It's interesting that the RCAF is still concerned with the part they took in World War II, when Canada was a declared combatant from the beginning. Maybe NATO isn't quite as strong as we have been led to believe...
At any rate, the coming release of Mark Twain's autobiography is something we should really look forward to. Interestingly, well before he started on the project seriously, he wrote a burlesque autobiography in which he noted that his family tree had but one branch, which stuck out perpendicular to the trunk and bore fruit at all seasons. With this in mind, he said, he believed it would not be discreet to describe his own life until after he was hanged. He never received this sort of suspended sentence, but I have certainly felt in suspense waiting to read the things he believed but did not dare to say during his lifetime--though what he did say would seem to be outrageous enough. On Jul 7, 6:39 pm, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > Keeping in mind that history never ceases to be rewritten, here is a > collection of must-know archives scheduled to open in coming decades: > (Source: Smithsonian) > > 2011: The State Department’s Office of the Historian expects to begin > releasing volumes on Nixon and Ford administration foreign policy > initiatives, including potentially new details on the energy crisis, > NATO and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. > > 2019: The papers of the poet T. S. Eliot, who died in 1965, include > 1,200 personal letters that have remained off-limits: his > correspondence with Emily Hale, a girlfriend whom biographer Lyndall > Gordon described as Eliot’s “muse.” In 1959, Hale bequeathed the > letters to Princeton University. > > 2026: As chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986, Warren > Burger presided over cases concerning abortion, capital punishment and > the Watergate scandal. In 1996, the year after Burger died, his son, > Wade, donated the justice’s personal papers—some two million documents— > to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with the > understanding they would be sealed for 30 years. > > 2027: The FBI spied on Martin Luther King Jr. in an unsuccessful > effort to prove he had ties to Communist organizations. In 1963, > Attorney General Robert Kennedy granted an FBI request to > surreptitiously record King and his associates by tapping their phones > and placing hidden microphones in their homes, hotel rooms and > offices. A 1977 court order sealed transcripts of the surveillance > tapes for 50 years. > > 2037: A decade ago, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library released ten > boxes of documents pertaining to the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII so > that he could marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. But one > collection of “sensitive documents” (Box 24) was to be withheld for 37 > years. British news media speculate the documents include embarrassing > revelations about the Queen Mother’s alleged support for negotiating > peace with Nazi Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II. > > 2041: Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland on May > 10, 1941, claiming that he wanted to discuss peace terms with Britain > and that their common enemy was the Soviet Union. Hess was imprisoned > and interrogated. After the war, he was convicted at the Nuremberg > trials and sentenced to life at Spandau Prison. A British intelligence > file said to contain an interrogation transcript and Hess’ > correspondence with King George VI is scheduled to be unsealed 100 > years after his arrest. Historians say the papers might show whether > British intelligence tricked Hess into undertaking his fateful > mission. > > 2045: In May 1945, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) attacked two > German ships in the Baltic Sea carrying 7,000 survivors of the > Neuengamme concentration camp. Only 350 survived. RAF intelligence had > mistakenly believed the vessels held Nazi officials escaping to Norway > or Sweden. Because the RAF ordered the records to remain classified > for 100 years, scholars have been unable to offer a complete account > of one of the worst “friendly-fire” incidents in history. > > 2045: During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) lent > Britain highly skilled radar technicians—“the Secret 5,000”—who flew > on patrols over the Atlantic Ocean to detect German submarines and > aircraft. The RCAF deemed its work so classified it sealed all > pertinent records about the operation for a century. Even today, the > Secret 5,000 are not mentioned in official RCAF histories.
