{"id":16633,"date":"2023-06-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16633"},"modified":"2023-06-27T06:48:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T06:48:30","slug":"remembering-the-epic-triumph-of-the-berlin-airlift-secretary-kendall-airlift-participants-recognize-75th-anniversary-of-greate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=16633","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the epic triumph of the Berlin Airlift: Secretary Kendall, Airlift participants recognize 75th anniversary of greate…"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) — \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seventy-five years ago, midway through a century marred by bloody conflict, the world faced a grave new crisis.<\/p>\n

Alarmed by the efforts of their former allies \u2014 the United States, Great Britain and France \u2014 to support the development of a free economy in a democratic West Germany, on June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded all road, rail and canal traffic of essential food, medicine and coal supplies to the free people of West Berlin and cut off electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation was extremely dangerous,\u201d wrote historian David McCullough. \u201cClearly Stalin was attempting to force the Western Allies to withdraw from the city. Except by air, the Allied sectors were entirely cut off. Nothing could come in our out. Two and a half million people faced starvation. As it was, stocks of food would last no more than a month. Coal supplies would be gone in six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Harry Truman had limited options. With Allied forces vastly outnumbered by Soviet combat forces near Berlin, confronting the blockade with an armed convey didn\u2019t look promising. Yet the thought of capitulation \u2014 giving up Berlin and allowing the Soviets to dominated western Europe \u2014 was a non-starter. \u201cWe stay in Berlin, period,\u201d Truman told his key advisors.<\/p>\n

That left one audacious option. By agreement with the Soviets, the Allies maintained three 20-mile-wide air corridors into Berlin. This provided the opportunity to mount an aerial supply effort. Yet the odds were high. \u201cIt hardly seemed realistic to expect a major city to be supplied entirely by air for any but a very limited time,\u201d McCullough wrote. Indeed, many of Truman\u2019s aides considered an airlift a stopgap measure to buy time for diplomacy. The Air Force\u2019s first Chief of Staff, Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg<\/strong><\/a>, however, insisted the Air Force \u201cgo in wholeheartedly.\u201d He added, \u201cIf we do, Berlin can be supplied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days after the blockade began, on June 26, 1948, the U.S. chose the airlift option. What followed was the infant U.S. Air Force\u2019s first great triumph, the greatest humanitarian airlift in history. It not only kept the citizens of West Berlin from starving, it gave them hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Berlin Airlift established a tremendous legacy for the U.S. Air Force. Our Air Force demonstrated sustained global air mobility in an operation that may have prevented World War III,\u201d remarked Secretary of the Air Force <\/strong>Frank Kendall<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cThe airlift demonstrated how the United States stands by our Allies and partners and serves as an example of America\u2019s values at our best \u2014 our country\u2019s commitment to humanitarian relief and our enduring opposition to authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the operation began, the airlift\u2019s first commander, Brig. Gen. Joseph Smith<\/a>,<\/strong> gave it a unique code name. \u201cHell\u2019s fire \u2014 we\u2019re hauling grub,\u201d Smith told aides. \u201cCall it \u2018Operation Vittles.\u2019\u201d The airlift \u2014 the largest non-combat military operation of the 20th century \u2014 was largely run by the U.S. Air Force through the Military Air Transport Service, the forerunner of the Air Mobility Command<\/strong><\/a>, with a big assist from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. British Allies mounted the complimentary \u201cOperation Plane Fare\u201d with help from Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African air crews and with support from France.<\/p>\n

By the airlift\u2019s end on Sept. 30, 1949, in round-the-clock flights in difficult flying conditions, the U.S. Air Force had delivered 1.8 million tons of supplies and the Royal Air Force over half a million tons. U.S. and British pilots flew 92 million miles on 278,228 flights mostly from four primary air bases in the western sector of Germany (Rhein-Main, Wiesbaden, Celle and Fassberg) into three airfields in Berlin: Tempelhof, where pilots had to skirt over apartment buildings on final approach, Gatow, and Tegel, which was built from scratch, with brick rubble from bombed-out buildings used to build runways.<\/p>\n

The beasts of burden for the American airlift effort were the two-engine C-47 Skytrain and four-engine C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft. U.S. aircrews worked non-stop, and due to hazardous flight operations, including dense fog that blanketed the Berlin area for most of the winter of 1948-1949, 31 American airmen perished. American Airmen also faced harassment by the Russians, including 103 cases where searchlights were used to blind pilots, 173 incidents in which Russian airplanes either buzzed transports or flew too close, and 123 cases in which transports were subjected to flak, air-to-air fire, or ground artillery fire \u2014 but the Airmen persisted.<\/p>\n

