Item COLD WAR 27/14 - Transcript of interview with journalist and interpreter Robert Lochner, 1996

Typescript transcript of interview with Robert Lochner, broadcaster for US military radio station, Voice of America, [1942]-1945, Morale Division, US Strategic Bombing Survey, 1945, Information Control Division, [Allied Military Government] (AMGUS), 1945, Chief Editor, US Radio Frankfurt, Aug 1945-1946, Head of Press Section, US High Commission, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, 1953, Director of Radio in Amerikanischer Sektor (RIAS), Mar 1961-[1963], and German interpreter for US Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson and US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on their visits to Berlin, 1961 and 1963, relating to Lochner's impressions of Berlin and Germany, 1945; the effect of Allied bombing on German production of war material, 1942-1945; the impact of Allied bombing on German civilian morale, 1942-1945; the opinion held in Germany that the Western Allies liberated Germany from the threat of Soviet invasion and the war should continue against the USSR, 1945; an interview in 1945 between Lochner and Baldur von Schirach, Leader of the Hitler Youth, 1931-1940, and Gauleiter of Vienna, Aug 1940-1945; Lochner's interrogation of a [German] prisoner of war, Hollendorf, SS section chief under Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, 1945; the US takeover of Radio Frankfurt, Radio Stuttgart, Radio Munich and Radio Bremen, and the American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSE) broadcasts to the Germans in the US Zone of Occupation, 1945-[1948]; the content of US broadcasts in Germany and the gradual inclusion of material critical of aspects of the Soviet regime in their sector of Germany, 1945-1946; the character of US Gen Lucius DuBignon Clay, US Military Governor in Germany, and Commander in Chief, US Forces in Europe, 1947-1949; US Gen Clay's opinion on the revival of political activity in Germany, 1947-1948; the differences in policy between the USA, UK and France on reviving German political activity, 1947-1948; Clay's relationship with Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1951; Lochner announcement on Radio Frankfurt of currency reform in Germany, 1948; the Marshall Plan, the US European Recovery Program, 1948; the Soviet blockade of Berlin, 1948-1949; the Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949; Clay's relationship with Ernst Reuter, Mayor of Berlin, 1948-1953; Clay's criticism of the French contribution to the Berlin Airlift, 1949; Clay's retirement as US Military Governor in Germany, 1949; the Berlin uprising, Jun 1953; the construction of the Berlin Wall, Aug 1961; the face off between Soviet and US tanks, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Oct 1961; the refugee crisis from East to West Berlin, 1961; the slowness of the US response to the Soviet construction of the Berlin Wall, Aug 1961; the visit of Vice President Johnson to Berlin, 1961; Lochner's poor opinion of Johnson's character, 1961; the visit of US President Kennedy to the Federal Republic of Germany and to Berlin, 1963; the positive impression Kennedy made on Lochner, 1963; the policy of the RIAS over the construction of the Berlin Wall, 1961; the role of RIAS as a source of information for East Berliners, and its influence on the internal politics of the German Democratic Republic, 1949-[1963]; Lochner's experience of McCarthyism, the campaign against alleged communists and communist sympathisers in US society instigated by Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy, 1950-1954; the effect of the Cold War on the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1955. 90pp (page 1 missing)