity with the United Nations Charter, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic shall settle any disputes between them exclusively by peaceful means and refrain from the threat or use of force.

They reaffirm the inviolability now and in the future of the frontier existing between them and undertake fully to respect each other's territorial integrity.

Article 4

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic proceed on the assumption that neither of the two States can represent the other in the international sphere or act on its behalf.

Article 5

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic shall promote peaceful relations between the European States and contribute to security and cooperation in Europe.

They shall support efforts to reduce forces and arms in Europe without allowing disadvantages to arise for the security of those concerned.

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic shall support, with the aim of general and complete disarmament under effective international control, efforts serving international security to achieve armaments limitation and disarmament, especially with regard to nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

Article 6

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic proceed on the principle that the sovereign jurisdiction of each of the two States is confined to its own territory. They respect each other's independence and autonomy in their internal and external affairs.

Article 7

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic declare their readiness to regulate practical and humanitarian questions in the process of the normalization of their relations. They shall conclude agreements with a view to developing and promoting on the basis of the present Treaty and for their mutual benefit cooperation in the fields of economics, science and technology, transport, judicial relations, posts and telecommunications, health, culture, sport, environmental protection, and in other fields. The details have been agreed in the Supplementary Protocol.

Article 8

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic shall exchange Permanent Missions. They shall be established at the respective Government's seat.

Practical questions relating to the establishment of the Missions shall be dealt with separately.

Article 9

The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic agree that the present Treaty shall not affect the bilateral and multilateral international treaties and agreements already concluded by them or relating to them.

[ . . . ]

The Federal Republic of Germany states for the record:

"Questions of national citizenship [Staatsangehörigkeitsfragen] are not regulated by the Treaty."

The German Democratic Republic states for the record:

"The German Democratic Republic proceeds from the assumption that the Treaty will facilitate a regulation of questions of national citizenship [Staatsangehörigkeitsfragen]."

[ . . . ]

The Federal Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the Federal Chancellor

Bonn, December 21, 1972

To the

State Secretary of the Council of Ministers

of the German Democratic Republic

Dr. Michael Kohl

Berlin

Dear Herr Kohl,

In connection with today's signing of the Treaty concerning the Basis of Relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has the honor to state that this Treaty does not conflict with the political aim of the Federal Republic of Germany to work for a state of peace in Europe in which the German nation will regain its unity through free self-determination.

Very respectfully yours,

Bahr

English translation: The Bulletin, vol. 20, n. 38. Published by the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government (Bundespresseamt), Bonn. © Press and Information Office of the Federal Government (Bundespresseamt).  Posted here for commentary.

The West Germans always hoped for reunification of the country, and the treaty was seen as advancing that goal.  In that, they proved to be correct.

Oddly enough, Paul Hausser, General of the Waffen SS, died on this day, perhaps putting some sort of weird point to events.  He was 92 years old.

Hausser has served in the Imperial German Army during World War One, the Reichswehr after that, retiring in 1932 and joined the SS in 1934.  During the Nuernberg trials he claimed that the Waffen SS was purely military, and he was one of the founders of the myth that the Waffen SS were soldiers like any others.  He worked for the U.S. Army Historical Division after the war, at first as a POW and then later an employee.  In 1950, he was active in the Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS ('Mutual aid association of former Waffen-SS members') which sought to rehabilitate the reputation of the Waffen SS.

Emblem of the Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS.

The reality of things, of course, is not only was the Waffen SS bad, but frankly the Heer, the German Army, was too.

The existence of HIAG cannot help but bring about a recollection of Frederick Forsyth's novel, The ODESSA Files, which dealt with an organization termed Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen (Organization of Former SS Members) which, in the novel, was more sinister, seeking to help former members of the SS escape detection in the post-war world.  That term dates, surprisingly enough, to 1946, at which time American intelligence was still concerned about German Werewolves, an attempt by the Nazis to keep on keeping on through a guerilla organization which in fact fell flat.  This morphed into an American belief of a post-war German organization of the type noted, although most historians have found that it simply didn't exist, although smaller Nazi based organizations designed to hide and aid former Nazis did.  Having said that, Simon Wiesenthal, who cannot be discounted, asserted that ODESSA was real.  It is known that the Austrian government investigated the existence of ODESSA prior to Wiesenthal going public with his views.

Movies In History: Kleo

Kleo is a new, just released, German Netflix series.  I literally stumbled on it, as I haven't watched Netflix for a while, but I was temporarily idled due to medical fun and games and there was literally nothing worth watching on regular television.  I started watching it as it the summation of it on Netflix suggested it'd be the sort of movie I might like.  I like spy films and mysteries, and I'm not wholly adverse to shoot 'em ups, even when, or perhaps particularly when, they're superficial.

Well, it exceeded my expectation.

Set in the 1980s, the eight part series is frankly very difficult to describe.  It follows the story of East German female Stasi (East German state police) assassin Kleo Straub as she goes from being an "unofficial agent" of the Stasi whose job is killing targets they designate, to being set up and imprisoned, to being released in 1989 as East Germany begins to collapse, at which time she's dedicated to finding those who wrongly accused her and killing them.

And that's all just in the first episode.

Added to that, we have a failed West German policeman who was present in The Big Eden, a nightclub, the night that Kleo performs her last killing for the DDR, who can never get quite over it and who, upon Kleo's release, realizes that she's the woman he identified as the killer the night of the murder.

All of that doesn't do it justice, however.

