US Occupation Of Post War Germany

[Fight_n_back]

or "Why can't George Read"

The Lessons of a Successful Military Occupation
May 5, 2003
In 1945, following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France assumed control over the territory of a defeated enemy. With the inability of the wartime allies to devise a plan to govern Germany at the conclusion of the war, the three western powers embarked upon a separate policy that resulted in the transformation of their zones of occupation into the Federal Republic of Germany. This was a great moment in the annals of American foreign policy. Because the occupation led to the creation of a successful democratic state, military victory produced substantial long-term political gains. Not only was a great scourge defeated, but the coordinated actions of the western powers gave birth to a new and powerful ally. What lessons does this provide for how we should now conduct ourselves in Iraq?

First, the US Military Occupation Government moved quickly to share authority with local civilians in its zone of occupation. Even before the war was over, mayors were appointed in many German cities. Because of pressure to bring US forces home, German civilian administrators were given important responsibilities in running the zone of occupation. Faster than any other occupying power, the United States moved to hold municipal and state-level elections. By 1946, the German states under our control wrote their own constitutions, and this provided invaluable experience for many of the West German politicians who would go on to write the exemplary German constitution, the Basic Law. At that time, US officials acted on the conviction that the only way to create a democracy was to allow those under their control to practice it as quickly as possible. This is one reason why the American occupation produced a minimal amount of resentment it. Today, given the volatility of relations between American and the Arab world, minimizing local resentment of the US occupation of Iraq also could help calm the "Arab Street."

<snip>
Fourth, speed is of the essence in restoring full sovereignty to Iraq. At first glance, the prolonged occupation of West German until 1949 may seem to contradict this. After all, Germany was defeated militarily in 1945, and the Basic Law was not ratified until four years later. However, the London decisions to create a separate West German state came only in 1948 after a complete failure of four-power negotiations on the German question. Once that decision was taken, a West German state was up and running in a year and a half. If US military victory is to be seen as liberation and not an unwelcome occupation, the Iraqis need to be running their own affairs without US interference within one year following the end of the war. Speed is of the essence because there is no outside threat to keep the Iraqis quiescent in the same way that Soviet behavior in the East pushed West Germany into line with US policy.

<snip>
The United Nations' military victory in the European theater in World War II was preserved because US occupation of Germany resulted in the creation of a new democratic state that entered into a long-term and mutually beneficial alliance with the United States. The military occupation succeeded because US officials allowed the vanquished to shape and practice their own democracy in a relatively short time. Americans now face a similar challenge in the Middle East and the US occupation of Iraq must be as benign, empowering, cooperative, and farsighted as it was forty years ago in Germany. If Americans fail in this regard, Iraq will become a quagmire that will make a shambles out of US Middle East policy and will create grave doubts about American intentions and the efficacy of US power.


http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/rsepResources/si/may03/middleEast6.asp
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Isn't there a quote about repeating history or something?

[ScrewyRabbit]

1. Did you read how Rice and Rummy were trying to compare

Iraq to the occupation of Germany? They tried to imply that the nazi "Werwolf" organization was responsible for killing of soldiers, civilians, and general sabotage. In fact Werwolf succeeded only in killing one mayor of Aachen and was not responsible for the murder of any occupation forces. Yet these Bushites tell blatant lies to try to win any argument...

[Shipwack]

2. Occupation mistake? (besides being there in the 1st place...)

Yang::Isn't there a quote about repeating history or something?

Probably not this one...
"History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it merely shouts "Weren't you listening the first time?!?" and lets fly with a club."-- Unknown

Francis Hamit, on Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor website, has a theorey. Francis believes that one of the mistakes made in Iraq was that, unlike Germany and Japan, we never got anyone to formally to surrender to us,so there's no "closure"...

[HawkerHurricane]

3. "Those who do not learn history

Are doomed to repeat it"
(Those of us who do learn history are doomed to tell them "I told you so!")
When history repeats itself, the first time is a tragedy, the second time is a farce.

[PATRICK]

4. Thanks for the retrospect

Again it highlights what real leadership and the chances of history will do to bolster the myth of our idealism. Then comes the Bush test and suddenly the lessons of history are bungled and idealism is a fraud.
It could have worked that way in Germany. And it did after WWI.

Wilson- Clemenceau. Wilson had a difficult and sweeping cure-all based to end Eurpoean wars. The GOP shot it down when Europe(as now) had made it known to their leaders that the American ideal was what they wanted. Clemenceau had the other cure. Totally crush and disable Germany so the superpower war cycle would be broken. Wilson hoisted by the GOP, Clemeanceau by Wilson's dominance in Europe. Win win for the making of the next war.

Then as now, a bit of both guarantees what both were trying to avoid. And all was not rosy with the success of West Germany. The cost was softpedalling the purge of fascism for the sake of economic recovery and a bulwark against Stalin. This hedging of "idealism" is what continually drags out the problem of tyranny, fascism and all its necessary evils. The US has become the enemy the US did not crush.

The ruling US faction not only hobbles the UN but is part of the major core problem itself. If not THE core problem.