Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell In and Out of Love During the Cold War

Steve Bassett

Description

Considering the suspicions, jealousies, bigotry and greed inherent when a foreign power occupies another Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell In and Out of Love during the Cold War tells an improbable story. If ever a US military base deserved the sobriquet Golden Ghetto it was the Chateauroux Air Station, for 16 years at the height of the Cold War it was one of the most desirable postings in the world. Historians and casual readers will be enthralled by this bird's eye view of how early Communist driven distrust never stood a chance against handshakes and smiles.

Sujets

• Histoire
• History
• Western
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456630836
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRAISE for GOLDEN GHETTO:
As the only American who has tackled the task, Steve Bassett, in his book "Golden Ghetto" has provided a one-of-a-kind insight into the sixteen-year life of an extraordinary air station closed by Charles de Gaulle's imperial edict. I found it fascinating reading and an accurate portrayal of military life that will probably never be seen again.
Air Force Major General John Riddle (Ret.)
 
 
The book is one of a kind. There have been many books written by French authors about the Americans in France during the Cold War, but never one by an American writer. I know the books that have been written and have read many of them myself. There has been nothing to match what this book offers – an American insight into how the French and the Americans came together, first because of Cold War demands, and eventually because of the deep friendship that had developed.
Mme. Lydie Gerbaud, former press secretary for Jacques Chirac
 
 
I belonged to a communist family and I remember walking in the streets with petitions against the U.S. intrusion in France. People later realized that the Americans were manna from heaven who improved their lives. They were happy because of them. There were lots of communists on the base who wouldn’t have budged. And it wasn’t a contradiction for them. They were happy that the Americans were there. The American presence was our spell of sunny weather in all respects. But I must say, I am surprised that it is an American not a Frenchman that is giving an in depth account of this period.
Leandre Boizeau, Communist publisher of La Bouinotte
 
 
Excellent writing, excellent character development which brings the story to life. Strong theme that’s personally interesting to me, having see several Japanese cities rise out of the ashes and turn into big industrial centers with the help of Uncle Sam. Golden Ghetto’s complex prism provides a rare snapshot of Cold War realities faced by miore than 20 million men and women who served overseas. It more than deserves a place in the current celebrity driven publishing world.
Pete Noyes, Author of The Real L.A. Conidential
 
 
 
GOLDEN GHETTO
 
 
How the Americans and French Fell
In and Out of Love During the Cold War
 
 
By
Steve Bassett
Copyright 2018 Steve Bassett,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-3083-6
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
 
 
“It’s so easy to get trapped inside the Golden Ghetto. Don’t be trapped inside the Golden Ghetto, get out and go into town, meet the people and discover the real world outside.”
 
 
Army Captain Francis C. Nollette’s stern advice to his son, Frank Nollette, a student at the Déols Châteauroux Air Station High School.
 
 
“The American presence was our spell of sunny weather in all respects.”
 
 
Leandre Boizeau , Communist publisher of the regional magazine, “La Bouinotte.”
 
 
“The Commies who painted the U.S. Go Home graffiti were cowards. They did it at night, then ran home to hide.”
 
 
René Coté , former U.S. airman and later a Châteauroux businessman.
Table of Contents
Foreword
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Transformation and Reaction
Chapter 2
Pencil Pushing Pilots
Chapter 3
Reluctant Equality
Chapter 4
Main Street Baggage
Chapter 5
You Name It, We Have It
Chapter 6
Corn, Wheat, Oats and Homes
Chapter 7
Escaping Eggs and Betrayal
Chapter 8
It Ain’t Necessarily So
Chapter 9
Che Guevara and a Sewing Machine
Chapter 10
Nomads and Air Force One
Chapter 11
Patriotism, Broken Bottles and Penicillin
Chapter 12
Betty Boop and the Wing Walker
Chapter 13
Mourning, Mindszenty and Michelin
Chapter 14
Opportunities, Good and Bad
Chapter 15
Abandonment
Epilogue
 
Foreword
The history of Châteauroux is marked with the indelible imprint of the American presence. When the first American Army pilots came to La Martinerie Air Base in Châteauroux in 1917, a little bit before the end of World War I, no doubt they never thought they would be the beginning of a half-century love affair between Berry and the Star-Spangled Banner.
 