The film features far more twists and turns than most spy movies, and makes the tricky loyalties in the John Wick films look like child's play. Kleo, the assassin herself, played by Jella Haase, is impossible not to like, even though she's clearly partially unhinged and trying to get through life with a badly damaged soul.  Sven Petzold, the detective, is dogged in his pursuit, but he's also hapless and somewhat incompetent in his job.  Indeed, as an example, it's obvious about halfway through the film that Sven at first deeply likes Kleo and then is falling in love with her even though she's so messed up that he has to at one point make her promise to quit killing people, which she does simply because he requests it, not because she has any real concept of right and wrong beyond being a dedicated Communist.

None of this, however, comes close to actually describing the plot.

In terms of its history, which is why we review certain films here, this film does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of the times in Germany and Europe.  The East Germans, whom in this film are mostly those associated with the Communist government, can hardly gasp what is happening to them as their government collapses.  As many of them are its agents, they're dedicated to an institution that's collapsing for the most part, while some of them are rapidly moving on into capitalism.  The West Germans are pretty willing to take advantage of the situation.  More than that, however, West Germany is shown to have become a multicultural post Volk society, whereas East Germany has not, something even demonstrated by the actors chosen in the film.  All of the East German characters are figures that we'd recognize from classic films involving the Germans of World War Two, even though that is not what they are portraying. They're all very German (although some of the actors actually are not).  The West Germans, however, appear not only more modern and 1980s "cool", but many of them are clearly not ethnically German, that most obviously being the case for West German intelligence agent Min Sun, who is played by Chinese-born, but German raised, Yun Huang.

Backgrounds are correct for the period, including the funky German techno music that plays a role in the series.  Clothing is as well, with that also providing a difference between the East and the West.  Firearm wise the maker was careful to equip the East Germans with Soviet type handguns, whereas the West Germans carry the iconic German PPK.

The film includes reference to actual characters from the period, and not just in the greater sense of being background for the times.  The head of the East German police is a character in the film and not fictionalized as to name, for instance.  Margot Honecker, Erich Honecker's third wife, shows up as a character.  These insertions are done so well, that offhand references to fictional events become difficult to distinguish from ones that didn't happen, as in references to the "woman who attempted to kill Reagan" and the details of that event, which never occurred.

This being a German movie, it should be noted that there is seemingly an obligation that Haase be seen topless at some point.  In this case, the nudity is basically limited to a single scene, but it's quite graphic.  There must be a clause in the contracts for German actresses that they have to appear nude at some point in a film.

Anyhow, It's very well done and with watching.

As a note, this is a German language movie, but it has well done English subtitles.  An option to listen to it with British English dubbing is available, but I don't care for that much personally.  The subtitles are very close translations of the German, with departures due to German idioms that don't granslate perfectly.

Random Geopolitical Observations.

1.  When a major power suggest to opposition forces in another country that they ought to engage in an uprising, it does them a disservice unless they're going to actually support the uprising.

This was the lesson of the Hungarian Revolution of 1958, and it's the lesson of Venezuela right now.

Prior to the 58 Hungarian uprising, we suggested that if an Eastern Bloc nation tried to throw off the Soviet shackles, we'd be there.

We weren't.

And we just suggested to the opposition in Venezuela that it ought to overthrow the strongman in power.

They tried, and we didn't do anything.

Maybe we should have done anything in Venezuela, and no doubt we couldn't do anything in Hungary. That's not the point.

The point is, that by acting like we'd show up, we made the opposition show up, and that does them no favors if they can't prevail.

2.  Not everything is the economy.

Over the weekend North Korea launched missiles into the sea east of the country.  This raises serious concerns over North Korea's willingness to bargain with us to denuclearize the peninsula.  President Trump, however, issued a statement that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, will come to the table as he understands the "great economic potential" that the country has that could be developed if they'd treat with us.

What makes us think that?

Societies that have fairly open economies or develop them think that way, but lots of countries don't. And no country full thinks that way.  Kim Jong Un surely knows that the most effective way of modernizing his country's economy would be to reunite the North with the South in a democratic government, which would effectively be opening the border and asking to come into the Republic of Korea, much like the DDR did with the BDR (East and West Germany) when communism collapsed there.

But it's not like Eric Honaker decided that was a nifty idea.

That will probably occur at some point, but will Kim Jong Un take North Korea there?  It seems unlikely.

3.  It's good to finish up on existing wars before getting into others.

Right now the U.S. Navy is demonstrating in the Indian Ocean in a move directed at Iran.

I'll be frank that I don't completely follow our current policy on Iran, but get it that the country isn't our friend and it sponsors groups we really don't like.

But we still have troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.  Now, all of those struggles do involve Iran in one way or another, and maybe that plays into this.  But at a time at which it seems like we'd like out of all of those places, is it really well thought out to be looking like we're willing to take on Iran?  I'm sure we could, but do we really want to do that?

The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact Invade Czechoslovakia. August 20, 1968.

Czechs with their flag walking past a burning Warsaw Pact tank. 

On this day in 1968 the Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia.

The action commenced very late in the day, at 11:00 p.m. to be precise, and featured an armored invasion by forces from the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary.  The total combined Warsaw Pact forces totaled 500,000 troops, the same number of men that the United States committed to Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War.  It was not a small operation.

The Czechs had not prepared for the invasion and the government quickly called on its citizenry to not resist, a call that wasn't fully headed.  In part the Czechs were of the view that resistance was futile, which explains a lack of preparation, but they had also assumed that they would not be invaded by fellow Communist countries, a naive assumption.  Having said that, Romania, Yugoslavia an Albania refused to participate.  Indeed, the invasion was denounced by Romania on the day it occurred and Albania reacted by withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact.