1950

Articles from 1950

The Continuing Crisis (Quick Magazine, 1950)

[In Washington] the U.S. defense effort snowballed. Looking beyond the Korea showdown, the U.S. had to plan against new Russian surprises… There would be no appeasement, even at the risk of W.W. III. U.S. intelligence indicated a ten year Russian military plan designed to bleed America white. The aim would be to keep the U.S. in a semi-mobilized state for years.


Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.

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How the Soviets Would Have Attacked (Pageant Magazine, 1950)

There wouldn’t be any warning.


Long-range Soviet bombers attempt to knock out our key industrial targets by atomic bombing. Some fly the 4,000, miles from Murmansk across the roof of the world to our East Coast; others strike from bases in Eastern Siberia at California and the Midwest… Simultaneously, organized sabotage breaks out in aviation plants, shipyards, power stations, etc., to complement the work of the bombers.

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Ground Zero: Washington, D.C. (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

When it became clear to all that the Soviets had the bomb – and Washington was the target – the egg-heads in D.C. decided it was time to disperse various government offices to the suburbs:

Given any warning at all, the National Security Resources Board now seems confident it can preserve at least a skeleton Government. But as for the run-of-the-mine Federal employee, he’ll have to take his chances amid the irradiated rubble…

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Stepping-Up The Training (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

By the autumn of 1950 it became clear to the old hands at the Pentagon that the police action on the Korean peninsula was beginning to resemble a real war. With that in mind, thirteen military training camps that had been been barren for the past five years, were dusted off in order that they might once more begin training Americans for war. Two weeks later China threw her hat in the ring.


During this same period, the U.S. Navy took 62 ships that had been mothballed in order to launch the Inchon Landings…

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The Invincible Chinese? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

Man, those Chinese are good soldiers… You can’t see ’em; you can’t hear ’em. You don’t know they’re there until they’re on top of you… They’re experts at camouflage and the best damn night-fighters I’ve ever seen. We could walk a company over the hill and see nothing. Then we’d look around and they’d be swarming on us like flies. It was just like they’d sprouted from the ground.

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The Critical Situation in Korea (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

Upon hearing the news of the Chinese Army’s appearance on the Korean peninsula, President Truman turned to his trusted advisers:

At 11 a.m. the President spoke first to General Bradley. How bad, he wanted to know, would the casualties be? ‘Very bad, I’m afraid, sir. It is too early for an accurate estimate, but our losses will be heavy.’ Then President asked how serious the situation was. ‘Critical,’ was Bradley’s terse response.

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Explaining Abstract Art (Pageant Magazine, 1950)

WHY DO THEY DISTORT THINGS? CAN’T THEY DRAW? WHY DO THEY
PAINT SQUARES AND CUBES?


In an effort to help answer these and many other similar questions that are overheard in the modern art museums around the world, authors Mary Rathbun and Bartlett Hayes put their noodles together and dreamed up the book (that is available at Amazon) Layman’s Guide to Modern Artstyle=border:none, and we have posted some of the more helpful portions here, as well as 17 assorted illustrations to help illustrate their explanations.


The authors point out that abstract images are not simply confined to museums and galleries but surround us every day and we willingly recognize their meanings without hesitation:

Lines picturing the force and direction of motion are a familiar device in cartoons… The cartoonist frequently draws a head in several positions to represent motion. Everybody understands it. The painter multiplies the features in the same way… Everybody abstracts. The snapshot you take with your [camera] is an abstraction – it leaves out color, depth, motion and presents only black-and-white shapes. Yet its simple enough to recognize this arrangement of shapes as your baby or your mother-in-law or whatever…

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