Word: german
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Twelve years age, Hitler grabbed the Ruhr. Without it, the German war machine would have been weak, and the incredibly successful conquests of 1939 to 1942 impossible. But with the most concentrated industrial region in the world working for him, Hitler conquered Europe. Once the Nazis were defeated, the Allied coalition determined to control the Ruhr, to make sure that Germany would never again have the productive means for war. Originally, the Allies planned to pull up the factories by the foundations and turn the Ruhr into a pasture-land. This drastic position was, however, economically dangerous, and slowly gave...
These controls seemed nearly at an end this month. The American and British military governors announced that the Ruhr will be directed by German "trustees," until a German government is set up. Then that government will have the option of nationalizing the Ruhr--or letting it remain in the hands of the trustees...
...French have protested this decision violently. Charles de Gaulle has stated clearly that he would prefer to junk the Marshall Plan entirely, rather than have the Ruhr in German hands. French Communist claims that "pro-German cartelsympathizers" have put the deal across now look all too correct to non-Communists in both France and the world outside. The Queuille government has also expressed dismay, but in a necessarily feebler tone, since it is trying to work in harmony with the other Western nations. Battered by left and right, the French government has been gravely embarrassed, and its shaky grasp...
...State Department has asserted that German control is the only way to hike Ruhr production--which has nonetheless been rising steadily all along. Supporters of the official position minimize French fears as historical nervousness that is now outdated. The unofficial aim is directly at Russia: anything that will jazz up Ruhr output is desirable, even if it alienates Frenchmen and all those who remember the terrible years when the foundations of German tyranny in Europe were the factories of the Ruhr...
...cited special need for bi-linguists who can read any Scandinavian, German, or eastern European--Balkan, Czechoslovakian, etc.--tongues...