For 105 days, the small and ill-equipped Finnish army held off the full might of the Soviet Union.  Outnumbered in men, tanks, artillery and aircraft, the Finns were able to cut off, surround and literally slaughter several Soviet offensive thrusts in the northern part of their country.  Striking silently on their skis, the Soviets who were confined to the few roads had little opportunity to bring their superior firepower to bear.  In the end, entire columns of Soviets along with their trucks and tanks, were found literally frozen to death.  With each new defeat however, new masses of men and materials were thrown into the fight.

It was an amazing fight for a country that had gained its own freedom from the Czar only some twenty years before, especially as the nation had fought a civil war between the Whites and the Reds which left the nation divided.  Suddenly, the nation had to fully unite or simply be overrun.  Fortunately, they found a strong if controversial leader in Baron Carl Gustav Mannerheim.  Mannerheim had been instrumental in defeating the Finnish red forces but was an experienced soldier.  He wisely used his forces and was able to switch his forces to key points to blunt the Soviet attacks.

For the most part, Finland fought alone.  Volunteers were being raised in Sweden and Norway, despite the potential problems Sweden could have with the Soviet Union.  France made moves to put together a professional force to help and funds were raised in the U.K., but in the end, there was little real help, especially considering that only a couple of previous months, the Germans had invaded Poland and the Baltic states were swallowed by the Soviet Union. 

Numbers finally told as the Soviets concentrated their forces in the Southern part of Finland were the ports and roads were more friendly to the Soviets level of expertise.  Although the exact numbers will never be known, it appears that the Soviets lost some 400,000 killed, wounded, and permanently crippled, while Finnish losses were around 70,000.

With the end of the war, the Finns had to give up certain territories which Stalin felt was key to the protection of Leningrad as well as some ports and fortifications.  When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Finns joined the Germans but only advanced as far as their old borders.

The war showed Stalin that his military suffered poor logistics, tactics, misapplication of force and a ruined officer corps.  Of course, Stalin was the one who ruined his office corps with his purges of the military (some 40,000 officers were killed, arrested, or put into camps).  Stalin quickly tried to reorganize his army and even release numerous officers from the camps.  Those officers were more forward thinking that Stalin’s clique and many were key in successful actions later against the Germans.

Can one draw a parallel between that war and Putin’s current problems in the Ukraine?  One of the largest differences is the terrible corruption which exists in Putin’s time as opposed to Stalin’s army.  Stalin’s army was not as corrupt, it merely suffered from the paranoia of its commander, Stalin, and the commissar system of command.  Another difference is that Finland never received the level of support from other nations.  In many cases, the only way for the Finns to survive was to turn around captured Soviet tanks and artillery as opposed to the billions of dollars which has been showered on the Ukraine (although at a pace that negates some of its usefulness). In the end, it is a story as old as man; beware they who have that lean and hungry look.

As we are growing up, we have a tendency to either ignore or tune out the stories and experiences of our parents.  We think their ideas are so old fashioned, or that their experiences do not impact on our lives, little realizing that their stories and memories are in reality subtle learning tools for us to lead better lives.  Later, when they are old and we have families and real lives of our own, we sometimes ask them about some memory or story they mentioned years ago, but with failing memories or sadness caused by those stories, they may be reluctant to dredge them up.  We then are sad and realize that experiences in their lives will be lost forever and that someday, we shall be like them, trying to remember the good and trying to keep their sorrows and mistakes buried.

This book was written by a woman whose father (Waclaw=Walter) was 19 when Poland was invaded by the Nazis and Communists.  Barely two weeks into cadet school, he was captured by the Soviets and like 3,000,000 other Poles, was shipped off to a gulag camp in Siberia.  Along the way, tens of thousands died from malnutrition, disease, beatings or simply giving up.  But he was lucky, for unlike tens of thousands of Polish officers, he was executed in the forests of Katyn, hands tied by a bullet to the back of the head and thrown into mass graves (over 10,000 were executed by two executioners!).

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Soviets offered to release some of the Poles so they could fight for Stalin against the invaders.  Another young man, standing next to Irena’s father, after surviving years of cold, hard labor and beatings said that he would not fight for Stalin and was immediately executed with a shot to the head, splattering brains and blood on everyone around.

Finding his way to Iran over several months (no money or food was provided to the men on their journey), he was nursed back to health by the British army and enlisted in the Polish Corps which was to fight in Italy.  He fought in the battles at Monte Cassino, Ancona and Bologna and at the wars end managed to emigrate to England as going back to Poland would have been a sure way to be executed as a spy.

