My Friends Were NOT Losers or Suckers

A few months ago I thought back to the 1960s, a tumultuous time in the world and in the United States. One hot spot in the world was Germany. After World War Two, the country was divided, with Austria again becoming independent, with the victorious Allies occupying the country. Germany was divided into occupation zones, with each of the four major Allies (the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union) administering a zone. The eastern part of Germany was in the Soviet zone; thus, it became communist dominated with a pro-Soviet German government eventually installed. The thing was, lots of Germans, including many highly skilled workers and well educated people, crossed over into the western areas of Germany. By the early 1960s, the East German government, supported by the Soviets, cracked down on people leaving their sector, and they began building a wall to halt the out migration to West Germany. This all caused a crisis. Then not long thereafter, the U.S. announced they had evidence that the Soviets had shipped missiles to Cuba, a communist nation only 90 miles from the U.S. shore and run by dictator Fidel Castro. This REALLY caused problems and it looked as if the world could experience a nuclear war, as President Kennedy leaned on the Soviets to remove the missiles by ordering a naval blockade of Cuba. Finally, after many tense days, which included air raid drills in schools, the Soviets withdrew the missiles.

With these things going on, not many people paid as much attention to the then increasing tensions in South Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia. It was one of those countries that had been created by splitting the main country into a communist dominated North Vietnam, and a pro-Western government in South Vietnam. American foreign policy began to focus on stopping the spread of communism to South Vietnam, as we were eventually told and given to believe, that if South Vietnam became a communist nation, we could expect to be fighting Vietnamese communists in the streets of Los Angeles and Seattle, not to mention perhaps in Boise, Idaho. Thousands of U.S. troops were sent to South Vietnam, and while the reasons may seem odd today (almost funny, if the result hadn't been so bloody), the call to nationalism and American fear of communism was quite real in those days, and politicians of both major parties did not want to end up on the wrong side of the issue. We in the public were told how we were close to ending the threat in South Vietnam, but in fact, the situation grew worse, and soldiers by the tens of thousands were sent to try to end the conflict, with more than 50,000 dying by the time Americans were completely withdrawn from South Vietnam. 

A few months ago, as I thought about those times, I looked online for two friends who died in Vietnam. These guys were from right in my neighborhood. "Gary" was like 4 or 5 years older than me and the guys I hung around with. Now, if you're 10 and another guy is 14 or 15, that's a big difference at that age, and Gary was like a big brother to some of us, even though he wasn't a tall guy in that sense. Gary joined the Marines a few years later. He was sent to Vietnam and killed in action in 1967. Then there was "Robbie." He was just a year or 2 older than most of us and we all played ball together in the schoolyard and did all the things that young people and teenagers do. He was also not a tall guy at all. As the war became big news in the second half of the 1960s, he talked of wanting to be a Marine and to serve in Vietnam, or "Nam," as he would say. When he was still too young for military service, I think many of us thought and hoped the war would be over before Robbie might end up in it, and some of my firends poked fun at his gung ho attitude, perhaps to ease the thoughts of what might happen to him. Well, the war continued and Robbie joined the Marines. In the first few days of 1970 he was killed in action. The thing that most of us feared had happened.

 

I found my two friends online and I saw their photos from all of those years ago (both in their uniforms). I sat and cried and I'm not doing well at keeping my composure as I write this. Since I saw their pictures, word has come out that there were likely bounties paid by Russia to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, and then word came that the "little man" (dis)serving as president of the United States called American wounded and dead soldiers "loosers and suckers." These things alone, along with his disparaging comments about John McCain and attacking the parents of a soldier killed in action, should be QUITE ENOUGH to tell any American all they need to know about the despicable creature and his mob-like culture occupying our White House. He is worthy of nothing but contempt. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fidelity-This word is closely related to "fealty," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, and it is related to "confide," a word borrowed by English directly from Latin. Further, it may be distantly related to "bide" and "abide," both words from the Germanic roots of English. "Fidelity" goes back to Indo European "bheidh," which had the notion, "to trust," with extended meanings like "to convince" (bring someone to trust in your feelings about something), "to obey" (put trust in someone by following their orders). Italic rendered the "bh" as "f," which gave Latin "fidere," meaning "to trust," and the noun "fides," meaning "faith," which produced the adjective "fidelis," meaning, "faithful," which produced the noun "fidelitas," meaning "faithfulness." This was taken into French as "fidélité," with the same meaning, and English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1400s (initially as "fidelite?").            

"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 6/Final

The end of World War Two saw Rumania's eastern border set again to its status prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, but the part of Transylvania lost to Hungary in 1940 was returned to Rumania. Rumanian casualties during the war are difficult to determine, although my guess would be at least 700,000 dead, including military and civilian (which includes murdered Jews).*

Rumania was occupied by the Soviet Union after the war, and many thousands of Rumanian soldiers captured during the war by the Soviets returned to their native land fully imbued with communist ideas, giving the Soviets Rumanian communist troops to help in their takeover of the country. The Soviets and Rumanian communists gradually took control of the political machinery of the country and King Michael** was forced to abdicate at the end of 1947, thus ending the monarchy, and making Rumania a totally communist country, a "people's republic." The 1960s saw Nicolae Ceausescu take control of the Rumanian Communist Party and the country. He was more open to Western Europe, an obvious departure from Soviet policy, but he also began to tighten his dictatorial control of Rumania. This continued until December 1989 when mass protests of the government took place. Within days the military had abandoned Ceausescu, and he, his wife and a couple of associates fled before being captured by police and then handed over to the army. A quick trial was held and Ceausescu and his wife were executed by some army men.

A democratic governing system developed in Rumania and the country established closer ties to Western Europe and the United States. The Rumanian economy was gradually opened up to private investment. The beginning of the severe world economic recession of 2008 hit Rumania very hard, but it has been recovering.  

NOTE: Back in the 1990s I met some fairly recent Rumanian immigrants on a couple of separate occasions. Because I have studied World War Two extensively, I naturally mentioned that I knew something of Rumania because of its involvement in the war. Interestingly, on both occasions, the immigrants spoke highly of Antonescu, with one saying he was important to Hitler, and one of the others mentioning something about Antonescu's face-to-face meetings with Hitler put him in high standing. This certainly was NOT the "politically correct" thing for these people to say, and "perhaps" part of the explanation is, these were immigrants to the U.S., and like some immigrants from many countries, "may" have been highly anti-communist (although that is not a given). Remember too, Ceausescu had been overthrown not all that long before, and ill feelings toward him, if not outright hatred, may have colored their thoughts, and thus, Antonescu's anti-communism appealed to them, in spite of his association with Hitler. Whether these few people I spoke with represent a significant attitude held by average Rumanians, I do not know, but I thought their comments were interesting.

Likewise, I have had some medical issues over the last few years and several EKGs were taken. On two of those occasions, I had the same technician for the tests. She was from Hungary and as we chatted about my little bit of knowledge about Hungary, I mentioned Transylvania. She got very upset, told me how Rumania had "stolen" the area from Hungary. She was so worked up, I thought she was going to declare war on Rumania all by herself! So while one person's opinion does not make a trend, her impassioned feelings show how the Transylvania issue still packs some emotional punch, even for a person who no longer resides in that part of Europe. 

