General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower sent home his first report on the occupation. In 20 pages, it cited the facts & figures of a defeated nation's life.
Economics. Most of the report, written in August, dealt with Germany's desperate economic exhaustion. The details:
¶ Less than 10% of theindustry in the U.S. sector was working.
¶ Mines would produce no coal for house-heating this winter.
¶ The average German diet was one-third below subsistence level.
¶ The pressure of inflation was increasing, revenue from taxes was down, currency volume up.
¶ There was virtually no trade.
Politics. Eisenhower's part...