Memoirs of a Cold War Son (Singular Lives: The Iowa Series in

249 Pages·2000·1.78 MB·English

by  Gaines Post Jr., Gaines Post

Memoirs of a Cold War Son
s ingular lives
The Iowa Series in
North American Autobiography
Albert E. Stone, Series Editor
Gaines Post, Jr.
Foreword by Albert E. Stone
Memoirs of a Cold War Son
University of Iowa Press Iowa City
University of Iowa Press, Printed on acid-free paper
Iowa City 52242
Copyright © 2000 by the Library of Congress
University of Iowa Press Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All rights reserved Post, Gaines, 1937–
Printed in the United States of America Memoirs of a Cold War son /
Design by Richard Hendel by Gaines Post, Jr.; foreword by
http://www.uiowa.edu/~uipress Albert E. Stone.
No part of this book may be repro- p. cm.—(Singular lives)
duced or used in any form or by any isbn 0-87745-701-8
means, electronic or mechanical, 1. Post, Gaines, 1937– 2. Cold War.
including photocopying and recording, 3. United States—Politics and
without permission in writing from the government—1945–1989.
publisher. All reasonable steps have 4. Europe—Politics and
been taken to contact copyright holders government—1945– I. Title.
of material used in this book. The II. Series.
publisher would be pleased to make ct275.p6885 a3 2000
suitable arrangements with any whom 973.92—dc21 99-057732
it has not been possible to reach.
00 01 02 03 04 c 5 4 3 2 1
The publication of this book was
generously supported by the University
of Iowa Foundation.
To
My children, Katherine & Daniel
My nephews, John Gavin Post &
David Gaines Post
My godsons, Maury Sterling &
Sebastian Dawson-Bowling
Contents
Foreword by Albert E. Stone ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
1 Rue St-Julien-le-Pauvre 1
2 Americans Abroad 29
3 The Home Front 51
4 From Cornell to Fort Sill 78
5 Honest Johns and Germans 131
6 Maneuvers 168
7 War over Berlin? 198
Epilogue 217
Foreword albert e . stone
Gaines Post, Jr.’s Memoirs of a Cold War Son is the
twentieth volume in Singular Lives: The Iowa
Series in North American Autobiography. All au-
tobiographies are unique, yet they share common
literary features and conventions. This work is no
exception. Post’s evolving self is shown as an ac-
tor in, or a witness to, significant public events and processes of the
Cold War. The accepted term for such a literary convention is mem-
oir, but pigeonholing this book as such can also be misleading.
Post’s story asserts throughout allegiance to the forces of time,
place, event, and institution as determinants of his autobiographical
identity. History dictates the terms on which the immature teenager
living in Paris in 1951 with his once-motherless family turns into the
adult Army officer in Germany caught in the Berlin airlift crisis of
1961. Moreover, the creator of both selves—the insecure son and
the first lieutenant—is the much older and wiser college professor-
historian writing in nineties California. Post is, therefore, doubly
caught and at the same time doubly liberated. Cold War history has
molded him in essential ways that are honestly and sensitively chron-
icled here. But the maturing author makes sure that Gaines Post is