* It is a bit difficult to get a handle on figures for the Jewish deaths, as many Jews lived in, or moved to, the eastern districts, which then became part of the Soviet Union in 1940. Further, Jews also lived in, or were deported to, Transnistria (see Part 5 for more about this region), which was part of the Soviet Union, but was administered by Rumania after the conquest of the area in 1941. For a good explanation of all of this, please check this:  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Romania/five.pdf

Another problem with overall Rumanian casualties is, the part of Transylvania with a substantial Rumanian population was given to Hungary in 1940, and men in this ceded area then served in the Hungarian armed forces, and their casualties would have been counted as "Hungarian," although the area was returned to Rumania after the war. Further, Rumania fought on both sides during the war, although mostly as one of the Axis nations, but it did provide military forces to the Allies to fight against Germany and Hungary from the late summer of 1944 until the end of the war. These forces were under the overall direction of the Soviets. A good place to start when researching World War II casualties is "World War II: The Encyclopedia of Facts and Figures" by John Ellis, the 1995 edition with corrections to the initial 1993 release, but understand, other sources will not necessarily agree with figures from this book. 

** As of this writing (May 2015), King Michael is still alive at the age of 93. The establishment of a democratic government after the fall of communism gradually saw Michael granted the right to visit his homeland and his public appearances have drawn large crowds, although a return of the monarchy itself to some position of power has not seemed to be particularly popular among Rumanians.        

The following were consulted for this article on Rumania: "Kingdoms of Europe" by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Cunning-This adjective, related to, and actually derived from, the verb "can" ("to be able to do, have the knowledge to do"), the modern meaning of which is, "shrewd, often deceptive, way of doing something." It goes back to Indo European "gnoh," which had the notion of "to have knowledge." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "kunnanan," with the same general meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cunnan," the first and third person singular present form of which was "cann." The present participle of the verb was "cunnende, which was also used as an adjective, and it later became "cunninde" (also as "kunnende"), which then became "cunning" (also "kunning"). Most of "cunning's" Germanic relatives did not develop the "shrewd, deceptive" tilt to their meanings, but rather they have remained closer to it pure meaning of "be able to do," which is the case with its German relative "könnend," but Icelandic "kunnandi" does indeed mean "cunning." 

"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 5/Fascism and War

The aftershocks of the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, and the disillusionment over the World War and its territorial settlements, brought heightened tensions in many countries, including Rumania, between strong socialist and pro-communist elements versus right wing and rising fascist movements. The Rumanian monarchy and the nation's upper classes began to turn to the extreme political right. Hitler's eventual territorial acquisitions and his anti-Soviet pronouncements led Rumania's political right to look more and more to Germany for protection against the Soviet Union and communism. The failure of  Rumania's traditional allies, Britain and France, to stop Hitler, only led the country's  rightist elements to see these nations as too weak to help Rumania against Stalin and the Soviets.

Ion Antonescu, a military man, became defense minister, and he also began a close relationship with right wing and fascist elements. The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939 put Rumania into a serious situation, as Germany and the Soviet Union essentially became allies. One of the secret provisions of the pact gave the Soviets leeway to move into the former territories of the Russian Empire, the Rumanian provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina. This led Hungary to propose, and to enter into, negotiations with Rumania over the disputed area of Transylvania, but the negotiations got nowhere, and Germany and Italy were asked to arbitrate, which resulted in Hungary acquiring the northern portion of Transylvania. King Carol II, growing more unpopular by the day and threatened by protests, especially from rightist groups, appointed Antonescu as prime minister, but with additional powers taken from the king, who finally abdicated in favor of his son, Michael, who was left more or less as a figurehead, with Antonescu as dictator. Antonescu joined with the Iron Guard (Rumanian: "Garda de fier"), a fascist, pro-Rumanian Orthodox, anti-Jewish, political party, to rule the country, but just months later, an Iron Guard uprising against Jews and government officials was crushed when Antonescu, with support from Hitler, used the army to restore order.

Germany supplied military advisers to help modernize the Rumanian military, and the presence of actual German military units in Rumania continued to increase. Rumania had substantial oil and refining facilities, extremely important to oil-dependent Germany's increasingly motorized and mechanized military forces. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Rumanian forces joined in the attack, as Rumania sought to recover the lost territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina, and to even gain additional lands in Transnistria.* In mid November 1942 the Soviets launched a massive offensive directed at Rumanian military forces located deep within Russia. The Rumanians were bolstered to some degree by German troops on either side of the German Sixth Army in the Soviet city of Stalingrad. The Soviet forces broke through the Rumanian lines and proceeded to encircle German and Rumanian forces in Stalingrad and vicinity. The result was a devastating defeat for the Germans and the Rumanians and the surrender of these troops brought a pronounced increase to the prospects of an Axis defeat in the war. With Allied bombings of the Rumanian oil fields at Ploesti, of Bucharest (the capital), and the with the approach of Soviet forces, Rumanians, led by King Michael, overthrew Antonescu in August 1944. Rumania then changed sides in the war. Antonescu was arrested and then after the war he was put on trial, found guilty of various charges, including his complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Rumanian and Soviet Jews. He was executed by firing squad.

More in the next part ...

* Transnistria was a poorly defined region roughly between the Dniester River and the Southern Bug River. The term literally means "across or beyond the Dniester," but the area's boundaries were vague, depending upon who was doing the defining. The region exists today, but is not recognized by all nations as a separate country. Of course, it has a defined border today. During World War Two the Germans and Rumanians defeated the Soviet forces there and it was under Rumanian control, with administration directed from the city of Odessa. In this case, "the area" was defined by the Rumanians. Of course the Soviets reconquered "the area" later in the war.

The following were consulted for this article on Rumania: "Kingdoms of Europe" by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Car-This noun goes back to Indo European "kers," which had the notion of "run, move swiftly." This gave its Old Celtic offspring "karros," which meant "chariot, wagon, wheeled vehicle." This gave Gaulish (a Celtic language) "karros," with the same general meaning. This was then borrowed into Latin as "carrus," seemingly with the main original meaning being "chariot," but later also "wagon, cart." This gave Old Northern French "carre," with the same meaning, and this was carried to England by the Normans where it was borrowed by English in the early 1300s. Later it came to be most often used in railway terminology, but by the late 1800s it was applied to the early models of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. 

Maybe Business People Are Not Anti-Communist

For all of my years, I always thought the wealthiest Americans and those involved in big business were fervent anti-communists. Lots of people in the labor movement, as well as politicians who supported help for those less than wealthy Americans in some form, have been called "communists" and "socialists," at times accompanied by the warning that any more help to such Americans would result in the end of the country. That's why I was so surprised, after all the hand wringing and name calling, that the wealthy and big business people at first began importing goods from .... CHINA, then they even moved plants, equipment and jobs there, getting around American laws and forcing down American wages. I'm not saying they carry little red flags with them, but maybe they wear red underwear, because the only symbol they really pay allegiance to is .... $$$.  

WORD HISTORY:
Clip (#1)-There are two words "clip" in English, and this is the one meaning "to grasp firmly, hold in place by applying a strong grasp." Its origin is unclear, but "seems" to go back to an Indo European form that also produced English "globe;" that is, a word or root with the meaning "to form into a ball, to put parts together into a whole." This then produced an unknown Old Germanic offspring (or perhaps a more specific West Germanic offspring), something on the order of "klepjanan" or "klupjanan." The meanings in the Germanic dialects "suggest a meaning" in Old Germanic of "to enclose, to surround." The derived noun forms in the Germanic languages seem to imply "distance between surrounding points." Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had "clyppan," which meant "to embrace;" that is, "to surround with the arms," which also led to a further meaning of "to cherish," from the idea of "embracing being an expression of affection." It also meant "to grip, to surround" (much like "embrace"). Old English had noun forms like "clypnes" and "clypping" (this being used in some compounds) meaning an "embrace." The verb form seems to have progressed to "clyppen/clippen," then to the modern form. The noun form meaning, while still obviously associated with "embracing," became more specific to "clasping something with a device," and also "the device used for securing something," as in the compound word "paperclip," but "clip" is also used as a stand alone word. German has "Klafter," which means "fathom," from the notion of "the distance between outstretched arms."^ Low German has "Klachter," with the same meaning as standard German, but I'm not sure why the change in to "ch." Old Frisian had "kleppa," which meant "embrace," Swiss German dialect has "Chlupfel/Klupfel," meaning "armful of hay."^^  
^ Modern standard German is heavily based upon Old High German, where some of the more "typical" Germanic sounds experienced a change or shift. In this case, the "p(p)" sound became "ft." As you can likely tell from the similarity between German and English, the German noun "Klafter" really equates to English "clipper," but English doesn't use that word for this form of "clip," but rather for the other form, meaning "to cut." I'll do that word soon.

