The Allies left Nazi Germany quite literally in ashes. Then the United States rebuilt Germany, transforming an existential threat into a strategic ally all in the course of a decade.
It is one of the proudest moments of our republic, a testament to the fact that we liberate rather than conquer.
It is also apparently lost on the Washington Post.
Reacting to news that State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert had been nominated to succeed Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations, supposedly straight news reporter Isaac Stanley-Becker wrote that the nominee had “cited D-Day as the height of U.S.-German relations.”
Nauert did nothing of the sort, and the Washington Post should know better than to publish such a baseless smear. She instead highlighted the transformation between the two nations that began with D-Day.
A @washingtonpost story claiming @HeatherNauert cited D-Day as “height of U.S.-German relations” is misleading. She cited the Marshall Plan. D-Day reference is there but could’ve been for contrast. Democracy Dies in Darkness. Media Dies in Misinformation. https://t.co/PeuiC2T1Lr
— Bret Stephens (@BretStephensNYT) December 7, 2018
“Looking back in the history books, today is the 71st anniversary of the speech that announced the Marshall Plan, tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion,” Nauert said at a June press conference. “We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany and we have a strong relationship with the government.”
Opportunists like liberal-turned-conservative-turned-liberal Max Boot, whom the Washington Post cites in its story, scoffed at the time that “history [is] not this administration’s strong suit.” But it is Boot and WaPo, not Nauert, who are historically illiterate.
It is impossible to detail German-American relations without highlighting the largest seaborne invasion in all of history and then the subsequent greatest act of generosity. It was perfectly appropriate to mention both D-Day and the Marshall plan with both anniversaries at hand, and especially because the one led to the other.
The allies crashed into and cracked the Atlantic Wall on June 6, 1944, spent some time bogged down in hedgerow country, then proceeded to obliterate Hitler’s War Machine. Almost two years later to the day, in a June 7, 1947 commencement speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed “the most generous act of any people, anytime, anywhere, to another people.”
Europe had been liberated but that entire continent had been reduced to a smoldering wreck in the process. Millions had been killed and wounded, entire cities lay in waste. Some, including Arthur Schlesinger, who served in the administration, wanted to leave it that way. Let the Europeans rebuild their own countries. Let Germany remain a wasteland. We didn’t.
Economists can argue whether or not the Marshall Plan with its millions of dollars in aid actually achieved its intended affect. Historians cannot disagree, though, that the generosity was unprecedented in human history. European economies grew at an unprecedented rate. The continent righted itself. Germany was transformed into an ally that would help stop the advance of Soviet Russia.
This is why Nauert was not at all out of place recalling the entire history. The Germans certainly know this history. Newsrooms should familiarize themselves with the story before publishing their sneering click bait. Democracy doesn’t just die in darkness, as the New York Time’s Brett Stephens noted and “media dies in misinformation.”
For their own dignity’s sake, the Washington Post owes Nauert an apology.
