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Vampire
Free Worlds League
Lieutenant Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 917
Location: Spain
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 Posted: 26-Oct-2002 17:42 Post subject: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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IN ONE OF HIS FAMOUS SPEECHES Churchill asked America 'Give us the tools and we will finish the job'. But America wouldn't 'give' anything without payment. After two years of war, Roosevelt had drained Britain dry, stripping her of all her assets in the USA, including real estate and property. The British owned Viscose Company, worth £125 million was liquidated, Britain receiving only £87 million. Britain's £1,924 million investments in Canada were sold off to pay for raw materials bought in the United States. To make sure that Roosevelt got his money, he dispatched the American cruiser, 'Louisville ' to the South African naval base of Simonstown to pick up forty two million Pounds worth of British gold, Britain's last negotiable asset, to help pay for American guns and ammunition!. Not content with stripping Britain of her gold and assets, in return for 50 old destroyers, he demanded that Britain transfer all her scientific and technological secrets to the USA. Also, he demanded leases on the islands of Newfoundland, Jamaica, Trinidad and Bermuda for the setting up of American military and naval bases in case Britain should fall. (Of the 50 lend lease destroyers supplied to Britain, 9 were lost in WW11)
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Hardware
Clan Ghost Bear
Star Colonel
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 605
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Oct-2002 19:35 Post subject: RE: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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It's never just one side of the issue. What about the 4 billion in war loans to Britain that were forgiven after the war?
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Oct-2002 21:30 Post subject: RE: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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Or the billions we forgave all the other nations, coupled with the billions we spent to rebuild Japan and Europe. To this day, Finland was the only one who has ever paid us off- everyone else we had to forgive them their debts otherwise they'd still be paying us.
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Gunslinger Patch
Royal Black Watch Regiment
Major
Joined: 04-Mar-2002 00:00
Posts: 1611
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| Posted: 27-Oct-2002 01:23 Post subject: RE: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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I don't know about Finland, I always thought it was the Germans who paid off their rebuilding debts and our allies who asked us to kind of forget about those war loans. (what we now call "forgiving" a debt is just a nice way to say the bastards weren't going to pay it back anyway. So hey, why not make us American taxpayers pay the bill instead?)
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"Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those with guns..." -Thomas Jefferson
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
Kommandant-General
Joined: 03-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 2214
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| Posted: 27-Oct-2002 05:18 Post subject: RE: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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We did pay all the "reparations" the USSR demanded. Being right doesn`t mean anything when the other guy can afford to lose ten men for every one of your`s and still thinks it`s a good deal 
The USSR demanded the rather utopian sum of 300,000,000 US$ (300 million, correct) in different goods as "reparations" after the separate peace made in 1944. They also changed it to the 1938 dollar value, considerably raising the sum. In 1948 they reduced the total amount to 226,500,000 US$ but kept the 1938 value. It was all paid, in additon to payments for German possessions left in Finland and possessions "missing" from the areas the Soviets took from us.
Yes, we also lost 42,934 square kilometers of land and had to relocate ~430,000 people. That was some 11% of the country and the population.
Also found one note about finally paying off a WW I US loan in 1950. 159,619 US$ worth.
Added later: Finland turned down Marshall aid in 1947, and the US wasn`t really certain about giving any either...
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[ This Message was edited by: Nightmare on 2002-10-27 13:49 ]
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
Kommandant-General
Joined: 03-May-2002 00:00
Posts: 2214
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| Posted: 27-Oct-2002 05:23 Post subject: RE: The American Spirit: Business Always First (historical fact) |
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Oh, we also had to disarm all German troops left in Finland after 15.09.44. Seems the Soviets didn`t like having our former allies so close by. The German units in Lapland, as much as 200,000 men, weren`t about to comply. That corner of the country was completely burnt to the ground as the Germans retreated toward Norway. The last of them crossed the border on 27.04.45.
Funny enough, they did help us evacuate the civilians first. Shows some class.
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A tree fall in the forest, and no one is around, and it hits a mime. Does anyone care?
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