Word: balkans
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...downs than a scenic railway. At the Potsdam Military Academy (Germany's West Point), where he wore high heels to increase his height, his brilliance in solving strategy problems earned him the nickname "Little Moltke." From school he plunged into that prelude of World War I, the Balkan War. When war exploded throughout Europe two years later, he supported the pro-German faction in Greece so vehemently that when Greece finally chose her side, he was escorted aboard a seedy freighter and carried to Corsica as prisoner of the French...
...Affairs, Minister of War, Minister of Marine, Air Minister, Minister of Education. In 1938 he proclaimed himself "Premier for life." But unlike the Axis dictators, he fomented no wars, rarely made speeches, indulged in no pageantry, maintained no sycophants to shout his praises. He sought friendship with all his Balkan neighbors and cemented a cordial entente with Greece's traditional enemy, Turkey. He was a hardheaded, hardworking, unpretentious administrator in shell-rimmed spectacles who rested his claim to authority on the fact that he got things done...
Travelers who visit the Balkans without losing a watch or wallet are regarded by Western Europeans as exceptions, by the Balkan peoples as geniuses. Balkan gentlemen even joke about the dexterity of their own restless fingers...
...their stories recounts that during a diplomatic dinner in a Balkan capital the British Ambassador missed his watch and informed his host. Unembarrassed, the host announced: "During dinner someone took his neighbor's watch. I shall place a silver platter on the table, the lights will be turned out for a minute, and I expect the watch to be placed on the platter." When the lights came on, the platter contained six watches. According to another version, the platter was missing...
Colonel William Joseph ("Wild Bill") Donovan, commander in World War I of New York's "Fighting Sixty-Ninth" Regiment and in World War II Frank Knox's unofficial military observer inspecting the equipment and resources of countries at war or approaching it, arrived last fortnight in the Balkans. He had already spent several weeks in London, several days with the British forces in Africa. His first Balkan stop was Sofia, where he straightened his tie and went to call on the King. Leaving the Royal Palace, he discovered that his wallet containing passport, money and letters of introduction...