Martha Rountree, the first moderator of Meet the Press, speaks with Gov. Thomas Dewey.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
The news program “American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press” premieres on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network on October 5. (Moving to television in November 1947, the show, which still airs today, is the longest-running program in television history.) In Hollywood, a six-month-long strike by motion-picture set decorators boils over into a riot at the gates of Warner Bros. studios in Burbank.
In the Netherlands, Gen. of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, arriving in The Hague on October 6 — on what had been Adolf Hitler’s personal train — is given a hero’s welcome.
In Germany, Gen. George S. Patton on October 7 turns over command of the U.S. Third Army to Lt. Gen. Lucian Truscott. At Southampton, England, the liner SS Corfu docks, carrying home the first 1,500 British prisoners of war from Asia.
President Truman announces on October 8 that atomic-bomb secrets have been shared with the United Kingdom and Canada. Former Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess is transferred from the United Kingdom to Germany to stand trial for war crimes at Nuremberg. Hess had been imprisoned in England since being captured in Scotland in May 1941 on an unauthorized, ill-advised “peace mission.” In Palestine, Jews stage a five-hour general strike to protest British restrictions on Jewish immigration.
British troops occupy the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, on October 9. In France, Pierre Laval, the former head of state of Vichy France, is sentenced to death for collaborating with the Germans. In Argentina, Juan Perón — the nation’s vice president, secretary of war and minister of labor — under pressure from opponents in the military who are wary of his growing power in the government and popularity among the general populace, resigns from all his public offices.
The Communist Party of Korea is established, on October 10. The Detroit Tigers defeat the Chicago Cubs 9-3 in the seventh game of the World Series. It was in the fourth game of this series that the “Curse of the Billy Goat” was visited upon the Cubs. The Cubs were up in the Series, two games to one, when William Sianis, owner of Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern, as the story goes, brought his pet goat, Murphy, the tavern’s mascot, with him to Game Four. Despite his paid-for box seats, Sianis is asked to leave the park because the goat’s odor is offending nearby fans. Outraged, Sianis leaves, and then sends an angry telegram to Cubs owner, Philip K. Wrigley, which says: “You are going to lose this World Series and you will never win another World Series again . . . . because you insulted my goat.” And, indeed, the Cubs never again win a World Series — until 2016, 71 years later. In New York City, CBS conducts a successful test of color television when it broadcasts images in color between two locations in Manhattan.
On October 11, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announce an agreement in Chungking to maintain peace and order, to find a way to reconcile and to promote democracy. In North Africa, the governments of the U.S., the U.K. and the Soviet Union set up a new international administration to govern Tangier, located in Morocco on the western side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The city, strategically located where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, had been occupied by Spanish troops in June 1940 and held by them for the duration of the war.
In the Netherlands East Indies, the Dutch government on October 12, 1945, offers to negotiate with Indonesian nationalists who are willing to agree to self-government for Indonesia under the Dutch crown (that is, accepting Commonwealth status). In Italy, General der Infanterie Anton Dostler becomes the first German general to be tried for war crimes. Dostler stands before a military tribunal in Caserta, accused of ordering the execution of 15 American POWs who had been captured in a raid in March 1944. Although the soldiers were in U.S. Army field uniforms and carried no civilian clothing, they were classified as commandos. Dostler defends his action by saying he followed Hitler’s “Commando Order,” issued in October 1942, that stated (in part): “…all Allied Commandos encountered in Europe or Africa should be killed immediately without trial, even if in proper uniform, or if they attempted to surrender.”
French troops in Vietnam on October 13 are fighting Viet Minh insurgents that are led by Hồ Chi Minh. In Argentina, Juan Perón is arrested and imprisoned. Political opponents and the military fear that, enormously admired by the country’s workers and the poor (Perón had done much toward eliminating poverty and dignifying labor), Perón’s popularity could surpass that of the sitting president and of even the government itself.
A new, provisional, national legislature is elected in Czechoslovakia on October 14. In the Dutch East Indies, the Indonesian People’s Army declares war on the Netherlands. At Bad Nauheim, Germany, Gen. George Patton takes command of the U.S. Fifteenth Army, at this time a small organization tasked with documenting the war in Germany. Insiders consider that Patton has been “kicked upstairs.”
Pierre Laval, the former head of state of Vichy France, on October 15 is executed by a firing squad for treason. In London, the House of Commons votes to extend the British government’s wartime emergency powers for five more years, in an effort to recover from the cancellation of American Lend-Lease support. The British economy relied heavily on the transfusion of American aid, and the British find they must maintain austere economic measures to prevent financial collapse. In Manchester, England, the Fifth Pan-African Congress opens. Some 90 delegates spend the week discussing independence for African colonies.
The Food and Agriculture Organization is established in Québec, Quebec, Canada, on October 16 as a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its mission is to lead international efforts to eliminate hunger worldwide.
In Argentina, following huge demonstrations of popular support (300,000 people rally in Buenos Aires alone), Juan Perón — the country’s vice president who had resigned on October 9 because of pressure from the Argentine military — on October 17 is released from prison and returns to politics as a “strong man.” In Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito grants amnesty to nearly one million Japanese as a “step toward national unity.” Soviet troops begin to evacuate Manchuria.
The first open session of the International Military War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremburg, Germany, takes place on October 18, with the indictments of 24 top Nazis. First on the list is Hermann Göring, Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe and President of the Reichstag (the German parliament), followed by: Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of the Nazi Party until 1941, when he was captured in Scotland and held prisoner by the British; Martin Bormann, Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler; and Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command. All are charged with four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, in violation of international laws governing warfare. Japanese troops quell an uprising in Semarang, Java, Netherlands East Indies, then hand the city over to British forces.
