WEBVTT

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- The start of the bomber
enterprise here in Europe

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began at the beginning of the Cold War.

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(radio static)

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- [Announcer] In the Netherlands,

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the foreign ministers of five
nations began a conference

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on what to do next

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about the Soviet starvation
blockade of Berlin.

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The last of America's
Armada of 60 superports

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has reached England

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and is ready to begin what
army leaders have said

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are practice maneuvers.

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Yet, who can doubt that the real reason

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for the presence of the B-29s

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is to show Russia we are not backing down.

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(plane engine)

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- We had just demobilized
after World War II.

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We, the United States,

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along with our British and French partners

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were doing occupation duty,

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but we didn't intend
on maintaining a large,

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true presence here in Europe.

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When tensions rose with the Soviet Union,

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especially with the Berlin blockade

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and the subsequent airlift,

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we didn't have the forces in
theater to necessarily respond

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on the ground, so to speak.

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So one of the ways we could do that

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was with strategic air power,

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and leaders in America, in the UK,

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decided we needed that reassurance.

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We needed some capability in
Europe to be able to respond

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if tensions with the
Soviet Union escalated.

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The initial B-29 strategic bombers

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that were brought to the UK

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were here on a rotational basis.

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First, they were here for 30 days,

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and then they realized they
needed them longer, so 60 days,

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and then pretty soon 90 days.

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And from that point forward,

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then both the American and
British governments agreed

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that they could be here indefinitely.

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The United States began looking

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at other locations in Europe.

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So by the middle of the 1950s,

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we have this huge bomber enterprise

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all across the continent.

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After the end of the Cold War,
key operations that bombers

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from Europe were involved in,

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in the 1990s in particular

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were the Gulf war in 1991.

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You see them used again during
Kosovo operations in 1999.

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And then a little bit later

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during operation Iraqi freedom in 2003.

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So those operations
were using those bombers

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that we had agreed that we
would continue to rotate over.

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(upbeat music and plane engines)

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One of the very clear
reasons for bringing bombers

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to Europe was that deterrence mission

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that still remains a key part of

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what they do here on the continent.

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Many of the units that
still fly over here today,

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were some of the very ones
that began 70 years ago.

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So in that essence,

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I think they should be proud

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of a legacy that they're carrying on with.