To a political solution, a political agreement to end the war. In this battle, the largest that has ever been fought by the United States army in its history, better than 600,000 better than 600,000 americans were engaged. And you can see, our lines famously bulged but they did not break. However, you have the story of the siege that is going to be depicted here. Most famously, George Patton is going to come up and save the town from the south after they had been surrendered. This was an incident that Many Americans will recognize from where thepatton, Commanding Officer was asked by the germans to surrender and he famously said to them one word, nuts. In this case here, you get a sense of how logistics are so important in war, particularly with things like gasoline up here. We have a german gas tank where you can actually see the sf markings on the side. Germans were running out of gasoline. We, however, are going to also not only have to deal with moving mechanical vehicles, tanks, and trucks around, but also more importantly, probably, can see, in and you this case as well, tankers boots. These were worn by major carl thein during the battle of voltage where he was around belgium. In the end, we are going to prevail. As i mentioned, our lines bulged , but they do not break. However, it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. About 19,000, over 19,000 americans are killed in this writing that goes on for six weeks. One last item i thought i would point out is a souvenir nazi flag captured by members of the 101st airborne division. They were nicknamed the battered masters. Some of the airborne members signed their names to it. You can see in particular sam on and from kenneth, missouri, other members, where they managed to hold out. Patton is going to be able to come in and provide them relief and we are going to push the germans back towards germany. Are now headed into the heart of the battle of the bulge gallery at the National World war ii museum. You can see around me we have an environment once again that its very hostile to our forces. Early degrees below is the weather. Snow all over in this forest. The things that made fighting in the forest rather dangerous was that the germans would shoot artillery into the trees, not aiming for american troops, which they knew were under the trees, but to create shrapnel. The tree branches would all shatter and then come down, and few were unfortunate enough if you are not fortunate enough, you would be killed by splinters flying around. In the battle of the bulge, as we present this story in various video screens, we tell the stages of the battle. Coming in. They have broken through the american line. Have been taken prisoner. One of the things we show is americans being captured. We have pows. I want to point this out. Here is the prisoner of war id tag of Benjamin Cohen who is with the 423rd infantry regiment. He is going to be captured very early on in the battle of the bulge. One thing i will mention of general interest, it was better to be a prisoner of war of the nazis man it was of the japanese. Better than 40 of american pows of the japanese perished in those camps, whereas the germans, because they were concerned that the allies would give good treatment to their own pows, tended to respect the rules of the geneva conventions more, which the japanese had refused to sign. ,o i wanted to point that out that not everything in war is necessarily victorious, and sometimes, you wind up on not just the losing side, but in the enemys hands. Here, one other thing that i wanted to point out was the famous prayer card that general George Patton asked his chaplain to come up with to basically guarantee good weather during the battle of the bulge. And basically, when the chaplain made the prayer, the weather cleared up. Patton credited this is having an influence on the battle. In truth, the chaplain had actually written the prayer sometime before the battle, but so, this prayer card was delivered to all of the troops, and it became part of the legend of the battle of the bulge. Here in our battle of the bulge gallery, we do have a german sedan. This was one of the cars that was used by basically the german officers to go back and forth and transport themselves back and forth to the fronts. Here, you can see all of the camouflage that they in fact used in these types of winter conditions with branches and things like that to try and blend into a landscape when they might have aircraft or run into other dangerous situations. We are now entering our last gallery into the german heartland. Map, byan see by this early 1945, after the battle of andbulge, the United States her allies, you can see French Forces and British Forces flanking American Forces in the west as well as forces from the soviet union basically crushing germany from the east. The war is in its endgame stages as we are all converging on berlin. Havein this gallery, we basically the story of how berlin falls, even though american troops never actually quite make it to berlin itself. However, people can see the handwriting on the wall by april 25. In this gallery up here, we have a hat. This was a hat worn by one of the soviet troops when those troops met with the americans theng the elbow river river. This hat was given to a lieutenant by the name of george. From that point forward, berlin was surrounded and the soviets are in fact going to go ahead and crush hitlers and the force in berlin vehicular manslaughter forces in hitler and the forces in berlin. What we want to remind people of, even as we move into germany and we are getting closer and closer to our goal of victory, the violence continues to escalate, and it has a real human cost, so we tell the story of curtis ritter. Intis ritter was a private the american army, and here, you can see a letter he wrote to his wife, evelyn, in 1944. 