Ever wondered why the Red Cross is the preeminent charity in the United States despite it actually doing very little for actual disaster relief? Buckle up fam, it's time for a Pepe Thread. 
1. When World War II ended, Germany was divided up into four occupation zones, with the Western nations of France, UK,and US controlling West Germany, which was the richer part of Germany, while the Soviets controlled East Germany, per the Yalta Agreement.
2. The Yalta Agreement also called for Germany to pay reparations to those most burdened by WWII, basically the Soviets, as we had no interest in reparations because we didn't want a repeat of World War I.
3. When Germany was overrun by the allies, Germany had prisoner of war camps spread all over Germany. There were Western Prisoners of War, including American POW's in the Soviet zone, and there were Soviet prisoners in the Western zones.
4. It was becoming increasingly clear, especially at Potsdam, the conference after Yalta, that this alliance would not hold. At Potsdam, Truman alluded to Stalin that the US had the atomic bomb. Stalin understood it, and he ordered Soviet scientists to begin a crash program.
5. As soon as the war came to a halt, we had a very good idea of how many US Prisoners of War were in the Soviet Zone courtesy of the Red Cross. However, Stalin wasn't too eager to let US Prisoners of War cross the lines to the US Zones.
6. He insisted that they be shipped out of the port of Odessa back to the West. As for Soviet prisoners, Stalin really didn't give a fuck. He viewed them as cowards who were tainted with Western association. They really weren't a priority, and they would likely end up Gulaged.
7. Now, we weren't too happy with the potential for Soviet expansion, and we told the Soviets that if they wanted reparations that they had to get it out of their zone. Since we weren't cooperating with reparations, then he wouldn't cooperate with POW reparation.
8. This led to an interesting operation, where we stripped down planes, and flew into the Soviet zone and picked up some of our POWs.
9. This was known as Operation Revival.
10. Western Allied Commanders wanted to conduct more Operation Revivals to get all of the POWs out of Soviet zones, but the Soviets caught on and did not allow any more air evacuations out of the Soviet Zone.
11. We didn't want to go to World War III with the Soviets over this, and we needed the Red Cross to hide the records of the over 20k US POWs in Soviet hands.
12. Hence, the Red Cross got MASSIVE leverage on us, and we allowed the Red Cross to expand massively. It got to the point financially that the Red Cross became so fiscally intertwined with the USG that it was nothing more than a grift conceived in blackmail.
13. Today, the Red Cross archives is now open only four days a year to approved researchers. However, this tidbit of history is important because it was the first major secret held by the modern day deep state.
14. And it was an open secret in Washington. Senator McCarthy referenced Americans being tortured by communists abroad, but every President could be told of this. Go to WWIII to get them back, or else understand that the intelligence community will keep your secrets.
15. In a weird way, this was the beginning of the modern day deep state, and it's why this story shouldn't be forgotten.
Pepe out.
Pepe out.
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