Experiment in Occupation: Witness to the Turnabout ; Anti-Nazi War to Cold, War 1944-1946

246 Pages·2004·3.46 MB·English

by  Arthur David Kahn

EXPERIMENT IN OCCUPATION
Image not available
Experiment in
O C C U PAT I O N
WITNESS TO THE TURNABOUT
Anti-Nazi War to Cold War, 1944–1946
ARTHUR D. KAHN
the pennsylvania state university press university park, pennsylvania
(cid:1)
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Kahn,ArthurDavid.
Experimentinoccupation:
witnesstotheturnabout,
anti-NaziwartoColdWar,1944–1946/
ArthurD.Kahn.
p. cm.
ISBN0–271–02314–7(cloth:alk.paper)
1. Germany—History—1945–1955.
2. WorldWar,1939–1945—Personalnarratives,
American.
3. Kahn,ArthurDavid.
4. ColdWar.
5. Militarygovernment—Germany.
I.Title.
D842.K252003
943.087’4—dc22
2003022421
Copyright2004thepennsylvaniastateuniversity
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
PublishedbyThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,
UniversityPark,PA16802-1003
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPressisamemberofthe
AssociationofAmericanUniversityPresses.
ItisthepolicyofThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPresstouse
acid-freepaper.Publicationsonuncoatedstocksatisfythemini-
mum requirements of American National Standard for
InformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Material,ANSIZ39.481992.
WewillnotacceptaHitler-dominatedworld.Andwewillnotacceptaworld,like
the postwar world of the 1920’s, in which the seeds of Hitlerism can again be
plantedandallowedtogrow.
—franklin delano roosevelt
fromworldwideradioaddress,27May1941
We shall not be able to claim that we have gained total victory in this war if any
vestigeoffascisminanyofitsmalignantformsispermittedtosurviveanywherein
theworld.
—frommessagetoCongress,14September1943
... themereconquestof ourenemyisnot enough.Wemustgo ontodo all inour
powertoconquerthedoubtsandthefears,theignoranceandthegreed,whichmade
thishorrorpossible.
—fromtheJeffersonDayaddresswrittenthenightbeforehedied

Contents
Preface ix
ListofAbbreviations xiii
Introduction:AnOSSRecruitDespiteHimself xv
part i: why we fight!
1 SovietPartisansandSovietSuspicions summer 1944 3
2 ‘‘WeDoNotCallUpontheGermanstoRevolt’’ fall 1944 13
3 TheCapture-LiberationofMetz 21
4 TheBattleoftheBulge winter 1944–1945 27
5 Mainz:InvestigatingaPre–VEDayMilitaryGovernment spring 1945 35
6 InterrogatingVictimsofNazismandNazis 51
7 Wuerzburg:AnotherMilitaryGovernmentExperience 59
8 ‘‘WhatWeRussiansLiketoConsiderasaTypicalAmerican’’ 69
part ii: policy clash in military government
9 ‘‘CrackPatton’sMilitaryGovernmentWideOpen!’’ summer 1945 79
10 ‘‘IfOnlyYouAmericansWeren’tHere...!’’ 91
11 Patton’sLastStand 107
12 Elections,theAmericanCure-All fall 1945 113
13 RehearsalforMcCarthyism 119
part iii: triumph of the cold warriors
14 AMilitaryGovernmentinCrisis winter 1945–1946 131
15 Elections:TheAmericanPanaceaII 141
16 Democracy,AmericanZoneStyle! 149
17 SummingUpandtheCollectiveGuiltIssue spring 1946 155
18 DemoralizedGIs 161
Epilogue:1946–1947 171
Appendices 183
Index 217

Preface
in june 1946,littlemorethanayearafterVEDay,IreturnedtotheUnited
States from Germany, bringing with me hundreds of pages of documents
accumulated during two years of service initially as an Office of Strategic
Services(OSS)operativeattachedtopsychologicalwarfareunits andfinally
asChiefEditorofIntelligencefortheInformationControlDivision(ICD)
of the Office of Military Government—U.S. (OMGUS). At home I re-
coupedlettersIhadmailedregularlytomymotherandtoafriend.1Iimme-
diately set to work on a book entitled Betrayal: The American Occupation of
Germany. Published in 1949, Betrayal appeared among a spate of books
by disillusioned mid-level Military Government (MG) officials challeng-
ing the conventional wisdom both about the nature of the American occu-
pation of Germany and about the sources of the intensifying conflict with
theSovietUnion.2
PublicationofsuchbooksceasedwiththeonsetofMcCarthyismandthe
tensions of the Cold War, and during the next several decades the insights
inthese bookswereforgottenor ignored.Withthefiftieth anniversariesof
Pearl Harbor and of VE Day, Americans experienced a revived interest in
theexploitsofawartimegenerationdenominatedbyatelevisionanchorman
‘‘theGreatestGeneration.’’Missingfromthenewfloodofbooks,television
programs, and films, however, was any attempt at a retrieval of the buried
history recounted in the books by disillusioned MG officials a half-century
earlier.
RepublicationofBetrayal,Idetermined,wasnotappropriate.Inthefirst
place, writing back in 1946, I did not, could not, foresee the abandonment
of the wartime alliance with the Soviet Union and the outbreak of a Cold
Warthatwouldbringwithitunrelentingtensionsininternationalrelations
forahalf-century.NordidIinBetrayalexploitthewealthofmaterialinthe
documentsIbroughthomeexposingwhathadbeenuniqueinmyvariedwar
and postwar experiences: familiarity with German politics at the local level
1.Citedwithoutdistinctionas‘‘lettershome.’’
2.Betrayal(NewYork:IndependencePublishers,1949)wasdirectedtoapopularreadership,andI
madenoattempttoprovideacomprehensiveapparatus;asaresultmanyexcerptsfromBetrayal,which,
indeed,formthebasisforthefinalchapterandtheepilogueofthisbook,lackdocumentation.Inaddition,
theintelligencereportsuponwhichasubstantialportionofthetextweredevelopedastacticaldocuments
oftenassembledinhasteandwithnoconcernforfuturehistorians’exigencies.Firstnamesofindividuals
wereonlyrarelyincludedinthesereports,andmostsuchfirstnamesareirretrievableatalapseofsixty
years.