1944 onilled in late the way into germany. You can see in the case that the hometown newspaper for, the berlin post is going to bring news of his death to his hometown and public, and you can the condolence letters that will be written to his family from various sympathizers, neighbors, friends, family members who knew curtis ritter. Down here in the corner, we have curtis ritters coveted combat infantry badge with a blue background and the rifle on it. The badge i was an honor that was that was an honor that was given only to those who faced an enemy indirect combat in direct combat. What we want to show the public is the immense devastation that went on as we move towards berlin. You can see our representations ,f hamburg and dresden basically, the allies raised about60 german razed 60 german cities on the way to berlin and the germans refused to give up, but in the end, adolf hitler committed suicide, april 30, 19 45, in a bunker in berlin. Formally nazi germany surrendered to the allies. In this case here, we have silverware and a teapot with adolf hitlers initials on them that were captured by american troops in munich, where hitlers ,ad begun his political career found in nazi headquarters, buildings, Nazi Administration buildings in munich. Eliminationith the of adolf hitler, we then have the opportunity to try and sum up what this war in europe amend, and we do so with a film that tries to tell what the entire cost the summation of hitlers nazi germany meant to deaths, itn terms of was something that had never been seen before. In terms of destruction, culture, entire communities, the holocaust of the jews, as well as others, political prisoners, on, many such and so others perished in hitlers concentration camp systems. We try and give people a sense of what the allied troops were fighting for, what it meant to extinguish that from the world. At the end of the road to berlin, after we try and summarize the cost of the war for our public, we have an ending quote by general dwight d i. This came from a letter that the Supreme Commander of the allied forces wrote in april of 1943 to his son, john, where he tried to put in his words the meaning of the conflict that he was so central in trying to prosecute. He said no other war in history has served definitely lined up the forces of arbitrary oppression and dictatorship against those of human rights and individual liberty. To eisenhower, this is what the war was about. This was his great achievement as a general and military leader, and later on, it made him the president of the United States and the leader of the free world. Cannot believe their eyes. Unable to witness anymore. German soldier asks an american g. I. Why he is fighting, the g. I. Replies master race. American history tv is on social media. Follow us at cspan may 8 is known as ve day or victory in europe day marking the date 75 years ago when the allies except did nazi germanys accepted nazi germanys Unconditional Surrender of its armed forces bringing an end to hostilities and world war iis european theater. Begins with an 19hival newsreel from may, 45 showing the signing of the surrender and a statement from president harry truman. [video clip] throughout the world, wrongs of people hailed the end of the war in europe. Five years and more before since hitlers marched into poland. Now, the war against germany is one bag. Is won. Thanksful nation gives for victory. Hundreds of thousands crowd into american churches to give thanks to god. President truman announced the official surrender. Solemn but glorious hour. I wish that Franklin D Roosevelt had lived to see this day. General eisenhower informs me that the forces of germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all over europe. For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity and into light. Much remains to be done. The victory won in the west must now be won in the east. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed. Nationsthe peace loving have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far than the might of the dictator or the tyranny of usitary that once called salt and wheat. Peoples tof our defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Historic at pictures of the last days of war in europe show american and Russian Troops as elbe. Oin on the river , a meeting that spelled out certain german defeat. Itself, naray burke scenes of countless not see party rallies. The American Flag now drowns out the swastika. In a symbolic gesture, american troops destroyed the nazi party emblem. Rick American History tv and washington journal are marking the end of a world war ii. The 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii in the european history. The ebay. We welcome author and historian Rick Atkinson whose final book in the liberation trilogy is guns at last light. The final of the three books focusing on 1944 and 1945. Rick atkinson, to get our conversation started from a quick timeline of where