^^ Swiss German dialect is also based on High German.

The American Melting Pot and The Electorate, Part Two

This was first published in March 2013

Voting by the public is essential to a representative democracy, but voting in itself does not necessarily mean a nation is truly democratic; after all, many communist countries held elections, but there were only their own candidates on the ballots. This didn't stop them from calling their systems "democratic republics." Hitler, after suppressing all political parties except his own Nazi Party, used public referendums, called plebiscites, to validate certain of his actions. With Nazi thugs ... I mean poll watchers, stationed everywhere, a person had to be one brave German to vote "no," although many of the issues up for a vote were highly popular, and likely would have been popular in a truly free setting.*

In the Russian Empire under Tsar Nicholas II, unrest in 1905** brought some reforms to pacify the population, which was made up overwhelmingly of peasants and workers. A Russian parliament, the Duma, was set up  with very limited powers, as the upper chamber and the Tsar both had to support any measures passed by the elected lower chamber. The upper chamber was composed of conservative elements of society, many appointed directly by the Tsar. Still, the Duma was something of a symbol of the beginnings of a constitutional monarchy in Russia. The demographics of the country were so heavily peasant and worker, the Tsar and his government limited who could vote (excluding women and soldiers, who were overwhelmingly peasants, and setting a minimum age of 25, thus excluding most students) and tilted the playing field by designing a system where more "weight" was given to votes from the upper classes (the details of the Russian electoral system are pretty complex and beyond the scope of this article, but one upper class vote was often equal to between ten and twenty or more lower class votes). Even then, the first elected Duma representatives in 1906 were heavily peasant and worker, groups that wanted far more reform of the system than had been implemented up to that point. The Tsar dissolved the Duma after only a little more than two months and some members who had strongly supported government reforms were actually arrested and forbidden to run again. New elections were held in early 1907 which still produced a reformist majority. This Duma was likewise dissolved in short order. Under the idea of  "if you can't beat 'em with a rigged system, rig it even more," the Tsarist government added even more importance to the votes of the upper classes. While this too didn't produce a subservient lower chamber, it was much more to the liking of the government and this session of the Duma lasted for several years.  

For a large part of the history of the United States, the individual states set their own qualifications for voter eligibility and some early state laws originally pretty much limited eligible voters to white, male landowners. While most black Americans back then were slaves, even free black men could not vote in most states. While state laws gradually began to change to allow more participation, the withdrawal of Federal troops from former states of the Confederacy in the post-Civil War era brought new state laws to try to circumvent then recent amendments to the U.S. Constitution disallowing discriminatory voter eligibility laws against legal "male" American citizens, regardless of race. So called "literacy tests" came into practice in a number of states to exclude blacks from voting, as illiterate whites were often exempted from the law by white officials, or special clauses in the laws. Poll taxes, really a tax required to be able to vote, were another method used by white southern Democrats to limit the vote of blacks who then were overwhelmingly Republicans. You must remember, slavery had been so pervasive in the pre Civil War South, that after the war blacks constituted a high percentage of citizens in many southern states, even a majority in some. Native Americans struggled considerably in the right to vote, as many whites saw them as almost a foreign element, in spite of the fact they were born in the United States. Similar discriminatory practices were used to deprive Native Americans of voting rights, as had been used against black Americans, but like those black citizens, the Voting Rights Act also helped Native Americans, as well as American Latinos. It is important to remember, residents of Puerto Rico are American citizens, but such residents cannot vote in federal elections, although as American citizens, they are covered by the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act for elections in their own territory. This is the same in other U.S. possessions, like Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. 

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s helped move the country forward regarding the right to vote as Congress passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed, the Voting Rights Act in the mid 1960s, which quashed poll taxes and other such nonsense. Previously, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted women the legal right to vote in 1920. The early 1970s saw voting rights further expanded as the age to vote was lowered to 18 from 21, much the consequence of the nation's growing dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War and the eligibility for the draft of men beginning at age 18, bringing the charge, "old enough to fight, but not old enough to vote." Remember too, as I noted above, the Tsar did not allow soldiers to vote!

Defining who can vote also can lead to who governs and who gets representation. I say "can lead," because a fairly large number of Americans DO NOT vote in any given election; so, the right to vote doesn't necessarily mean a particular point of view will win an election. In the immediate post Civil War South, blacks could legally vote, but intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan kept many African Americans too scared to risk voting. In the more modern era, the roles of blacks in American elections has shifted, as has the role of white southerners, although that change was more gradual. The Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal saw black Americans shift decidedly into the Democratic Party in the 1936 election (when FDR won a second term, winning in a landslide over Republican Alf Landon), where they have remained ever since, "usually" providing Democratic candidates with at least 90% of  the black vote in any given election. Interestingly, this situation placed both blacks and white southerners in the Democratic Party, in spite of the very troubled history between the two racial groups.*** Gradually, a number of cases, like the desegregation of schools (first enforced by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) and the Voting Rights Act (favored and signed by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson), stirred some southern whites to abandon the Democrats for various other parties, although many often later returned to the Democratic column on the ballot, as the thought of voting Republican was just too much for a region steeped in hatred for the GOP since the Civil War. As the two major parties gradually changed roles on many issues, southern whites began a gradual change to the Republican Party, eventually making the once "solidly Democratic South," into a solidly Republican South and providing a number of major leaders to the Republican Party, like Newt Gingrich (not a native southerner, but he came to be associated with Georgia), Dick Armey (not a native southerner, but became associated with Texas), Trent Lott of Mississippi, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (a former Democrat and leader of the Dixiecrats, a pro-segregation party of southern Democrats in the late 1940s), Rick Perry of Texas (a former Democrat), Phil Gramm of Texas (a former Democrat), Richard Shelby of Alabama (a former Democrat), Jesse Helms of North Carolina (a former Democrat only in his early years), Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (although born in Alabama, from childhood on in Kentucky). This is only meant to be a sampling, not a definitive list.

I'll finish his series in the next article with what's been going on in the last couple of years up to the present.

* After Hitler's Austrian homeland was made part of Germany in the spring of 1938, Hitler called for a plebiscite. The idea that Germans would vote against that was not likely in the first place. The more important question was, if Austrians would ratify the move in substantial numbers, which they did by a slightly higher percentage than in the rest of Germany. After World War One, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up, with many regions becoming parts of other countries, newly established or existing. This left the German Austrian part as a small separate nation, initially called "The Republic of German Austria." For more on these events, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/06/german-question-part-one-hundred-four.html

And for Austria becoming part of Germany during Hitler's rule, see:

 http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/07/german-question-part-one-hundred-twenty_30.html

** This was actually a revolution that failed, but it is often seen by historians as a sort of dress rehearsal for the 1917 revolution which brought down the Tsar. This was followed only months later by the Bolshevik overthrow of the government that had replaced the Tsar and his officials. This brought communist rule for decades. 

