After all the cheering had died-down following the 1945 German surrender, Western diplomats found themselves having to assemble a coalition of nations willing to contain Soviet expansion throughout Europe. A COLLIER’S journalist wandered among the rubble of Germany and found that a great number of draft-age men simply replied “nein” when asked if they would be willing to fight alongside the Americans, French and British. A wise old English spy opined:
“Remember that Germany is a convalescent country…These people have lost two world wars in a generation. The last one cost them nearly 3,000,000 dead and another 1,000,000 or so still missing, to say nothing of some 4,000,000 wounded. They just don’t want to take a chance of being on the losing side again.”
Additional articles about the daily hardships in post-war Germany can be read
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Additional magazine and newspaper articles about the Cold War may be read on this page.