He was not able until about 1966, and still at risk, to go back to Poland for a visit, to see his mother (his father had died), the girl he had dreamed of throughout the war, to see the farm on which he had grown up on, etc.  All the while, despite the continued nightmares of the gulag experiences, he never really spoke of his earlier life and it was only when Irena was a grown woman did you begin to gradually pull the story of his life from him, bit by bit.

This little book is a sobering look at the mostly unknown brutality that millions endured at the hands of the Soviet Union as they attempted to destroy the will of a nation instill a system of government in which the individuals only purpose was to serve the all powerful state.  The idealism of the early 1920’s had been long crushed by the slaughter of the kulaks, the collectivization of the farms and the bloody purges of the Party and military.  Poland, like the other countries of Eastern Europe were given to the Soviets by Churchill and Roosevelt (one did it from practicality, one from personal indifference).

If nothing else, after reading this book, you may sit down with your parents and gently listen to some of the stories and lessons their offered when they went in one ear and out the other during your youth.

French President Charles de Gaulle once said, “The State is a harsh mistress”.  He may have said that thinking about the French members of the long-range recon groups who were left behind to wither and die as France left Viet Nam.  Living with the locals, fighting without resupply against the Viet Minh who were relentless in hunting them down, they pleas and curses asking for support finally tapered off as the last were killed in unknown and unremembered hills and valleys.

So, it was after the Allied victory of World War II.  Former enemies, including known war criminals were suddenly provided shelter, jobs, and safety in many of the victorious nations.  The United States, Canada, France, the Soviet Union all began to recruit German scientists as the new lines of the Cold War were being drawn.  Much of the recruiting was done secretly in the United States by military officers who were concerned that the new missile technology and secrets of biological warfare could not be left to the Soviets who, aside from plundering a conquered Germany, was abducting every scientist they could find. 

In Operation Paperclip, Jacobsen provides a detailed history of the various forces who struggled with the physical and moral choices which had to be faced.  There were those who believed that having defeated the Nazi war machine, that enlisting the scientists who worked on missiles, nerve/poison gasses and who had in fact committed war crimes was beyond the pale for the U.S.  Others viewed the victorious Soviet Union as the next great enemy, once which had shown that the difference between them and Nazi Germany was at best, minimal.  It was a time of moral questioning and a time of future planning.

Infighting between the CIA, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, State Department, and the FBI continued for years with the CIA showing its ability to operate outside of normal channels and continue to pursue its own policies. Some of the arguments against the use of German scientist were moral, as is today arguments of using medical results from the doctors at the concentration camps.  Some were political as a growing Germany resented their best scientist being employed by other nations.  In the end, thanks to the space race, reality won the day as the competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union became hardened.

This is not only a history, but also a morality play, one which could have been used when ethics classes were not so political.  It is well written, and it would be easy to understand how the reader could have a difficult time balancing the morality of the program vs. the fears and beliefs of those years.  Indeed, the State is a harsh mistress.

Following on the publication of the prize-winning history, Mao’s Great Famine, Dr. Dikotter’s history of the first twelve years of the seizure of China by the Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong is the tale of brutality, cruelty, starvation, beatings, executions not of thousands, not of hundreds of thousands, but of millions.  The dream with the ending of WWII for the average Chinese, be they in the cities or as most lived, in the countryside of some sort of return to normality was not to be, and that average Chinese was the one who paid the price for the failure of that dream.

There can be no doubt that the regime of the Nationalist under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the various warlords was vicious, cruel, and corrupt.  Young men were dragooned, chained together, and marched off to fill the armies of both the government and the warlords.  Taxes were high and corruption existed at every level.  The occupation and war forced on China by the Empire of Japan extended and multiplied the suffering of the Chinese people.  The promises and strict discipline of the Communist forces under Mao created an image of stability and hope for the masses. Once in power however, the Communist regime exhibited every fault and cruelty that each Communist regime, be it the Soviet Union, Cuba, Albania, etc., has practiced since 1917.