*** By that time, and certainly later, a fairly substantial number of black Americans had left the South for other parts of the country, often for northern industrial cities, where laborers could earn a pretty decent wage, thanks to union victories over time.

WORD HISTORY:
Minor-This word goes back to the Indo European root "mey/mei," which had the notion of  "small, little." This gave its Latin offspring "minuere," which meant "to lessen, to make smaller, reduce." From this was derived Latin "minor," with the general meaning "smaller." English borrowed the word in the 1200s as "minour/menour." The noun form developed in Latin from the adjective as a word for a Franciscan, from the Latin expression of St Francis "Frates Minores;" that is, "lesser brethren," meant to show humility for his religious order. English borrowed the noun form in the 1300s. Latin "minores" also meant "young" (lesser in age) and English took that meaning, which is still with us today, as well as the general "lesser" meaning, also later used for a secondary course of study in universities. I have to be honest, "minor" is a tough word to research, and some Germanic languages have forms seemingly going way back in time, but whether these came by way of Latin, or from a Germanic form likewise derived from Indo European root, I cannot really say, although I lean toward the borrowing from Latin, as I could not find a form in Old English, which "seems to suggest" the other Germanic dialects borrowed forms from Latin AFTER the Anglo-Saxons left northern Germany, but the term also could have died out in Old English before it was ever recorded in writing. 

"It's A Wonderful Life" Showed Conscience

Edited very slightly December 8, 2020

 

"It's A Wonderful Life" is a movie given by Frank Capra and the United States to the world.* It shows how conscience is important to holding people together. If you've never seen this movie, made just after the end of World War Two, please take the time to sit down and watch it, it will inspire you.** It will inspire you, unless of course, you love money more than anything, and thus you see communists lurking everywhere, including under your bed. If you think I'm joking, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI believed the film was the result of communist infiltration of Hollywood; after all, the main character, played by Jimmy Stewart, gave up money to help others, making him downright un-American in the eyes of the moneygrubbing ego maniacs who are constantly working to have the world orbiting around themselves. In today's America, I'm sure the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Donald Trump see the picture as under the influence of communists, so beware, you may make their list if you like this movie. I hope I do make their list, since I'll call them what they are; a bunch of fascist propagandists, undoubtedly all in the possession of leather bound editions of "The Collected Works of Joseph Goebbels."***

I have to believe most of you have seen the movie at some point (but watch it again, we need reinforcement in our lives, and NOT from the merchants of hate and survival of the fittest), so I'll go through it briefly, including the ending. The movie centers around the life of small town resident George Bailey, played by James "Jimmy" Stewart. The Bailey family isn't against business, the father and uncle run a building and loan company that helps workers achieve the American dream of owning a home by pooling money to build homes for the town's non rich. The Baileys struggle to get by, just as their customers struggle in their lives, but the Baileys are always more than a little reluctant to foreclose on the town's people, although they are opposed in such beliefs by Mr. Potter, played by Lionel Barrymore, the town's richest man and the owner of just about everything in the town. George has many dreams, including the dream of leaving small town life and going off to do big things. His dreams often come into conflict with his conscience, but in the end, George's conscience wins, although his help to others brings hardship to himself, as "no good deed goes unpunished." In his childhood, George saved his younger brother who had fallen through the ice into a nearby pond. The result is, George loses the hearing in one ear due to the frigid water. As George prepares to go off and do big things, his father dies and George takes over the struggling building and loan business, which otherwise would have been liquidated, leaving the market to moneygrubbing Potter, who is constantly plotting the demise of the company. When the Great Depression strikes, George is about to leave for his honeymoon, but he chooses to remain in town and spend his own savings to keep the building and loan in business. The constant struggle to eke out a living and keep the business going takes its toll on George, and by the time World War Two ends, his troubles are capped off by the shortage of $8000 on the business accounts, money misplaced by his forgetful uncle (played by Thomas Mitchell). The ruthless and jealous Mr. Potter now moves in for the kill, accusing George of embezzlement and calling in the law. The distraught George turns on his family in anger and decides to end his own life.

As George prepares to jump off of a bridge, his guardian angel, played by English actor Henry Travers, who has been watching events unfold, intervenes and jumps into the swirling river first, as he knows George will quickly forget his own life when another person needs help. After the rescue, the angel, named Clarence, carrying a copy of "Tom Sawyer," tells a disbelieving George who he is. Clarence has been given the assignment of saving George so that he, Clarence, can then earn his wings, which the devoted, but less than resourceful angel has been unable to do for centuries. So Clarence gets another chance too! George, now again focused on his own troubles, gives Clarence an idea when he tells him, "I wish I'd never been born." Clarence grants the wish and George Bailey's history is wiped out. As George goes through town, no one knows him, including his own mother, and he sees the town has been renamed after Mr. Potter. All sorts of things are different, including a grave for his younger brother, who ended up dying, because George wasn't there to save him when he fell through the ice into the pond. The brother had helped save a transport ship full of men in World War II, but Clarence then tells George that all of the men on the transport died, because his brother hadn't been there to save them, because George hadn't been there to save his brother when they were kids. This is how events of people's lives link to other lives. The section of town where the homes had been built for average people is vacant and ringed with slums owned by Potter. After George tries to get his wife to understand who he is, she screams, bringing a police officer in pursuit of George, who heads back to the bridge to ask to be put back to his real life, troubled though it is.

George, unaware his real life is back, wants to slug his long time friend the policeman when he pulls up. When the officer calls him by name, George realizes his life is back and he cheerfully dashes through town to get home. He enters the house where a bank examiner and a detective with an arrest warrant are waiting for him. In comes George's wife (played by Donna Reed) and other family members. In a turn around from his always helping others, they are carrying money donated by the townspeople to help George this time. More people crowd the house to donate, and one man says, "I wouldn't have a roof over my head if weren't for you, George." People remember! A telegram arrives from a lifelong friend and successful businessman granting George a large line of credit. (Hm, he must be a communist too. Damn, they're everywhere!) With the line of credit and the donated money now available to George, the detective tears up the warrant and joins the celebration. George's brother arrives and offers a toast to his brother George, "the richest man in town." As they all sing, George looks down into the donation basket and sees Clarence's copy of "Tom Sawyer," complete with the inscription, "George, Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!"           

* Frank Capra produced and directed the movie.

** The movie is readily available on DVD.

*** Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's propagandist. Goebbels and his wife were fanatical Nazi nutcases to the very end, as after Hitler's suicide, they tragically killed their six beautiful young children in Hitler's Berlin bunker, and then, not so tragically, killed themselves.

Photo is of the 2 disc Paramount DVD release of 2007

WORD HISTORY:
Yarn-This word goes back to Indo European "ghor/gher," with the idea of "guts, intestines," which were then used for strings, chords. This gave its Old Germanic offspring "garnan," by which time the meaning had broadened to include "wool used to make string, thread, yarn." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "gearn," seemingly pronounced "ge-arn," which then became "yarn," as the "initial "ge" blended to become a "y" sound. The word also took on the meaning "a story," from the idea of putting ideas together into an understandable tale. Other Germanic languages have: German "Garn," Low German Saxon "Goorn," Dutch "garen," West Frisian "jern," Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish all have "garn."

It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Twenty

First published in November 2012


I will use "George Bush (Sr.)," or just, "George Bush," rather than George H.W. Bush.