things were and how they came from the day on june 6, 1944 in late august the liberation of paris on august, 25th, 1944. The battle of the bulge in december of that year and then to be a day. Take us back, Rick Atkinson to may 7 and may eighth of 19 40 five. How did the war and in europe . Rick the war ended with the ,ermans basically deciding hitlers having killed himself more than a week earlier, that there was no profit in dragging it out with the russians in berlin. The russians were murdering civilians, killing german soldiers by the hundreds of thousands. The germans decided that trying to make peace with the western allies, the americans in particular, was their best bet. They would get a better deal from the western allies than they would from the soviets. So, eisenhower had his forward headquarters in the french in town in the northeastern parts of france. There was a delegation and a lot of palaver about the conditions. They were told in no Uncertain Terms that Unconditional Surrender would be the only terms by which the war would end. And so the general, the operations chief of the German Armed Forces showed up at eisenhowers headquarters which was in a former technical college, a red brick building. Reporters and photographers were there. It was 2 00 in the morning on may 7, 1945. And the articles of surrender had been boiled down to barely 200 words. The whole ceremony with the onlyas rolling lasted about 10 minutes. The general signed. Eisenhower told him he would be personally held responsible for ensuring that the terms of the capitulation were honored. And that was that. Now, it would go into effect the next day. May 8. Giving them time to a alert german uboats in the atlantic and the german detachments in norway. The soviets felt it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They did not want the germans to be able to say as they had in world war i, that they had never been actually defeated and they had never actually capitulated in germany proper. They insisted on yet another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin which happened on may 9. So the soviets, now the russians , considered that to be ve day but for the rest of the world the surrender went into effect on may 8 and that was the end of the war in europe. There is still a war in the pacific and that certainly had a moderating effect on the other jubilation that wouldve taken place otherwise. From on that timeline dday, june 6, 1944, did the final victory in europe, based on your research of u. S. Forces and British Forces, it did that happen sooner than they thought where did it take longer than they thought . Rick you know, it took longer in the sense that after the battle of the balls, the end of january, 1945, there was widespread understanding that the germans could not recover from this catastrophe. That they had lost the war. What no one in the west could understand is why they would not give up . Why they continued to fight. Why one little town, one mediumsized city or even big cities continued to resist. Were 10 thousand 400 american soldiers killed in action in april, 1940 five in germany. Almost as many as were killed in june, 1944, the month of invasion. So this was awful virtually until the last gunshot and as a there was great consternation about whether they would surrender, whether every last german soldier was going to have to be killed. Whether more german civilians were going to have to die and of course, whether more allied soldiers were going to have to die. So i think, you know, there had been hope that the war would end sooner. The day turned out to be the day. Is rickr guest atkinson, it is the 75th anniversary of dday. You,uld love to hear from your questions and comments. Here are how the lines are broken up. For the eastern and central time zones. And then the mountain and pacific time zones. For those of you that are world war ii veterans or their families, if your parents served in world war ii, we ask you to call in on. Atkinson, it rick is a really a alarming it is really a alarming to read the death tolls. In one story you write about the training, just the training for dday alone, there was one thatent in the training killed 700 soldiers in that training accident. Looking at the statistics of how many people died, military death come up u. S. Deaths. Over 10 million soldier deaths. Estimated that the total soviet debts were million. Our losses were bad enough with 291,000 killed in action and over 400,000 in terms of all deaths including accidents and disease. That is about one third of 1 of 100american population of 30 million during world war ii. Staggering as those numbers are for us, they are monumental for the soviets in particular. The germans lose about 7 million people. About 60 Million Deaths worldwide in world war ii that is a death every three seconds for six years. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of this. The greatest catastrophe selfinflicted catastrophe in u. S. History. Host the were ending three weeks or so after the death of fdr in warm springs, georgia in 1945. Harry truman, the president on the day. What was the effect stateside when that news came . Rick it was a great shock even though anyone looking at the newsreels could see that president roosevelt was not a healthy man. He had been dying for some months. He had had an arduous trip first to malta with a conference were a conference with churchill and then he went to the black sea for a meeting with stalin come of the soviet leader. Anyone looking at those pictures today can see he is a man that is dying. Theblood pressure was in stratosphere and he had all kinds of health problems. Hemorrhagea cerebral come he is at his cottage april 12, 1945. Right after lunch. The word spreads through the country very quickly. By late afternoon, virtually all americans are aware of it. It is a shock to everyone. He has been president for more than 12 years. He is our war president. He is the president through the darkest days of the depression. There were young men in uniform who really had very little memory of a time when roosevelt was not their leader. And now their commander in chief. So, no one knew who harry truman was for the most part, and of senator from missouri. He had been a captain in the artillery in world war i. A bit of a cipher in the eyes of most americans. The notion that he is going to step in and fill these very large shoes that roosevelt has left behind is something that a lot of people have difficulty comprehending. Of callshave a lot waiting for you, Rick Atkinson. We go first to larry in gallup, new mexico. Good morning. Was a code father talker in the south pacific. And on your research, i wanted thenow how much the role of American Indian including the comanches, how much under research have you done on them if andy. What was their role during the war . Thank you very much. , for thenk you, larry call and to your dad. American indians were important. First of all, they had a tradition of eating warriors which was critical when you were trying to put together an army. As you mentioned, there were code talkers, navajo and others that had their own language and it was assumed correctly that if a navajo was talking to another navajo on the radio, that even if the japanese, and we were talking about pacific the order in this case come a could eavesdrop and hear that conversation which they call it, they would not be able to decode it because very few japanese spoke navajo. So the code talkers were important for operational security. I think there was also a sense that with American Indians, native americans as part of the force, that it really was a comprehensive american force. In the same way that we wanted all ethnicities to be represented by 1945. And it is a painful process getting there, to a technology that there is a rightful role in combat units for black americans come of that black americans can be excellent Fighter Pilots as they showed as the Tuskegee Airmen in alabama who got into combat showed. Americansr the native it was a feeling that first of all, they had some practical skills that were useful and second, that it is an affirmation that this is a panamerican war. Host salvador in annapolis, maryland. Welcome. My dadmy caller fought in world war ii in the pacific. Several brothers that fought. And an uncle. A couple of questions. My dad was a Second Generation italianamerican. It appears the prejudice against italianamericans was much less than against japaneseamericans. Im wondering why. And secondly, the dropping of the atomic bomb it is probably the reason why i am talking to you today. I wonder about its impact on the end of the war. Rick thank you for the call and the question, salvatore. I think it is fair to say that the prejudices against italianamericans were considerably less than they were against japaneseamericans. The italians, of course, were our adversary at least until 1943 when they switched sides and became our ally. But the italians had not launched the kind of attack that occurred at pearl harbor. I think there is also a racial component to it, frankly. Asians. Asier to dislike and the japanese specifically. Parentally. Eated we were just talking about native americans and while there were japaneseamericans that fought valiantly in italy and , they during world war ii were exceptionally capable, ferocious fighters and they had something to prove. Back home there had been tens of thousands of japanese who had treatedtraining camps as secondclass citizens but as noncitizens. Tom respect to the atomic come a yes, i think that the fact that the two a topic atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki brought an end to the war in the pacific probably saving hundreds of thousands of american lives. When the a date occurs on may 8, 1945, 1 of the reasons the jubilation is not more frenetic than it was was because the battle for okinawa was occurring precisely at that time. It was a cave by cave bloodletting foreshadowing the toll in attacking the japanese home islands directly. There were estimates that american casualties could rise if thatas one million were required to. And of course, the atomic bomb when ve day occurs, no one knows about the atomic bombs except for those in new mexico but no one knows whether it is going to work. Those bombs, horrible as they were, in my estimation brings the war to end absolute come truncated and. Appropriately, it saves many even moreives and japanese lives. The russians were ready to come in. The war was going to expand in the pacific because the russians had agreed to be part of it so the other atomic bombs saved a lot of heartache. Host we are talking about the end of world war ii in the european the it are, the 75th anniversary of the day and caller froms our oklahoma. Caller hello. Host you are on the air. Caller