When the airlift concluded, Vandenberg said it enabled the fledgling Air Force to demonstrate the ability to make airpower \u201ca true force for peace.\u201d In an editorial, the New York Times wrote, \u201cWe were proud of our Air Force during the war. We\u2019re prouder of it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this 75th anniversary, the number of Berlin airlift veterans has dwindled to a few. Those who can still bear witness about the Air Force\u2019s herculean efforts to save the people of Berlin are still young in spirit. They are honored to share vivid memories of the time when the fate of an entire city, and the course of the Cold War, hung in the balance. Their stories, and those of whose lives were touched by the airlift in other ways, remind us of a time when ordinary men and women, proud to be among the first to wear the Air Force uniform, did extraordinary things.<\/p>\n

The general\u2019s son: Dr. William Tunner, Jr.<\/strong>
Dr. William Tunner, Jr. was a teenager living stateside in late July 1948 when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenburg appointed his father, Brig. General William Tunner<\/a><\/strong>, the architect of the World War II \u201cOver the Hump\u201d supply effort for our Chinese allies, to lead the Berlin Airlift. Dr. Tunner didn\u2019t get to see his father in Wiesbaden until the summer of 1949, when he took advantage of the Air Force offer to dependents of one free round trip a year. \u201cMy father took some well-deserved time off in June of that year,\u201d recalls Dr. Tunner. \u201cFor him, it had been almost a full year of work, seven days a week with long hours every day. His quarters were a small walk-up, cold-water flat on a side street in downtown Wiesbaden, arranged by Gen. [Curtis] LeMay<\/a><\/strong>, at that time [U.S. Air Forces in Europe Commander in Chief].\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Tunner adds, \u201cAside from any \u2018mission\u2019, General Tunner\u2019s concern was always for his men, \u2018the team\u2019 \u2014\u00a0large or small: their housing, families and facilities. You take care of the men; they will take care of the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Tunner also noted how his father was determined to get firsthand knowledge of how the operation was going from his aircrews: \u201cHe put on his flight suit without any insignia on it and hitched a ride to Berlin. While he was in flight, he would ask \u2018What\u2019s going on? \u2018What problems do you have?\u2019 And he would see that they were taken care of. He was a workaholic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Gen. Tunner brought technical innovation and precision to the operation, demonstrating the importance of air mobility, logistics and global reach. Tunner transformed the airlift from a haphazard and dangerous operation into one in which cargo laden aircraft landed in Berlin every three minutes 24 hours a day, in all weather, with unloading times cut from 17 minutes to five, turnaround times cut from 60 minutes to 30 and refueling times at bases in West Germany slashed from 33 minutes to eight. Gen. Tunner insisted that his aircrews always used instrument flight rules to reduce the possibility of mid-air collisions in patchy weather, organized each western Ally-controlled air corridor into an efficient one-way path, and drastically reduced times crews spent on the ground in Berlin. He famously had Red Cross trucks filled with coffee and donuts pull up right next to arriving aircraft, so pilots would not waste time lounging in airfield buildings. In his memoir, “Over the Hump,\u201d Gen. Tunner described his philosophy of operations: \u201cThe actual operation of a successful airlift is about as glamorous as drops of water on stone. There\u2019s no frenzy, no flap, just the inexorable process of getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line to Dr. Tunner was that his father was proud of the group of people that he had working with him. He felt it was they don\u2019t work for him, they worked with him. He was one of them.<\/p>\n

The Candy Bomber\u2019s daughter: Denise Williams<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of all the airmen associated with the Berlin airlift, perhaps the best known and most beloved is Col. Gail Halvorsen. Halvorsen, then a 28-year-old First Lieutenant flying C-54 transport aircraft into Berlin, had a chance meeting with Berlin children outside the gates of Tempelhof Airfield. His hour-long conversation with the children led to his initiating Operation \u201cLittle Vittles,\u201d the dropping of candy and gum with handkerchief parachutes. The operation spurred smiles and hope throughout the beleaguered city.<\/p>\n