George Bush came to the presidency with much, but not all, of the Reagan coalition intact. There was little inkling of the world-changing events that would take place within just a short time in Bush's presidency. Mikhail Gorbachev's liberal reforms in the Soviet Union gave hope to the people of the communist-run states of eastern Europe for reforms in their countries too. With Bush in office just a few months, protests in China took place, with large crowds gathering in the capital of Beijing, in Tiananmen Square. A visit to China by Gorbachev only added to the obvious desire of people in communist countries to have more freedom, as reporters worldwide reported on his visit. This stirred the people of eastern Europe and the Chinese protesters. The gatherings and protests continued, and the Chinese leaders declared martial law, but troops dispatched to various locations were blocked by huge crowds of protesters and the army forces withdrew. The government then decided to use force to restore its hold on the country. Large numbers of troops were sent and protesters again tried to block their deployment, but this time troops, often in armored vehicles, opened fire, prompting a violent response from some protesters. Eventually the troops and the Chinese government regained control and the square was cleared. In the next few days protests elsewhere in China subsided. While actual figures are unknown, apparently hundreds of protesters were killed, with many more wounded, and government forces seem to have suffered something near fifty deaths.*

Meanwhile in Poland in 1989, the Solidarity Movement was legalized and a system of somewhat competitive elections was set up. Solidarity won an overwhelming victory. The Soviet Union of Gorbachev made no move. Within about a year Poland had shifted from a communist nation to a free nation. Similar happened in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and East Germany, where German citizens literally began to tear down the wall that had been put up in the early 1960s by the communists to stop the loss of population to (then) West Germany.** In Rumania matters were more confrontational for a time, and some protesters were killed, but eventually the army joined the revolution and the communist government was overthrown. Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were quickly tried by the army and executed. By 1990 the Soviet Union itself began to come apart, as its various components began to split off. By late 1991, the Soviet Union was no more.

George Bush and his administration offered public support to protesters during all of these historic times, but the President also kept the United States out of direct intervention, and there was no talk of "boots on the ground," although Bush, the U.S. and its allies were more involved in the Middle East at that time. Bush and Gorbachev worked together to reconcile the former opponents.

Next... "Bush's Popularity Soars, Then Plummets"  

* I was in Germany when the violent outbreak occurred, staying in, get this, a Chinese government-owned hotel in downtown Frankfurt (on Niddastrasse). The German manager and I had been friends for several years, dating back to when he managed a different hotel right down the street from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in downtown Frankfurt. The anxiety among the Chinese employees and guests at the hotel was evident and the faxes were flying fast and furious between Frankfurt and China, as they tried to get information on their loved ones at home.

** As already mentioned, I was in Germany around mid 1989, and if someone, including the relatives I visited, had told me that East and West Germany would be on their way to reunification in a matter of months, I'd have asked, "Seid ihr verrückt geworden?" ("Have you gone crazy?")

WORD HISTORY:
Gulf-The ultimate origins of this word are uncertain, but it goes back to Greek "kolpos," the original notion of which was "bent, curved," which then led to the additional meaning "bosom," and thus to the meaning "water surface between curved land area;" that is, "gulf." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "colfos" with that meaning, and Old French, a Latin-based language, had "golfe." English borrowed the word from French in the 1300s and it has since taken on the extended meaning, "gap," often in reference to ideas, as in "The gulf between the two countries for an agreement was wide."  

It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Fourteen

"Conservatism Consolidates Power-Reagan"

During 1981 Ronald Reagan fired thousands of the nation's air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.*  This action signaled business people that labor unions had no friend in the White House, in spite of Reagan touting how he had once been the president of a union. It was another of Reagan's contradictions, but it didn't really hurt him in the long run, as some union members still staunchly supported the President.

Ronald Reagan had made his strong anti-communist feelings clear going back well before he was president; in fact, when he was still a Democrat and president of The Screen Actors Guild, the union for performers, when he testified at a congressional hearing about possible communist sympathies in the film industry. His strong support for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election solidified Reagan's position as a leading anti-communist spokesman. As President, Reagan used his position to lambaste the Soviet Union, which he declared to be "the evil empire," and he supported giving aid, even in secret, to groups opposing communist or communist leaning governments in other countries. President Carter had begun giving aid to Afghanistan opponents of the Soviet Union and its Marxist allies in the country.** Reagan, with support from some Democrats in Congress, intensified American support for the Afghanistan forces opposing the Soviets. The Reagan administration also supported anti-communist groups in a number of other countries, including in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.*** In 1983, the little island nation of Grenada (off the coast of the northern part of South America), with a Marxist government, had internal troubles which had the government taken over by the military elements of the ruling Marxists and strict martial law was imposed, with the threat of execution for violators.**** There were at least several hundred Americans on the island, mainly medical students. In an effort to send in military forces to both secure the Americans and to defeat the Marxists, who had Cuban support, the Reagan administration had other nearby nations "ask for military assistance from the United States," and American forces invaded the island. A constitutional government was established, although Britain was not entirely happy with the American intervention into this Commonwealth nation. Americans generally reacted favorably to the President's action, which had the cover of acting to secure the American medical students, as the recollection of the hostages in Iran was still fresh in people's minds, but the administration also claimed victory of turning a Marxist nation, albeit a small one, to a constitutional nation.

* The controllers wanted better pay, but the main issue was a shorter work week. Reagan had voiced support for the controllers' cause during the 1980 campaign and the union endorsed Reagan over Carter in that election.

** Afghanistan was and is a nation almost exclusively Muslim. The Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in support of the pro-Soviet government there, which was opposed by the committed Muslim segment of the population, a segment which grew and became more radicalized as time passed. Thus began a resistance to Soviet forces in Afghanistan, aided by Muslims who came from outside the country, including one Osama bin Laden, and given financial and military aid by the United States. The military and clandestine operations experience gained by the Muslim fighters against the Soviets over nearly a decade of war was later often turned against the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after suffering tens of thousands of killed, wounded, or sick. Their failure in Afghanistan is often likened, by some, to the U.S. role in Vietnam, which ended in the mid 1970s.

*** Just a little personal story here. In the mid 1980s I was in Germany traveling on a train from Berlin to Frankfurt. From the end of World War Two until German reunification in 1990, Berlin lay within the Soviet occupation zone, which was communist East Germany. Berlin itself was also divided into democratic and communist. The trip to Frankfurt was largely in East German territory. There had been a major revelation about communist spies, called "moles"  (German: "Maulwürfe") in (democratic) West Germany, and the West Germans cracked down. In my train compartment, besides a couple of Germans, was a young man from Ethiopia, a country at that time with a pro-Soviet government. He had been to a university in Moscow and he actually had a Soviet passport. He spoke to the German guy next to me in French (so an Ethiopian with a Soviet passport speaking French, confused yet?). When the train stopped at the border between East and West Germany, the West German guards got on to check passports and  identification, which was quite normal. However, when they saw the man's passport and his native country, they went through everything that man had with him, including his toothbrush. I am not exaggerating. He was young and visibly shaken, but such were the tensions of the Cold War back in those times. As for myself, I had no problems going through East German territory either to get to Berlin or to return to Frankfurt. The East Germans needed western money, and they charged a special "transit visa" (equivalent to a dollar or two) to cross their territory. The trip to Berlin was not quite as much in East German territory, as I had been in Hamburg (in northern Germany) for a few days and left from there, crossing into East Germany at the little town of Büchen (actually in West Germany), which was a major crossing point between East and West..

**** Grenada had been a British colony until the mid 1970s and the official language is English. It remained (and remains) a Commonwealth nation, and Queen Elizabeth II is also the Queen of Grenada.  

WORD HISTORY:
Missile-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, but it is closely related to "mission" and "message." It goes back to Latin "mittere," which meant "to send," the participle form of which was "missus." This produced the Latin  noun "missilis," meaning "things that are thrown," but especially used of "thrown weapons." English borrowed the word from Latin in the early 1600s, and by about the mid 1700s, besides being used for thrown weapons, it was also applied to rockets used in combat (see note). The modern sense of large rockets remotely controlled or with guidance systems of their own is post World War Two usage.
NOTE: The use of rockets as weapons goes back much further than most people probably realize, as the Chinese and Mongols certainly used them in the 1300s, and likely the 1200s or before. 