Once in power, Mao mirrored the same tactics of the Soviet seizure of power; one by one, the landlords, the richer peasants, the small shop owners, the larger company owners and directors, the intellectuals, the students, and so forth were targeted for separation from the mainstream of society and persecuted.  Who did the persecuting?  Each of the other targeted groups who hoped that by joining the mob punishing the targeted group de jour that they would not be the next target, or if they were, that their willingness to show their zeal in supporting the purges would somehow buy them either a period of grace or a lesser punishment.  They found however, that there would be no mercy coming from Mao and his circle as they moved to create a “new man” in their idealized image.

Famines, floods, plagues and more were forced upon China not by nature, but by the ignorance and grandiose schemes of the ruling elite, all of whom were controlled by Mao.  Although Mao faced an awkward period after Khrushchev’s four hour “secret” speech against Stalin, he managed to maneuver himself and fool his potential rivals into giving him more power so that he could launch the infamous Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom campaign which led once again to a purge and murderous slaughter of those Mao felt could be against him.

A read of this book can be exhausting due to the excellent scholarship and information provided by Dr. Dikotter.  It seems somehow that the history of the CCP has not received the same type of public exposure as that of Hitler’s regime or the more murderous Soviet Union.  This excellent volume is a real contribution to a realistic public airing of the price that will be paid again and again if the lessons of history are ignored.  I know the old argument, “this time it will be different”.  Only a fool mouths those words.  Mao once declared that experience “has taught us to lean to one side”; every time I hear words like those, such as “lean in”, I fear that history has not been learned.

One of the great battles of World War II, Stalingrad consumed the lives of an estimated 1,000,000 men on both sides.  The stories of human suffering, and bravery, of lost illusions and shattered idealism are legion and yet we seldom really can understand the pain of the men involved in epic battles.

When you think of it, the concept of men fighting in sub-zero temperatures, with little or no shelter, for months on end with little food, who are shelled, outgunned and faced by a foe who is both vengeful and afraid is unknowable to we who read about the battles.  But Gerlach, who fought at Stalingrad and was one of the few (5000 out of 91,000 captured), did manage to survive and create a story woven from the experiences of other Germans who were captured. 

What few people realize is that the fighting was to a large extent, carried on by the few frontline troops who had to face the guns, tanks and cold alone on a windswept steppe.  Tens of thousands of other Germans were the support troops who lived in the ruins of the city in basements, shattered rooms and dug outs which provided them with a level of protection and comfort that was unknown to the frontline soldiers.  These support troops stayed behind the lines until late in the battle when some of them were placed into special “assault” battalions; untrained in combat, they were simple cannon fodder, thrown into the breach and accomplished little other than to die for the Fuehrer.

The unsung heroes of the battle were the doctors and orderlies who tried to perform miracles for the wounded.  Tired and overworked, lacking pain killers, clean bandages, even a warm room from which to work, they spent long hours cutting, stitching and battling to save lives.  And yet, even if they were successful in their operations, the wounded most likely faced little food, no heat and unsanitary conditions as they were lined up by the hundreds in basements or even outside to suffer and freeze.  The images of wagon loads of wounded men, slowly freezing to death because there was simply no more room for them in the pathetic shelters will make any reader realize how terrible and pitiless war is to the participants.

Gerlach has created an excellent history of a battle, seen from men at the point of danger.  No sweeping scenes of mass movements of men, no brave words to stir one’s heart, this novel brings war down to its lowest level; the men in the trenches whose only knowledge of the war and battle is as far as they can see.

What is the correct number?  Thirty-Two million?  Thirty-Seven million?  Forty million? The correct number of those who died during the period of 1958-1962 as Mao and the Communist Party of China instituted a command economy will never be known.  The exact number will never be known because so many people were dying, primarily of starvation but also because of beatings, executions, and torture that records could not be kept.  The millions did not die because they were some foreign enemies or, as is the case with the Holocaust because of some racial theory; they died because of government incompetence, bureaucratic lying and ignorance of the basic laws of nature.

What exactly is a “command economy”?  The “phrase comes from the German Befehlswirtschaft. It was originally applied to the Nazi economy but was later used to describe the Soviet Union.  Instead of allowing dispersed buyers and sellers to determine their own economic activities according to the laws of supply and demand, a higher authority would issue commands determining the overall direction of the economy following a master plan.  The command principle entailed that all economic decisions were centralized for the greater good, as the state determined what should be produced, how much should be produced, who produced what and where, how resources should be allocated and what prices should be charged for material, goods, and services.  A central plan replaced the market. (Mao’s Great Famine, pp 127).