thank you. I was over there on may the ship, 1945 and we got on a until may the 15th heading for the pacific. And we stopped by the united training onere flying b 24s and were training on b29s for a couple of weeks to go to the pacific. During that period of time was when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific. But we bombed all of europe from a be 24 base in italy. Base in italy. Host great to have you with us. Rick atkinson, how quickly was the u. S. Army able to pivot to the battles in the pacific . Rick they were trying to figure out how to take a good portion of that base and move it to the pacific. Was it fair to those that had been fighting in north africa beginning in 1942 and then in italy in 1943 and 1944 and then western europe. For them to now have to go and fight in the pacific. There were plans put together there were in fact soldiers that were being shifted in may of 1945 getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland. The b29 he mentioned was the newest, longrange bombers that had been doing extraordinary workwith extraordinary devastating japan. That you werelief going to have to take a good portion of that European Force leaving some behind, of course, as an army of occupation. But the majority of it was going to end up in the pacific. Host in your weekend peace for the wall street journal, there is a photo of general dwight d. Vsenhower flashing the sign. You said in abook different photograph, there was a photograph that reflected a certain buoyancy of spirit that i think served him well. You write in your final book that his fellow commanders, some of the other allied commanders, ikee not confident that was the commander type. Rick there were frictions, no doubt about it with the british especially having doubts about him. Reallydifficulties through the entire final year of field marshal montgomery, the senior british commander in europe. A very difficult character, it must be said. There were those that had doubts about eisenhower. There were those that had doubts about him when he became the theater commander in the mediterranean in late 1942. He had never heard a shot fired in any country. Both wereate and he left behind in world war i. There was a feeling about who is this giuy . And why is he the Supreme Commander . I lived with him for 15 years during the book and my admiration for him through every year of that span he was an extraordinarily Capable Military leader and extremely capable as a political general in that his primary job was to hold together this fractious ally coalition. There were eventually more than 50 countries in what Franklin Roosevelt called the United Nations fighting with the United States. At eisenhower was brilliant Holding Together that coalition against all of the central focal forces that tried to pull apart every wartime coalition. Ifocal forces that tried to pull up every wartime coalition. Big smile of his host let us hear from tom next from st. Petersburg, florida. Is tom hello, my name and the reason i am calling is that i often wondered who engineered the end of the war was it the admiral . And did the admiral believe through his career that his losses in the atlantic were not machine . The and what happened to him at the end of the war . Rick the admiral was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war. There was not much of a german navy left to command at that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may, 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of the work there were conversations among those that were still surviving in berlin or to the northwest of berlin about how to go about contacting the allies and how to go about bringing this catastrophe to a close. Ondler having killed himself april 30 had essentially tried the system down around him as he perished but not everyone was willing to take that route. Not everyone was suicidal. Basically ann agreement that they would send a delegation to allied headquarters. First they went to montgomery. And then they end up at eisenhowers forward headquarters. It is all a bit catch as catch can. Making it up as they go along. They are very aware that every day that passes there are more germans who fall under soviet control. And this they are determined to avoid. They are trying to stall as long as they can to allow germans to flee westward. And they are fleeing westward by the hundreds of thousands and eventually the millions in order to avoid eating under soviet control. Avoid eating under soviet control. So when they decided to go for Unconditional Surrender with the allied commander, at that point it was a fatal complete. Host next, we hear from steve from rhode island. Caller i just had a comment. This gentleman knows as i do that the war was decided on the eastern front. The western front was like a to theskirmish compared eastern front. And if the germans prevailed on the eastern front, there would not have been a western front. There would have been a settlement. The most important issue i want to state was the russian crime when they entered berlin and over 2 million german women were right by those communist animals. I am a germanamerican and my father is a germanamerican who served in the italian campaign. We will get a response from Rick Atkinson. Thank you for the call, steve. Yes, there were crimes of the first order committed by the soviets not only in berlin but through all of Eastern