Fear Drives The Political Ads, But... Part Two

While humans are by nature pretty much apprehensive about change, much of the political right "fears" change, some pathologically so. The ultra modern American right seems to not only want to stop change, or slow it down, but to reverse course to some unknown destination in the past. The past is a safe place, because even if there were bad times, we know the outcome. With the future, things are truly never certain. The constant barrage about "hate the government," "never trust government," "government IS the problem, not the solution," "fear the government" has played with the minds of many, and not to their own self interest, but to the advantage of corporations and other wealthy interests, who help fund ad campaigns of misinformation, disinformation and outright lies designed to scare people with irrational fears of government. I'm not naive, the political left uses fear too, but elderly and poor people are rightly fearful the conservatives, especially the ultra conservatives, will take away or curtail their security benefits. Like a gambler who can't stop trying to beat the odds, and like the bankers and others who gambled on the housing market, there are those who want to gamble Social Security money in the stock market. They will never do it if they aren't making the rules, and their number one rule will be "Heads they win, tails you lose."

Remember, capitalism is NOT about providing for everyone, or getting you medical care, or sending your kids or grandchildren to school. It is about one thing, making money. Pure capitalists see fairness as "I beat you, I get the rewards." You don't have to be a communist to see that communism, in the big picture, provided a counterbalance to capitalism for decades. Capitalists were often held in check, to some degree, by the fear that average people would turn to communism as a refuge from ruthless capitalists. The thing was, communism was fatally flawed by providing no incentives for people to strive for achievement; that is, more money, and by using total force to dominate. Like it, not like it, most people want more; we all want a better life and we all have selfishness in us. The problem comes when one group dominates and can then make the rules to benefit themselves. This little joking statement has much truth to it: "I want everyone to be treated fairly, but I just want to be treated more fairly than you." Capitalists now see themselves as the victors. To the victors go the spoils, and these ruthless people are raking in the spoils, at YOUR expense. It isn't by magic that income inequality has grown so much.

All the while the income gap has increased, the "un-rich" have remained divided over all sorts of issues, I'm certain to the absolute glee of the ruthless and greedy. When we are divided, they win, because we aren't paying enough attention to their actions. Changes in America and the world have given many people an "angst" (see "Word History" below), and the ultra conservatives plan to keep that "angst" in place. Fear of minorities, fear of unions, fear of people of different faiths, fear of people with odd sounding names, fear, fear, and more fear. The fear that should be most prevalent should be the fear of what the wealthy and the interests will continue to do to us.   

WORD HISTORY:
Angst-This word, meaning "irrational or unexplained unease, sense of fear," goes back to Indo European "(h)engh," which had the notion of "tight, narrow, constricted." This produced the variant, "angh," with the same basic meaning, but also meaning "constricted to the point of pain, distress," which then gave its Old Germanic offspring "anguz," with the same basic meaning. The West Germanic branch of Germanic had "angust," which gave Old English "angnes" and "angsumnes," both with the meaning "pain or distress of the body or mind." These words eventually died out in English, however, the same West Germanic word gave Old High German "angust, which then became "angest" and then the modern form "Angst." During the 1800s, the word came to be used among the medical community in regard to psychology, even somewhat in English, especially a bit later under the influence of Sigmund Freud's ideas on the human mind. There seems to be no "official" date the word was borrowed into English, but during the 1930s and early 1940s the word had spread more into general usage.   

Allied Leaders of World War II/de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle was born near the French border with Belgium in northern France. He served in the army before World War One, and indeed was already an officer when the war started. Given high marks by his superiors, de Gaulle was wounded and then captured by the Germans in 1916. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. After the war, de Gaulle served with French military personnel in Poland, there to help train the Poles, who were then in a war with Soviet Russia. A writer and military thinker, de Gaulle favored mobile warfare, rather than the infantry-based static and trench warfare of the then recently concluded war.

When the German offensive in western Europe commenced in May 1940, de Gaulle's armored division launched a somewhat successful attack against the Germans and he was promoted to Brigadier General. He opposed the French surrender to Germany and wanted the war continued from French colonies in North Africa.* As France prepared to surrender, de Gaulle fled to Britain where he began forming what came to be known as the "Free French Forces" from other Frenchmen who had left France. He became noted for his radio broadcasts to the French people, urging them to resist the German occupation and the collaborationist French government at Vichy.** This brought a death sentence to de Gaulle from the French Vichy government, but it made him the leader of Frenchmen everywhere who wanted France free from Axis forces. As such, de Gaulle became noted for his conflict and "difficult behavior" with the British, and later the Americans, and the relationship between these "allies" was often "frosty," to put it mildly, as the British and the Americans didn't trust de Gaulle, and de Gaulle didn't trust the British and the Americans. After the Axis defeat in North Africa, De Gaulle moved his operations to (French) Algeria, where he saw himself as the legitimate leader of a French government in exile, to be continued as a temporary government in France, once parts of the country were liberated. This was something the Americans, especially, would not support. Things were so bad, de Gaulle even refused to broadcast by radio to France as the Allies prepared to launch the invasion to liberate France in June 1944.

The Allied invasion eventually succeeded, and a second invasion, in southern France, was launched in August 1944. It consisted of substantial French forces. With the Germans in retreat, fearful of a French communist takeover in Paris, and of German retaliation against the French capitol, de Gaulle wanted Paris freed by French troops, and the Allies acceded to his wishes. Paris was liberated on August 25. Since many French leaders had been associated with the Vichy government, de Gaulle was essentially seen by most French people as the obvious leader of a new government until the country could regain its footing. As the war approached its end, de Gaulle demanded that France be given a prominent role in shaping post-war Europe. The fact that the Soviet Union, Britain, and America had shouldered much of the war effort didn't seem to bother him in the least, and the relationship between the various Allies continued to be contentious.

During the time of German occupation, the French resistance forces had many communist elements,*** but once the war on French soil essentially ended, the resistance forces continued in existence, not only as a military presence, but as something of a political movement of the left. De Gaulle ordered the separate military aspect of the Resistance disbanded, with those wishing to maintain a military life having to join the actual French army. De Gaulle gave some positions in his new government to men from the Resistance, including a couple of communists, but he and men from the "Free French" basically dominated the top positions, leaving bitter feelings.

While not invited to the "Yalta Conference" in February 1945 by the "Big Three" Allied leaders (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin), De Gaulle did win a French role, supported by Britain and the U.S., in the occupation of Germany during the conference, although Stalin insisted the new zone come from the British and American portions of Germany, and indeed the relatively small French zone was the region just over the border from France. Further, France was given a seat on the United Nations Security Council, an international organization that was just forming. Even these victories didn't soothe the angry feelings of the contentious Frenchman for having been left out of the conference in the first place.

When the war ended, de Gaulle faced a new problem, an elected Assembly. The power of the communists could no longer be denied, as they won more than a quarter of the vote, making them the largest party in multi-party France. Combined with the vote of other left of center parties, the left had garnered about 75% of the total vote, although de Gaulle was still the choice to head the government. His unwillingness to appoint communists to many positions within the government brought serious arguments, and the desire of the communists and others to cut military spending brought de Gaulle's resignation in early 1946, just two months after the election. De Gaulle remained out of office until 1958, but with France embroiled in many problems with her colonies, including a problem in Indochina, which brought American involvement and the subsequent Vietnam War, he was again chosen to lead the government. A few months later he was elected President of France. He remained as president until 1969, when he resigned, after years of contentiousness with Britain, the U.S. and others, which is beyond the scope of this article. He died in November 1970.

