OH+Dr.+Ron+Mason


 * 1) 1. Usually busy and often boring: sleeping in a Quonset hut with rain, snow, or sleet banging on the metal roof (it was always doing one or another or all three in Iceland); meals in a mess hall; doing paper work in unit headquarters.
 * 2) 2. I was trained in the use of a carbine in the unlikely case of Russian paratroopers invading our air base (IADF: Icelandic Air Defense Force, a U.S. Air Force installation affiliated with NATO) at Keflavik.
 * 3) 3. The base was very large and sustained several mainly fighter-interceptor and air transport squadrons and groups or wings, with hangars, maintenance shops, supply depots, Quonset huts as well as brick dormitories for personnel and offices, medical facilities, mess halls, an auditorium (where, incidentally, I heard Sir Edmund Hillary give one of his initial talks on his first ever conquest of Mt. Everest), and a large building for arriving and departing personnel and visitors.
 * 4) 4. I was on the list for assignment to Korea, but fortunately was sent to Iceland where units were even more understaffed. The reason for our big base there was to intercept Russian (Soviet) bombers should war break out with the USSR and their communist allies. Iceland and Greenland (we had an interceptor base there, too) were on the most expeditious route for bombers to take to attack the eastern U.S. The air base was also strategically located for air-sea surveillance should hostile naval vessels break out into the north Atlantic. These were important considerations, given the tensions of the time and the difficulties in knowing just what the Soviets were up to.
 * 5) 5. With both sides armed with nuclear weapons, preparation and determination to protect our national and international interests, coupled with careful diplomacy, were crucial to prevent a World War Three breaking out.
 * 6) 6. Notwithstanding the hot “sideshow” war in Korea, the term “Cold War” was a useful device for describing the tense and uncertain mutual hostility that threatened, but held in abeyance, the outbreak of full military collision. In the main, both sides “kept their cool.”
 * 7) 7. This question, Robert, would require a book to properly address. As I saw things at the time, the “Cold War” was a struggle between fundamentally hostile philosophies of governance, economics, and human rights in the context of a brutally expansionist Soviet regime and a more liberal West reluctantly facing the need to counter its threats. Stalin and Mao increasingly thwarted agreements made with the Western powers during the war, concurrently exhibiting Hitlerian disdain for basic human decency. Western rearmament, stiffened diplomacy in defense of our own values and interests, our withdrawal of support from some rotten regimes we should not have backed as long as we did (Nationalist China being the prime example), and the eventual collapse of militant communism brought about the end of the more virulent phase of the Cold War.
 * 8) 8. Again, this requires book-length treatment to adequately address. The communist take-over of Poland, the Berlin blockade and airlift, the “fall” of China, the Soviet Union going nuclear, NATO, Korea and the armistice --- these and many other things and events were involved. Perhaps we can talk about some of this when I see you next time. When you are up to it and have the time in the future, you should read Dean Acheson’s //Present at the Creation//. Acheson was Secretary of State during part of the Truman administration --- and one of the finest ever to hold that office. His memoir is a superb exploration of many of these issues. I recommend it highly.
 * 9) 9. The principal impact of the Cold War on me personally was, of course, my Air Force experience (limited as it was by my pre-and post-Korean War professional ambitions), and later, its further stimulation of my abiding interest in national and foreign affairs. Well, I hope this proves useful to you, Robert. Love to you and Matthew and your Mom and Dad. Grandpa XXXX!