A “command economy”  then is a top-down system by which the leaders provide objectives and quotas for the amount of grain to be produced, how many tons of steel will be produced, what type and how many shoes, socks, shoelaces, etc. will be produced in what time period, etc.  Operating in a totalitarian system like Communism, each layer below that top simply takes the quota they are given and adds a little more to please the powers that be.  By the time the quotas reach those who produce any given item, the numbers are so large that they are totally unrealistic.  Rather than argue against the numbers (and labeled a right-wing reactionary), the producers “fudge” the numbers to meet the quota.  And an example is the production of rice, a staple of the economy.  If the actual quota is not met, the rice crop is soaked in water to increase the weight as the rice absorbs the water.  Amazing, the quota is met!  The problem with that technique however is that the rice quickly rots and as the price of rice goes up (inflation), the consumers literally have to sell the clothes off their backs to pay for rotting rice.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, many archives were temporarily opened, and historians and researchers were given access to files which had been locked away for decades.  The authors chose to focus on the average Soviet citizen and how they dealt with the system that was evolving as the country and economy was undergoing huge changes.  How would an almost illiterate peasant react to the collectivization of his farm?  To whom would he write and what would he request?  Or, a young girl whose father, divorced from her mother, was arrested as an enemy of the people and thus she was not allowed to enter the University and pursue her goal of becoming a doctor.  Who could help her or even attempt to make her understand her great genetic sin as passed to her through her father?  With over 157 documents, we reach back in time to feel the pain, the anguish, the confusion and in some cases, the hopes of people lost in the dustbin of history.

Many of the letters were written to Stalin himself.  Why not?  Stalin was portrayed as the “best friend of all children”, as being “wise and just”, “farsighted” and the best of “Leninists”.  He was concerned about the people, for hadn’t he written his famous article, “Dizzy with Success” that temporarily halted some of the worse aspects of collectivization?  He wrote it as soon as he heard that some had gone beyond sound judgement and he wanted to correct the wrongs done.  So, individuals wrote to Stalin, because if Stalin knew of that individuals’ problems, they were sure he would correct the error.  When nothing was done, it was because those around Stalin kept the truth from him and of course, the proof was in the confessions during the show trials of those closest to him.  The letters were received by the Kremlin, or the local administrator and filed for safe keeping in case the writer was ever accused of anti-Soviet behavior.

There where also those who wrote to praise the hard work of the local Soviets, but they were mostly the letters of the young who had been raised within the system that was systemically murdering millions of its own citizens.  For the youth believed in the opportunity before them and only asked for more opportunity to prove they were worthy of the great Revolution.

In many ways, this is a sad book, filled with the hopes, dreams and questions of individuals who could not and did not understand the system they inhabited.  So much was so illogical, so set against the known norms of Western man, that there had to be an answer somewhere, some beam of knowledge that could come to the writers to help them cope with their lives and dreams.  But the letters only gathered dust as the individuals would have gradually lost hope and accepted their broken dreams and lives.

Prior to the invasion of Sicily during WWII, the United States government released the notorious Lucky Luciano on the belief that he would help the Allied cause prior to the actual invasion and with the administration of the island after it’s conquest.  The result of that action was a rejuvenation of the Mafia which had suffered but not been eliminated under the rule of Mussolini.

Lewis who had been stationed in Sicily and had access to court files about the Mafia, certainly strips away any glamour of the organization and show it to be medieval in its rule and pillaging of Sicily.  The local “Dons” hold complete power of life and death over the peasants and the central government of Italy is merely a milk cow to be used to feed the power of the Mafia.  During one of the conferences between the Dons, one suggested that the peasants not be allowed to have any metal plows, that they should use the same type of farm implements as was used in ancient Roman times; they did not need pants and shirts as they could wear simple smocks of the most primitive type and be fed on a diet of gruel just as the Roman legionnaires had been two thousand years ago.

Added to the exploitation of the peasants were the murderous vendettas which in the village of Corleone (yes, there is such a place), 153 Mafia murders took place between 1944-48.  Many of the murdered simply disappeared into the deep gullies around the island while others were left as a warning to others. 

With the end of the war, thanks to the American army and Luciano, the Mafia was given prime administrative jobs as since they were the enemy of Mussolini they could not be all bad.  The result was a rapid filling of the Mafia’s coffers from construction projects in the middle of nowhere, land grabs and massive building reconstruction in the major cities.  Poor workmanship and siting did not matter as any legit business was quickly silenced.  All this while the Dons dreamed of getting U.S. statehood for Sicily!

