News of this day (September 22) in 1948. Berlin Airlift and increased Cold War tensions between the Allies and the Soviet Union. Campaign '48 gets underway with Dewey in New Mexico and Truman in Nevada. HUAC hearings over Atomic secrets. Governor Long calls emergency session of the Legislature to reinstate Truman on ballot over objections of State Rights/Dixiecrats who want Strom Thurmond on the ballot instead. And Tito's Yugoslavia has declared all raising of pigs to be done by the State and all Pork production to be controlled by the State.
September 22, 2011

Berlin-Airlift---reszied.jpg
The Berlin Airlift - freezing point in the Cold War.


News for this first day of Autumn in 1948 consisted of a lot of Cold War saber rattling, though done more with diplomatic wrangling than movement of armored columns. Still, things were tense as evidenced by Ernest Bevin's pledge that the U.S., France and Great Britain were bound together in an alliance against Communist aggression over the crisis in Berlin. Meanwhile, the planes kept flying in supplies.

The 1948 Presidential Campaign season got rolling in earnest with Republican challenger Thomas Dewey addressing a crowd in Albuquerque, New Mexico and President Truman addressing a crowd in Rena Nevada. Both rolled out a laundry list of ills the country was going through and pointing fingers at the other for the reason of those ills. William Green of the AF of L blasted Republican vice-Presidential candidate Robert Taft, saying he was at the forefront of an anti-Union movement, bent on the turning the clock back. And the horse race was off.

In Louisiana, Governor Earl Long called an emergency session of he Legislature to reinstate the names of Truman and Barkley on the ballot in that state. Seems the Dixiecrats/States Rights Party managed to oust the Democratic candidates in favor of the name name of Strom Thurmond and Long wanted it put back the way it was.

And it wouldn't be 1948 without the continuing HUAC Hearings, this time it was Attorney General Tom Clark firing back at the Committees allegations that the government, and even the Hotels, were overflowing with Communist spies. He challenged the Committee to come up with the name of one Communist in the Executive branch of Government, to which the Committee had been unable. And so it went.

And in Soviet Satellite Yugoslavia, it was learned the government under Marshal Tito had declared all Pork production and all raisng of Pigs to be done by the State and that anyone found harboring or raising a Pig would be arrested. No doubt that move had members of the Politburo in Moscow scratching their heads.

And so it went.

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