Europe really as they overran poland and then pushed into the eastern precincts of what was then the german empire. And the reason the soviets were doing that besides the lack of discipline was a feeling that the depravity that the german visited on the soviets extending through the end of the german advance was to be repaid in kind. So, war spirals out of control in ways that no one could see and this was a good example. The atrocities that the germans committed were repaid probably with interest by the russians. I agree with you that the russians carried the weight of the war for all of the allies. It is estimated that soviet soldiers killed nine german soldiers for every one who is killed i british and american troops i mentioned 26 million soviets dead. They did most of the dying and the killing. It was vital to have them remain as part of the alliance. Rick it is the 75th anniversary of ve day. Victory in europe day. We are joined by Rick Atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy. That, the gunsn at last light, a three book series on the war in the european theater. More of your calls and comments coming up momentarily. We are joined next by senator roberts of kansas, chair of the eisenhower memorial commission. The senator from kansas senator, we saw you yesterday on the floor with your i like ike button. You were a youngster when ve day happened. Tell us about that. Senator roberts actually, the button says i still like ike. We handed them out at the congressional lunch yesterday. They were a hot item. I think most of my memories came when i was 16 and i got to go to the Republican Convention in 1952, where eisenhower won on the first ballot as opposed to robert taft. And then again during the inaugural. Those are the only times i personally met the man. Obviously at nine, i was back in kansas. I remember that day as i was swinging on the front porch and my mom came in with tears in her eyes and she said we have defeated hitler. Ike defeated hitler. And i asked her, does that mean that and come home . Not at that time. He was in the pacific. He was a marine in iwo jima. At any rate, the one thing i remember about ike you knew he , came into the room even though your back was to him. He had that presence and charisma. He had a wonderful smile. Everybody he met liked ike. Rick we are talking about eisenhowers role in the victory in europe. We are talking to you about the eisenhower memorial. General eisenhower led the allies to victory in europe and served two terms as president. Why has it taken so long for a memorial to be created in washington for president eisenhower . Senator roberts it is amazing how many groups that you have to go through, the National CapitalPlanning Commission and the fine arts council, etc. Secondly, you have to raise the money for it and you have to have federal funds. You have to have all members of the family on board. There were changes i was the second chairman way back. I, the metal of honor winner and senator from hawaii, and senator ted stevens, two veterans who pushed very hard on this. If you take a look at the memorials, not many are built on a rapid basis. It just takes stepbystep. But the process basically is not simple. You have site selection, design approvals, construction, it is a monumental undertaking. Pardon that terrible pun. We are thrilled finally to see the hard work come to fruition. It is done and all we have to do now is wait until september, when social distancing will not be much of a problem. We hope. If it still is, we will have the dedication accordingly. Rick it was supposed to be today on the 75th anniversary of ve day. What comments, what were you going to say in that dedication . Senator roberts i think i had four minutes. The president had accepted the invitation to speak. We had a flyover. Basically the eisenhower family would have spoken. We had a number of world war ii veterans, including bob dole, who really helped raising money on the private side of it. Memorialink this honors not only an extraordinary man and favorite son of kansas, but i think he served as a symbol for all generations of the promise of america and what our values made possible around the world. I think he really was the president that basically was president when we entered the world stage and especially when he was the supreme allied commander in europe. Roberts, senior senator from kansas, we look forward to the dedication when that does happen. Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the 75th anniversary of ve day. And back to our guest, Rick Atkinson, author of the liberation trilogy, taking your calls and comments on this 75th anniversary. James is in south dakota. Go ahead. This is Master Sergeant keating, retired air force, i was an iraqi war veteran post 9 11 saudi arabia, ground zero. I served one year in korea. I did a fundraiser with my dad, he was a world war ii veteran. 