De Gaulle was certainly a "difficult" person, but he was a solid advocate for France, and he is fondly remembered as such by many of his countrymen. He ranks up there with the greatest French leaders.

* France controlled Tunisia, Algeria, and French Morocco, all in the western part of North Africa.

** Hitler took control of northern France, including Paris, and the French Atlantic coastline area, but permitted a collaborationist government to rule the remainder of France and her colonies. This collaborationist government ended in November 1942 when Hitler and Mussolini sent troops into the area after the Allies invaded the French North African colonies, which lay to the rear of Rommel's forces in Libya. The Germans occupied most of the collaborationist area, with Italy taking the area of the Riviera along the Mediterranean, an area of historical dispute between Italy and France. When Italy surrendered in September 1943, the Germans took control of the Riviera, too.

*** This isn't terribly surprising, as many resistance movements in Europe had large communist elements, or were even actually communist groups, like Tito's Partisans in Yugoslavia. As the war neared its end, these groups became political forces, or even provided the basis of communist governments in eastern Europe, where Stalin's Soviet Union dominated.

WORD HISTORY:
Chief/Chef-These are really the same word, but in English they have varied meanings, as well as the different spelling. "Chief' goes back to Indo European "kaput/khauput," which meant "head." This gave its Latin offspring "caput," with the same meaning, and then the word later "capum." Old French, a Latin-based language, inherited a form of the word as "chief" (the "ch" pronounced as "sh") which meant "leader of some entity, main person or position." This was borrowed into English during the 1200s. In French, the word later became "chef," still with the same meaning, and it later came to be used in the expression, "chef de cuisine," for "head of the cooking or of the kitchen." The shortened version, "chef," was borrowed into English in the 1820s for "head cook." German too borrowed the word "chef," and it generally carries the meaning of English "chief;" that is, "main, head, chief, boss."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Twenty

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" (Part Three)
"Spain Brings Hitler and Mussolini Together"

The events leading up to the Spanish Civil War are highly complex and they are well beyond the scope of this series. This article is "super" simplified, but for those interested, there are many good sources to get further information. This article is really only concerned with Germany, and how Hitler and Mussolini moved toward becoming allies, although a little background information is important.

During the early 1930s, a contentious, to say the least, bout between socialist/left-leaning/ communist groups and right wing/conservative/fascist/Catholic Church groups was ongoing in Spain. A "republic" was declared after the abdication of the king, but the situation was absolutely volatile. Eventually "rightist" elements, led by officers of the army, attempted to overthrow the "leftist" government. Unfortunately, there was not much middle ground, and the "left" frequently saw opponents as fascists, and the "right" saw opponents as "communists," and to be quite honest, there was a great degree of truth in both assertions. The clash between these forces brought other nations, or specific groups from other nations, to choose sides, although Britain and France remained (officially) neutral. During the early fighting, General Francisco Franco, a right wing officer, was named to lead a new government by the "Nationalists;" that is, the fascist-supported side.* Such an ideological war brought about atrocities by both sides.

Hitler and Mussolini saw the struggle as a chance to defeat communists, and to install another fascist or fascist-supporting leader in a key area of Europe, and they both declared their support for the Nationalist cause. Italy provided a great deal of naval support in the Mediterranean, as well as "regular" military units, deemed to be "volunteers," a term which fooled no one. Hitler mainly sent air units and equipment, as well as men to help train Nationalist military personnel. The Soviet Union mainly sent equipment and military advisers to aid the Republicans. Groups of volunteers from various countries, including the U.S., appeared in Spain, mainly in support of the Republicans.** The cooperation between Hitler and Mussolini in Spain, following on Hitler's support of Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia, made the two fascist dictators new allies. The military lessons learned by the Germans would aid them later when World War Two started. The Spanish Civil War was eventually won by the Nationalists; that is, the fascists, although the war didn't end until 1939.

Next... "Hitler Goes Home; Austria Joins Germany"

* The pro-government (the Republic) supporters were called "Republicans" (absolutely no relation to the U.S. Republican Party).

** Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is about an American volunteer (played by Gary Cooper in the movie version), who supports the Republic. If you like books, please read this one, if you haven't already; it is a GREAT one. Also rent or buy the movie version, which is quite good and faithful to the book. The characters portrayed by the wonderful performers are just unforgettable.

WORD HISTORY:
Luftwaffe (Part Two)-Now I'll deal with the "Waffe" part of "Luftwaffe." For those studying German, this noun is feminine, so it is "die Waffe," and because it forms the second part of the compound "Luftwaffe," it also makes that compound noun feminine, "die Luftwaffe." Further, "Luft" is also feminine; thus, "die Luft." "Waffe" is simply the German form of English "weapon." Old Germanic had "wepnan," with the meaning "weapon," but where Germanic got the word is uncertain. All forms of the word, unless borrowed by other languages, appear only in the Germanic languages. Germanic "wepnan" gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "waepen," which then became "wepen," before the modern spelling. The original Old Germanic also gave Old High German "wafen," as a sound shift in some of the continental Germanic dialects changed the "p" sound to "f." In modern German "wafen" became "Waffe." Another form of the same original Germanic did not undergo the sound shift and was "wapen," and then modern "Wappen," and it means "coat of arms;" with the obvious tie to "weapon." I "suspect" this form came from the northern dialects (now known as Low German Saxon, Dutch, and Frisian), since those dialects did not experience the sound shift, nor did English (Anglo-Saxon), which, by the time of the sound shift, was already in Britain. Besides the English and German forms of "weapon," Dutch, most Low German and Frisian have "wapen," Norwegian has "våpen," Swedish has "vapen," Danish has "våben," and Icelandic "vopn."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Ten

The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part Two/B-1
"Hitler & The Nazis March Toward Power"

Benito Mussolini is important to Hitler's rise simply because his Italian Fascist Party, which was very similar to the German Nazi Party, came to power in Italy in the early 1920s. Mussolini had been a member of the Socialist Party earlier in his life, but he began to alter his thinking on socialist concepts, moving toward a more "collectivist" idea of people from all walks of life having to join together for the good of the "state;" that is, the nation. So, nationalism trumps individual rights and self interest. In the post-World War One era, this basic concept was a growing view among many people in various parts of the world. The Bolshevik take over in Russia sent shock waves throughout Europe. Similar communist movements quickly developed in many countries, including Italy and Germany, scaring the absolute hell out of the upper classes, industrialists, and many middle class people. In those times, many of these people were willing to accept left-leaning programs to keep far more radical ideas from taking hold, especially things like confiscation of private property and major forced restructuring of societal wealth. In Italy, Mussolini and his paramilitary forces came to be seen by middle and upper class people as their defenders against the Communists, even though there were socialist-like elements in their program. These ideas and the appeal to Italian nationalism brought many working class and lower class people into the fold, as nationalism trumped self-interest.*

In Germany, the Nazi Party gained ground with the upper classes and business people, who also began to see the Nazis as a counter-balance to the communists. Gradually these people began to give money to the Nazis. This helped Hitler to promote the movement, and also to take on even more paramilitary forces to combat German Communist Party paramilitaries in the streets of German cities. Nazi leaders, like Hermann Göring, only reinforced the notion to middle and upper class people that the Nazis were a party of heroes who would stand up to the Communists.** This notion would only grow stronger.

Next..."A Beer Hall in Munich; the Beer Hall Putsch"

*Once in power, Mussolini naturally began to implement policies according to his beliefs, implementing "corporatism," as it was called, but it is a subject beyond these articles. The main thing to remember is, Italian fascism did provide a certain blueprint for fascist groups in other countries, including Germany and Austria, where a Nazi movement also took hold. ("Corporatism" was/is the collective organization of segments of society that are then "managed" by the state.)  

