A Sweet Read About the Cold War

As may be evident from earlier posts, I love narrative history, and I read part or all of as many as 100 books each year. So it's saying something to reveal that my favorite book of all those I read in 2008 was The Candy Bombers.

Three years after the end of World War II, the American occupation of Germany was failing. The Germans were becoming less--not more--attracted to democracy. Communism was on the march, overthrowing one government after another. Faith in America was at a low ebb. Then, intent on furthering its domination of Europe, the Soviet Union cut off all land and sea access to West Berlin, prepared to starve one of the largest cities in the world into submission unless the Americans abandoned it. Soviet forces hugely outnumbered those of the Allies.

The choices before the western allies seemed to be limited to just three:

1. Abandon the city to the Russians;
2. Allow the Berliners (our recent enemies) to starve; or
3. Start World War III.

Andrei Cherny’s book is a gripping, suspenseful story about how the United States struggled to help the citizens of West Berlin survive Soviet tyranny. Cherny succeeds in making the harrowing days of 1948-49 in Berlin come alive through an exhaustive, often absorbing and lucid account.

For those who were born subsequent the end of the Cold War, it may be hard to appreciate that the period was every bit as tense as the days after 9/11. In response to terror, Harry Truman, Gail Halvorsen and the other characters in this book defined how a great nation could act as a benevolent world power standing up for freedom. Cherny has produced a book that lives up to what many consider to have been the American moment in history.

This book should be required reading for every American citizen.

Graham Crackers & Flight

As a boy in the early 1960s, my Saturday morning routine was to get up, fill a bowl with graham crackers (crumbled, naturally) covered with milk, then sit down in front of the television set to watch the kids' shows.

My all-time favorite show was Fireball XL-5. Set in the year 2063, this series charted the interplanetary adventures of a spacecraft and its crew: handsome pilot Steve Zodiac, glamorous space doctor Venus, a math genius and a robot. It was filmed using a "new" process called "Supermarionation"--which was a faux scientific name for using puppets. While this may seem a little silly today, in the 1960s (at least for a kid) it made for a gripping program--so much so that I did not remember (until reviewing the show recently on YouTube) that it was filmed in black & white.

My flights of fancy were not limited to space. Another favorite show of the time was Sky King, the adventures of Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King. Although it had strong cowboy elements, King always captured criminals and even spies or found lost hikers using his plane.

Looking back, I would add the following footnotes to my Saturday morning experience:

I'll bet my parents were very glad that I made my own "breakfast" and kept quiet for a couple extra hours on Saturday morning;

Fireball XL-5 was made in 1962 by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who later used real people in the production of arguably one of the best sci-fi shows of all time: Space 1999;

Sky King apparently was based on a real-life person: Jack Cones, the Flying Constable of Twenty nine Palms during the 1930s.

Welcome to 2009--especially since most of us had such a miserable 2008! Like most everyone else, I have spent the past few days reviewing the old and reflecting on what's ahead, resulting in the following few resolutions:

Stay the Course

This blog has been rather badly neglected for some time now, and I intend to keep it more current in the coming year. I need to take more to heart the rubric I've been sharing with all of the local business owners and managers I advise: "Stay the course!" 2008 has been a shake-up in all our lives, but especially in mine, and I intend to develop more consistency in good habits--from using the WaterPik to charting our finances to praying--in 2009

For Auld Lang Syne, My Friends

We have quite a few good friends we've made over the years, many of whom (especially now) live in other parts of the country. I'm making it a commitment this year to get back in touch and/or keep in touch throughout 2009. I've already been using LinkedIn partially to this purpose, and I have recently opened a Facebook account to that end, as well.