In the end, over 10% of the population left the island, many to the U.S., many to South America and many to Northern Italy where, freed from the Mafia, they joined the Communist party and fueled the Italian political unrest which still simmers today.

An excellent book which shows the brutality and venality of an organization which only cared for their own to the cost of everyone else.  No saving grace, only corruption. It also shows the short sightedness of government agencies who somehow manage to operate in ignorance of those they use for short-term goals.

This is Stephen Ambrose at his best; after conducting interviews with over 1000 veterans, on both sides of the line, and reviewing outstanding studies by Russell Weigley, Paul Fussell and other excellent historians, some of who fought in the theater, Ambrose has created a fast-moving history from the ground level.  The cold, the thrill of the chase, the shock of retreat, the realization that the war is almost over and the fear of being the last man to die are brought home in a book that is difficult to put down.

Numerous other books have cast doubts on the fighting skills of the average U.S. soldier, especially in the infantry arm, especially in relation to his counterpart on the other side.  While Ambrose does not dispute that debate, he does not acknowledge it, instead focusing on the amazing ability of eighteen-year-old teenagers who served as privates and even officers to learn quickly how to survive during the terrible winter of 1944-45.  There is no doubt that thousands died due to poor training and an inability to master their weapons (young men trained as infantrymen were suddenly given a two-hour course on how to drive and use a tank with the result that in many instances, they did not last a day against the more professional German army).  Yet enough did to stop the German’s time and again and create the conditions for victory.

Ambrose does focus on the infantry as they are the sharp end of the bayonet, yet he also has chapters on the medics and nurses who provided the difference between life and death for literally tens of thousands of G.I.s who were wounded and rescued from the battle field and cared for by over worked nurses at the aid stations.  The relationship between the G.Is and those who treated them was one of mutual respect and admiration.

There are dark scenes and he discusses the execution of prisoners by Americans.  Some killings are done in the heat of battle, some are done coolie as a soldier is detailed to take prisoners back to battalion but somehow the prisoners never make it back.  How much killing of prisoners went on?  It is difficult to say, as only one veteran admitted to killing a prisoner, but hundreds “heard” of such actions.  Did the veterans condemn such actions?  Not to any great degree and the general impression from the book that such actions happen in war and that is that.

“As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X.  Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X…What I want to do is to look up C.  I want to show you what manner of man he is.  I call him the Forgotten Man.  Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct.  The is the man who never is thought of… He works, he votes, generally he pays-but he always pays…  William Graham Sumner, Yale University, 1883

Shales excellent book covers the period of the late Coolidge Presidency, through that of Hoover into the Roosevelt terms up to his defeat of Wilke.  We see these personalities but also many others who attempted to find solutions to the Great Depression while receiving conflicting messages and directives from President  Roosevelt.  Roosevelt was a crafty politician who kept everyone guessing as to which direction to go and which was the best policy to achieve his unclear goals.  This led to duplication of effort and mixed signals to those with whom he was attempting to achieve an agreement.  It was not unusual for Roosevelt to sent out two sets of negotiators with conflicting instructions and then even if an agreement were reached, he might reject it as it did not agree with some new idea of his.  This led, in the real world, to a hesitancy on the part of business to commit to long term planning as they were unsure of the next set of taxes, regulations, etc. and how they would impact them. This of course, let to reduced hiring and an extension of the Depression. Internationally, it led to a mistrust of U.S. policy.

The book provides an excellent overview of the battle the President had with the Supreme Court and they with his various new laws and governmental agencies.  To put those agencies and the growth of the Federal government in context and why the SC was viewed by FDR as obstructionist, within a few months of FDR’s first term, his new agencies had written more regulations than the entire U.S. government had written since the founding of the Republic.  The SC, struck down many of his rules and agencies. At his second inauguration, FDR stated that his goal was “unimagined power” which set him on a collision course with the SC.  FDR suffered a major defeat when he attempted to “pack” the SC in a political effort to control it (as we hear today from various politicians) yet in the end, due to retirements (the “four old men” on the Court were in their mid-seventies) and FDR was able to place Justices more in line with his political thinking.

FDR is remembered as a great President I believe for a couple of reasons;

1. His “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself” speech when he gave the American public hope for the future
2. His constant activity which made it appear that something constructive was being done for the American people (even though for example, he and his advisors realized that programs such as Social Security were unsustainable and would saddle future Presidents with a huge burden)