While on a rare day off in July 1948, Halvorsen was filming planes landing at Tempelhof and went over to talk to the children he saw outside the airfield\u2019s gates. “I met about thirty children at the barbed wire fence that protected Tempelhof’s huge area,\u201d recalled Halvorsen. \u201cThey were excited and told me that ‘when the weather gets so bad that you can’t land, don’t worry about us. We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.\u201d Halvorsen reached into his pocket and took out two sticks of gum to give to the children. The kids broke them into little pieces and shared them; the ones who did not get any sniffed the wrappers.\u201d\u00a0 Halvorsen, whose Mormon upbringing on the family farm in Garland, Utah, instilled in him a sense of service to others, was especially touched by the children\u2019s selfless and uncomplaining attitude about the little gum he had to share. He told them the following day he would have enough gum for all of them, and he would drop it out of his plane. One child then asked, “How will we know it is your plane?” \u201cWhen I come over the beacon, I\u2019ll wiggle my wings,\u201d Halvorsen responded. \u201cWatch that plane and get ready.\u201d\u00a0 On his next flight, Halvorsen pushed three tiny packs of candy and gum attached to handkerchief \u201cparachutes\u201d out the flare chute behind the pilot\u2019s seat on his C-54 and established his legend as \u201cUncle Wiggly Wings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon, Halvorsen had the support of his fellow pilots, and then his entire squadron and base, upping the tempo of an operation that eventually dropped 23 tons of candy to welcoming arms. When word of \u201cLittle Vittles,\u201d got to the airlift\u2019s commander, Gen. William Tunner gave his full support. \u201cI happily approved all such programs,\u201d Tunner wrote in his memoir \u201cOver the Hump.\u201d \u201cThe people of Berlin were fighting for freedom in their own way, with subsistence on minimum diets in constant cold, and I was much in favor of these little extras on their behalf.\u201d When the candy drops were publicized back in the United States by journalists covering the airlift, \u00a0they became a national sensation. Halvorsen\u2019s unit, the Seventeenth Air Transport Squadron, was daily flooded with candy and handkerchiefs for parachutes by supportive American citizens and candy manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The legacy of the \u2018Candy Bomber\u2019 lives on in the hearts and minds of thousands of people affected by Halvorsen\u2019s generous spirt and is well appreciated by his daughter Denise Williams. In 1970, Williams, then a high school senior, moved to Berlin when her father assumed Commander duties at Templehof Airfield. There she met \u201cmany people who knew about my dad and the airlift and told me many stories.\u201d Her father, she said, \u201cjust told us about meeting the children at the fence. He never liked to make it seem like anything big. I didn\u2019t learn until much later about how it had really changed the course of history. He never said anything like that ever. He always talked about Gen. Tunner. He talked about the maintenance people. He talked about the Berliners. He always talked about the children who were at the fence and how they taught him about freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams observed that her father\u2019s simple act of spending time with those children was distinctive. \u201cEven the fact that he would stop and talk to the children at the fence was mind blowing to the Berliners at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the Berlin kids, Dagmar Snodgrass, wrote a book (\u201cUncle Wiggly Wings: My Love and Admiration for Berlin\u2019s Candy Bomber\u201d) and we\u2019re in close communications. She said at the time, children were not really noticed. The parents were just struggling for survival and the children would listen in on these intense and serious conversations that the parents had, but they were just not really a part of them\u2026She said that what is remarkable about this story that most people don\u2019t pick up is that somebody noticed children and listened to them. Engaged with them. Wanted to talk with them. And wanted to help them. To do something to make them happy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Halvorsen and his wife Alta later spent two years in the country he faced off against during the Berlin Airlift, when they lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1995-1997 while on a mission for the Mormon Church. Williams said he maintained the same open attitude toward the Russian people that he had developed over time toward the German people during the airlift. \u201cHe was a little worried because of his position before, and he did talk about how when he got on his first airplane there, a lot of Russian officers got on in uniform, and he had little prickles on his neck about it\u2026.I think he generally had a feeling of forgiveness for them,similar to the Germans. When he was just starting on the airlift, he had this idea in mind that the Germans were this certain kind of people. And immediately when they started working together that just melted away. He knew they were working for a common cause. A similar thing happened when they went to Russia. He had all these preconceived ideas, and he said, \u2018We met all the individuals one by one, and they were just as good as can be.\u2019<\/p>\n

