Description
Book SynopsisIn Experiment in Occupation, Arthur Kahn offers a richly detailed account of the process by which the fight against Nazism came to be transformed into the Cold War. Kahn's portrayal of events in postwar Germany provides warnings for current and future American experiments in foreign occupation.
Trade Review“What differentiates this work from other accounts is Kahn's familiarity with German politics at the local level and his knowledge of how high-level Military Government policies were translated into actual practice. Kahn has an important story to tell and possesses a trove of documentary evidence to support some of his most interesting claims.”
—Carolyn Eisenberg,Hofstra University
“Arthur Kahn had an extraordinary opportunity to observe events on the ground, as the American and British armies moved across Germany during the final phases of the war and subsequently during the early period of Allied occupation. He has produced a book that relies primarily on his own first-hand observations and rich documentary materials, most of which have not previously appeared in print. What differentiates this work from other accounts is Kahn's familiarity with German politics at the local level and his knowledge of how high-level Military Government policies were translated into actual practice. Kahn has an important story to tell and possesses a trove of documentary evidence to support some of his most interesting claims.”
—Carolyn Eisenberg,Hofstra University
Table of ContentsContents
Preface
Introduction: An OSS Recruit Despite Himself
Abbreviations
Part I: Why We Fight!
1. Soviet Partisans and Soviet Suspicions (Summer 1944)
2. We Do Not Call Upon the Germans to Revolt (Fall 1944)
3. The Capture-Liberation of Metz
4. The Battle of the Bulge (Winter 1944–1945)
5. Mainz: Investigating a Pre-VE Day Military Government (Spring 1945)
6. Interrogating Victims of Nazism and Nazis
7. Wuerzburg: Another Military Government Experience
8. What We Russians Like to Consider as a Typical American!
Part II: Policy Clash in Military Government
9. Crack Patton's Military Government Wide Open! (Summer 1945)
10. If Only You Americans Weren't Here . . . !
11. Patton's Last Stand
12. Elections, the American Cure-All (Fall 1945)
13. Rehearsal for McCarthyism
Part III: Triumph of the Cold Warriors
14. A Military Government in Crisis (Winter 1945–1946)
15. Elections: The American Panacea II
16. Democracy, American Zone Style!
17. Summing Up and the Collective Guilt Issue (Spring 1946)
18. Demoralized GIs
Epilogue: 1946–1947
Appendices
Index