Fifty years later, when the Americans departed along with all other NATO troops from France, it caused real trauma in the city, both in spirit and everyday life. Since then many things have changed. The pain passed with difficulty, the wounds still fester for some, but the century has changed. Châteauroux reconstructed itself and evolved, aspiring to finally become an important city in the new Europe.
 
Steve Bassett's book demonstrates that across the Atlantic, in a provincial town of France, the memory of this American period is very long-lived, proof of our undeniable love for this grand nation that is the United States of America.
 
However, there is always in the minds of the Castelroussins a nostalgia of those years in the heart of the 20th century when they had gotten used to meeting GIs in the streets of our city, hearing American language in the villages of Brassioux and Touvent. And seeing for the first time these sports so strange to us that are the American football and baseball.
 
This nostalgia returns stronger every year in Berry, with recurring reunions that honor Uncle Sam. The friendship between our two countries is not ready to end when we see the enthusiasm and passion with which these reunions are organized. And it is always for us a pleasure to see reliving, even for only a few days a year, Châteauroux Air Station.
 
Jean-François MAYET
Sénateur de l’Indre – Maire de Châteauroux
INTRODUCTION
The bitching had been going on for days when the first trucks finally dropped into ankle-deep mud their cargo of American Air Force GIs along with their bundled tents and personal belongings. This sodden bunch cursed the missing sun and wondered if they would ever see it again in this bleak, backwater dumping ground called Châteauroux. They wondered what the Air Force brass had in mind for them in central France, but when it came right down to it, and as bleak as it was, it was a hell of a lot better than getting their butts shot off in an equally obscure place called Korea. Wake up, buddy, this was the Cold War.
If a nucleus of old-timers, but mostly kids from America’s farms, small towns and urban jungles, were uncertain why they were in central France, this was not the case with the Communist cadres who surrounded them in early 1951 while awaiting their orders from the Kremlin. Throughout Berry, with Châteauroux in the center, Communist cells perfected the anti-American pamphlets, posters and street-corner rhetoric designed to blunt Uncle Sam’s attempt to colonize this territory. A large number of the region’s voting-age natives were members of the deeply entrenched Communist party, and they were eager for a fight.
The United States would never allow Western Europe to go Communist. By 1950, Uncle Sam had the deep pockets and nuclear arsenal to make its plans a reality. That was the easy part. Implementation, now that was a different story. France was at the core of the solution and the problem for both Washington and the Kremlin, a juicy plum ready to be devoured by either side.
With the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan already in place, America and its North American Treaty Organization (“NATO”) allies had already drawn the battle lines when disgruntled American airmen and Army engineers began arriving in Châteauroux in early 1951 to begin work on what was to become the largest Air Force supply depot in Europe. Nobody could blame them if they gave little thought to the fact that they were in the vanguard of what was to become a global network of military bases positioned to thwart the Soviet Union’s growing military ambition. During those early years in Châteauroux, the West’s grand Cold War strategy was simple. It was reduced to keeping dry, warm and clean, hoping your next meal would be edible and that for another day you kept your boots from being sucked off into bottomless mud.
Fast forward to July 7, 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a two-day meeting in Moscow that was hailed as “groundbreaking.” This summit meeting underscored the United States’ concern about Russia’s punitive muscle-flexing around the world and elicited from Obama a cautionary admonition that, “The time has come to finally put the days of the Cold War behind us.” He also warned, “We don’t want to go back to a dark past.”
Obama’s conciliatory remarks provided insight as to why more than 40 years of bleak and often bloody world history must not be repeated. His words nonetheless beg the question as to why anyone would write a book about a huge U.S. Air Force Base in central France that has been padlocked and largely forgotten since 1967.
Enough books about the Cold War have been written sufficient to stock a good size library all their own. Anni P. Baker’s excellent American Soldiers Overseas and Life in the U.S . Armed Forces are studies of American forces at home and abroad with Germany, Panama and the Pacific Rim outposts as the principle focus. France is given cursory attention, as though the sixteen-year U.S. military presence existed in a parallel universe. Any way you look at it, this was a long time. Considering the suspicions, jealousies, bigotry, and crass opportunism inherent whenever one foreign power occupies another, this book pieces together an improbable story that demands telling.
There is no better place to begin than at the sprawling truck stop just across the highway from the old base, where you can still see some of