**Göring was a genuine hero as a pilot in World War One. He was highly decorated, and in fact, he became the commander of the same unit of the famous Baron von Richthofen, popularly known as "The Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron," in German), not long after the Baron's death. His name was quite familiar to the German public. There's no question that Göring's joining the Nazi Party gave it a certain credibility.

WORD HISTORY:
Marshal (mare + shalk) Part Two-The word "shalk," obviously not a word in common modern English usage, goes back to Old Germanic "skalkaz," which meant "servant." Indo European likely provided the root for this word, but what that root was, I do not know. The Old Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scealc," also meaning "servant," and which later became "shalk." Now, some people believe Germanic already had the compound which has become modern "marshal," which is simply the combination of "mare" + "shalk;" and which originally meant "a servant who tended horses, a groom." It "seems," however, that while English had the two component words, it hadn't put them together into a word. If there was such an Old English word, it apparently died out. Meanwhile on the Continent, Old High German had put the two words together as "marahscale," with the general meaning of "servant who tended horses," and this is one of the reasons some believe Germanic already had the compound, BUT Old High German essentially developed AFTER the dialects that became English had left the mainland. Old Saxon, very closely related to Old English,  also had a compound, "marahscalc." Old Saxon was the Germanic dialect of the Saxons who remained in what is now northern Germany, after a large number of their kin migrated to Britain and helped to found England. Most believe "marshal" came to English via the French dialect brought to England by the Normans when they invaded, and then ruled, England, which had "marescal." This dialect had gotten the word from Old French, "marescal," which had inherited the basic word from Latin "mariscalus," which had borrowed the word from Frankish (a Germanic dialect) "mahrskalk/marhskalk." It had come to mean more than just "horse servant" in Latin and its offspring Old French. Horses were extremely important, and the word came to be applied to a man "in charge" of horse care; a "commander" of sorts. This eventually came to be extended to also mean "a military commander," a meaning also carried to England by the Normans. The word begins to show up in English in the 1200s. Of course later on, it came to be used as "field marshal," and, especially in America, as "a leading law enforcement officer." The word also gained a verb form in the 1500s, as in "we will marshal our forces;" that is, "our forces will be commanded to a particular location and be readied for battle."

Conservatism Unravels, Part Three

So Reagan was leaving office having negotiated some substantial deals with Gorbachev, the then leader of the Soviet Union. While Reagan has been given credit by conservatives, Republicans and some Democrats for bringing down the Soviet Union and Communism in eastern Europe, in general, it is, in my opinion, something like the Dems claiming that FDR ended the Depression; that is, there is certainly some truth, but also some exaggeration involved. Reagan developed a good relationship with Gorbachev, a man who also deserves some credit for the demise of the Soviet Union, although he probably didn't want things to actually turn out exactly as they did. Gorbachev's "openness" policy helped curb the police state that the Communist Party had developed from the very inception of Bolshevik rule, which was simply an exchange of a Tsarist police state for a Soviet police state.

While Communism lost control of various nations by the early 1990s, the problems associated with their rise didn't go away. There still remains in the world and in our own society a debate about basic treatment of workers and some sort of basic fairness to society, including income and services like health care. Remember, the old members of the Bolshevik Party didn't just decide one day to form a radical political movement just for the hell of it. They were reacting to brutal treatment by the Russian business class and by the Russian government, a government ruled by the upper class. This is not an attempt to sanitize the Bolsheviks, later called Communists, but the fact remains that what seems to have been a fairly large segment of the Russian population favored some major changes in the economic life of the country, although most did NOT favor the Bolsheviks. In fact, within the particular socialist party from which the Bolsheviks came, the Bolsheviks were a minority. That's how they got their name, as "Bolshevik" means "minority," as opposed to the far larger segment of this socialist party called the "Mensheviks," meaning "majority." Anyway, Reagan certainly helped to bring Communism to its knees in eastern Europe, with his enormous military build up, but he did so at the expense of the American budget deficit, which ballooned to extraordinary heights.

In his campaign for the White House, George Bush (Sr.) had some difficulties within his own Republican Party, as many on the far right were lukewarm, at best, toward him. The media picked up on this tension and dubbed Bush as being the dreaded "M" word, meaning "moderate,"*** primarily based upon his perceived stands on many social issues and possibly on taxes.^^^ The anti tax mantra of the Republicans had become so strong, that in his acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention, Bush felt forced to declare that he would never raise taxes, and uttered a line that helped get him elected, but which then turned on him: "Read my lips...no new taxes!!!" Of course, never to be counted out for doing something stupid, Democrats helped Bush's campaign by putting presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in an army tank, with an extra large helmet that made him look something akin to Snoopy of the Peanuts cartoon strip doing some stunt. The thing was, Snoopy was more popular than Dukakis, and Bush won handily.

I've often felt that politics is so unfair. Sometimes, the wrong people are made to pay for the sins of others. To me, thus it was with Bush. He formed a very formidable alliance, even with many Muslim nations as participants, to oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait. The "Gulf War" sent Bush's popularity soaring higher than any president in history, but then the American economy started to falter. The deficits incurred under Reagan became even worse under Bush, as revenues from the slow economy and spending on the war took a toll. Bush made a deal with Democrats (who controlled both houses of Congress) to raise taxes. The right wing of the Republican Party went ballistic.

As the economy sagged, so did Bush's poll numbers. Conservative Pat Buchanan chose to run against Bush in the Republican primaries and gave Bush a bloody nose, and the "read my lips" part of Bush's 1988 speech was used against him. Bush never really recovered. Further, Buchanan had proven himself to be quite popular with the hardcore conservative base of the party, and he demanded a prominent role at the Republican Convention. Buchanan's speech to the convention turned off many moderate (there's that "M" word again) voters, as he tossed out the red meat of intolerance to the social conservatives and members of the Religious Right. Ross Perot, a billionaire businessman, also entered the general election fray, and at times, led Bush in the polls. In the end, many Republicans "came home" and voted for Bush and saved him the embarrassment of finishing third. Conservatism seemed to be running out of steam... or was it? Bush lost, but Republicans actually gained seats in the House of Representatives!!! Enter...Bill Clinton, the guy conservatives love to hate. (Of course, even some Democrats aren't all that thrilled with him either, at times!) To be continued.... (Some word histories are further below)

***Bush and other Republicans had frequently dared Democrats to use "liberal" to describe themselves, with the implication being that "liberal" had become a sort of dirty word, and that Democrats were trying to disassociate themselves with the term. Bush said that Dems were afraid of the "L word." And he was RIGHT!

^^^And THEY were right! After he left office, Bush talked about being able to express his own views on many social issues, without the worry of having to placate the right wing of his party. As to taxes, just read further in the main text.

Word History:
Skill-The basic idea behind this word is "the ability to make distinctions; that is, to have the knowledge to make distinctions, discernment." It came to English during the 1200s from Old Norse "skil," which also meant "distinction, discernment." Old Norse is a North Germanic language. It is related to the Old Norse verb "skilja," which meant "distinguish, separate." It goes back to Old Germanic "skaljo," (from the root word "skel") also meaning "separate, divide." Middle Low German had "schillen," meaning "to differ," and Dutch has "geschil," meaning "difference" (the notion being, if you can separate things, you can discern the difference). Within a short time in English (by the early 1300s), the word had developed further, with the idea that if you had the mental ability to make distinctions, you were clever. Then finally that progressed quickly to the modern meaning of "being able to do something well."