Col. Halvorsen, who well into his 90s enjoyed reenacting \u201cLittle Vittles\u201d by dropping candy from a plane for Utah schoolkids, passed away in February, 2022, at age 101. One citizen wrote after his death, \u201cStiffening the resolve and cementing the friendship of the people of West Berlin with a couple of dozen handkerchief parachutes and a pocketful of PX candy bars was the greatest diplomatic investment in history. All honor to you on your last and highest flight, Colonel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mechanic\/flight engineer: Sergeant Ralph Dionne<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ralph Dionne, the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association\u2019s current president, joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1946, shortly after graduating from high school in Nashua, N.H. He hoped to be a pilot, but at 5\u2019 3\u201d was deemed an inch too short. He trained as an aircraft mechanic instead and was sent to Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt for the airlift. After three months in this role, he was asked to serve as a flight engineer on C-54 transport aircraft flying into Berlin. He participated in 74 supply missions for a total of 300 flight hours during the airlift. After leaving the service, Dionne achieved his goal of earning a pilot\u2019s certificate and flew for 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started working there, there was very little support for the mechanics,\u201d Dionne recalls. \u201cWe had to use ladders and flashlights at night. I spent a lot of time on night duty. We were working 12 hours on and 12 hours off for quite a while.\u201d He welcomed the opportunity to be a flight engineer. \u201cIt was a serious job, and we knew we were accomplishing big things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dionne observed he rarely flew with the same pilot and crew but never worried \u201cbecause you have such trust in every one of the pilots. They were great.\u201d\u00a0 He said his \u2018hairiest experience\u2019 was landing in a heavy fog. \u201cIt\u2019s traumatic when you see the headlights of the car [on the Autobahn along the perimeter of the airport] under the wing and you say, \u2018That doesn\u2019t belong here,\u2019\u201d he said. By the time Dionne shouted, \u201cHoly cow, go around, go around!\u201d to his pilot, he was told \u201cNegative, we\u2019re on the ground and rolling.\u201d\u00a0 When assessing the airlift\u2019s impact on the young Air Force, Dionne, said, \u201cIt\u2019s great what the Air Force accomplished with the British. My God! This stopped communism in Europe. Stopped it in its tracks. I will always be proud of it, and I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The flight attendant: Maj. Raymond \u201cRay\u201d Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inspired by seeing airplanes flying overhead as a child during World War II, Ray Roberts joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves<\/a> <\/strong>when he was 14 years old. A year later, with his parent\u2019s permission, he started training to be a pilot in the Army Air Corps. At age 16, Roberts flew as a flight attendant on C-54 transport aircraft. \u201cWe were making up to three trips a day into Berlin out of Fassberg, carrying nothing but coal, bags of coal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On one of his missions Roberts experienced the Cold War up close and personal. \u201cAll of a sudden, this Russian fighter pilot came up right up to the side of us, the left side,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we had no guns, and we were in the corridor as he sat there right on the wing for about five to seven minutes. He looked us over very closely and vice-versa. Finally, I waved at him a couple times and he waved back and went away. Yes, I did (give him the middle finger), not being smart enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts, a past Berlin Airlift Veterans Association president, said, \u201cFlying in and out of Berlin was to me an outstanding thing. To go in and return and go back, you get to learn after a while how important it really was. You had to have that coal for pure survival along with the other things which were shipped in from Frankfurt. They [the Germans] treated us wonderful and they still do.\u201d Roberts remained in the Air Force for 20 years and as a pilot flew the F-102 interceptor aircraft and T37 jet trainer. \u201cI loved it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The weather observer: Chief Master Sgt. Emedie \u201cJohn\u201d Mazzella<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Mazzella, son of Italian immigrants, was drafted in late 1946. After two days of service, he was discharged due to the official end of World War II (December 31, 1946),but he then enlisted for 18 months. He volunteered for an Army Air Corps weather observer program and found his calling. \u201cI came out of West Virginia with a high school education,\u201d he said. \u201cI was a C student. But when I became a weather observer, the weather forecasters around me\u2014some were master sergeants, some were lieutenants and captains\u2014they oozed with intelligence. And man did I ever eat it, drink it, slept it. They made me the man I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had about 35 people in the Weather Center, and it was our job to plot weather maps,\u201d Mazzella observed. \u201cThere were times when it was such a precarious weather situation that our forecasters insisted we plot the weather maps every hour, every three hours, for 24 hours a day. The weather patterns in some cases ended up over Iceland and then came crashing down on England, over France and Germany. We relied a lot on pilot reports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Mazzella, still an active ballroom dancer at age 97, keeps a pocket card in his wallet with facts and figures about the Berlin Airlift to tell folks how important it was that we \u201ckept our mission to keep two million Germans from starving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German boy turned U.S. Air Force pilot: Col. Wolfgang Samuel<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By age 13, Wolfgang Samuel had already experienced living in Berlin under heavy bombing by the U.S. 8th Air Force<\/strong><\/a> and British Royal Air Force during World War II and escaping to the west from the Russian zone of occupation following the war. By 1948, he was living in a displaced persons camp with no sanitation or water next