1945. He delivered coffins and there were a lot of them. Oregon in portland, may of 1945, he graduated. I was calling to thank all the veterans and share a little history. Steve thanks, james. Rick atkinson, your dad served in world war ii and he was a career military veteran. What was that experience in particular like ve day, when that will come up every year with your dad . My dad was from new jersey and he enlisted in the army when he turned 18 in 1942. Ocs, officer candidate school, became a Second Lieutenant and got to europe right after the war ended. Constabulary, which was the occupational force with Extraordinary Police powers because germany was in ruins and anarchy was a big threat in bavaria and every where else. Went tohome in 1946, penn state, and went back into the army. He liked it well enough to make it a career and he served for 30 years. He died about 18 months ago at the age of 94. Ve day was not anything particular in his worldview. He marked veterans day, memorial day, fourth of july. These were important holidays for him as they are for many of us. Was worriedlf, he as another caller about whether or not we would end up in the pacific. Fortunately at least for me and for him, that was not necessary. My father having gone back into the army, went back to europe and was part of the army of occupation of salzburg. The Army Hospital happened to be in munich and austria was still partitioned. He was part of the occupation of until 1955, when the russians and americans both left austria. The residual effects of the war have persisted in many ways and even 10 years after, we still had occupational forces in austria. To this day, we have American Forces in germany. They are not Occupation Forces because they are our allies now. But the consequences of the war in terms of the military topography were profound and affected me personally and certainly my father. Host next up is robert calling from virginia. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Ive just got to comment. My grandfather served in both theaters. He was in the navy during the european conflict and when they decided they would call it quits, ve day, he transferred over to the United States marine corps so that he could go to the pacific theater. He actually saw action and thank god he came home to us. He served in two different branches of service and two theaters of war. Host any specific questions . Caller i have a question is it true that during the second world war, they had a secret group of nazis to make a fourth reich . Guest i didnt hear that. Host a fourth reich . Guest there were certainly good nazis who got away and escape d the hangman or prison or accounting. Some of them famously went to south america. There were a few who had ambitions of either reconstituting the german reich. Or, at least keeping alive the spirit of the reich in the spirit of adolf hitler. This is a fringe group not to be taken seriously. I think of greater concern is not those who may have had ambitions to pull together the tattered remnants of the german empire and reconstitute it in some fashion. In germany and elsewhere in europe, it is not any means whoy feel that the spirit of the third reich somehow should be honored. You cannot legally be a nazi in germany. The germans have been extraordinarily capable at educating all germans, particularly younger germans, about what had happened and who was responsible. But it is difficult to snuff out this virus. We see it cropping up in hungary and other places in Eastern Europe. We see sparks of it in portions of germany. It is very concerning. We see it wherever there is a populace who wants to take the route of fascism or neofascism. Protofascism. And try to feather their nest politically with it. That is a greater concern than any residual of nazis from 1945. Host you wrote in your last book about the discovery of a trove of german bully on and bullion and gold, already minesres in caves and after the war. How did allied forces prevent looting of that and prevent extra violence, revenge violence against germans who may have been prisoners or in pursuit of german troops . Guest the germans were great thieves. Nazis had looted artworks and treasures of all sorts from individuals and galleries and museums all across occupied europe. We tried to discover that stuff and get back to the original owners, and it is a process that goes on to this day. Revenge killings were a great concern. Dachau whenhe how american soldiers liberated the concentration camp and saw tens of thousands in emaciated conditions and thousands who had died, there were american soldiers who lost control and discipline broke down and there are an estimated several dozen german camp guards, ss guards, who were murdered either by the americans, in one place they put them up against the wall and murdered them with a machine gun, or they were murdered by inmates who got into a frenzy until order was restored. There was concern about this for the most part, discipline of change. There were a number of revenge killings by american troops and western allied troops. It was very small. Discipline was admirable. Among the soviet troops coming from the east. That was part of the price and the pain of victory. Host lets go back to calls and hear from lawrence in minnesota. Caller thank you. I will be quick. Two comments. I always admired eisenhower for having to pull in citizens from the town near the concentration camps so that they could witness what the nazis did, but that is not my question. My question is, studying world war ii is so impactful for understanding where we are today from a political, military, and social perspective. You can comment on that particularly as it relates to the politics involved in making the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Thank you for the opportunity and i look forward to hearing your comments. Guest thanks for the call. The consequences of world war ii