to Fassberg Air Base with his mother Hedy and sister Ingrid. His incredible journey to becoming a decorated U.S. Air Force pilot was about to begin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days, I didn\u2019t have any heroes,\u201d Samuel said. \u201cBut when a C-54 crashed near our camp, a couple days later I went out there. It was a sad experience. I didn\u2019t understand these Americans. Three years earlier in 1945 they bombed me when I was in Berlin, and now they were dying to save the city of Berlin. I very much understood what was being done in terms of delivering food and coal to the people of Berlin. And so, these Berlin airlift flyers really became my heroes. I wanted to be like them. Of course, I was a refugee. I knew that would never happen. Well, you can never anticipate what fate has in store for you. I ended up in the United States at age 16 [after his mother married an American Airman and immigrated]. I couldn\u2019t speak a word of English and had maybe an eighth-grade education. Eleven years later I was conducting spying flights against the Soviet Union. Only in America!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Samuel enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and over a 30-year career, helped support U-2<\/strong><\/a> reconnaissance flights during the Cuban Missile crisis, conducted intelligence gathering missions against the Soviets over the Barents and Baltic seas and received three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his gallantry in an EB-66 electronic warfare aircraft escorting strike forces over North Vietnam. \u201cI was obviously an immigrant,\u201d Samuel said. \u201cI wanted to do more than just make money. I wanted to serve my country which had been very good to me. So those 30 years of service, including four years of enlisted service, I gladly gave.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reflecting on the airlift\u2019s legacy, Samuel states, \u201cI think it\u2019s a very understated event, when in fact it was probably the most important confrontation between East and West. As a result of the Berlin Airlift, these flyers didn\u2019t just save the city of Berlin; their actions \u00a0resulted in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization<\/a><\/strong> and put a stop to further Soviet expansion. Too few Americans know about this, but that\u2019s the legacy of those flyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The telephone\/teletype operator: Staff Sgt. Bruce Albertson<\/strong>
In his high school junior year in Brewton, Alabama, Bruce Albertson interviewed local businessmen and determined job opportunities in the community were not good. He made a decision. \u201cI bugged my mother day and night until she signed the consent form for me to go into the military at age 17,\u201d he said. Albertson joined the Air Force and was stationed with the Airways and Air Communications Squadron, working in communications handling teletype, facsimile and telephone operations at Fassberg and Rein-Main air bases. His days were long. \u201cAs the old saying goes, the day is done when the job is done,\u201d he said. \u201cI enjoyed my time in the military. I never had a bad assignment.\u201d Albertson added, \u201cIt was the greatest humanitarian action taken by anybody anywhere. If we hadn\u2019t stepped up with the Berlin Airlift and fed the people of Berlin and stood up against the Russians, the map of Europe would be completely different today. Like they say, \u2018If you get in trouble, holler. Uncle Sam will come and help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chaplain\u2019s assistant: Staff Sgt. Michael Doyle<\/strong>
Michael Doyle grew up in the hardscrabble Pennsylvania coal mining town of Mahonoy. With his parents supporting his desire not to end up working in the mines like his father, the day Doyle graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force. Doyle volunteered for what he thought would be six months duty in Germany, which turned into five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an assistant to the Catholic priest and a Protestant chaplain,\u201d said Doyle, who served at Erding Air Base near Munich. \u201cAnd we also had the Rabbi who was chaplain up in Wiesbaden come down and see us all the time. It was all faiths.\u201d One of his tasks, Doyle recalls, was dealing with mothers who would write complaining their sons weren\u2019t writing them letters. \u201cSo, I would call the kids in and say, \u2018Hey, you better write to your mom!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle marveled at the busy pace of activity at Erding, prompted by the Air Base receiving transport aircraft to maintain the airlift. \u201cThere was never a day that didn\u2019t go by that people came in from all over the world, because we needed the planes, and they\u2019d send these big cargo planes from all over\u2014Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey\u2026and a lot of them had to come to our base because there was only so much maintenance they could do up at Wiesbaden or Frankfurt,\u201d Doyle said. \u201cOur crew chiefs were working day and night. Everybody just assumed that\u2019s what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, when you call Michael Doyle, his phone rings to the tune of the Air Force song,nd he still brims with pride about his time in Germany. \u201cI loved the people over there,\u201d he said. \u201cThey show their thankfulness and gratitude for our doing what we did. And they knew the Americans were there to stay. We flew food to them, flying in there day and night, even in the fog. I remember the statement \u2018you can\u2019t see your hand in front of your face,\u2019 it was that bad. But our pilots never gave up. I will truly go to my grave thinking we really stopped World War III from happening. America stuck it out. I\u2019m one proud SOB. I really, truly mean that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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U.S. Air Force Logo<\/title><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) — \u00a0 Seventy-five years ago, midway through a century marred by bloody conflict, the world faced a grave new crisis. Alarmed by the efforts of their former allies \u2014 the United States, Great Britain and France \u2014 to support the development of a free economy in a democratic West Germany, on June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16636,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions\/16636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}