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Simon Bolivar, Hero & ‘Libertador’ of South America

Simon Bolivar is the most famous political and military hero in Latin American history. He led revolutions against the Spanish Empire in no less than 6 South American countries. His short life and personal story is without doubt the stuff of legend. Yet today, outside of Latin America, where he’s still revered as El Libertador, his name is nearly forgotten. He was the George Washington (and more) of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, AND Bolivia.

In each country, he was able to gain the people’s support for revolution and liberation from Spain. He succeeded in leading small armies of mixed units in defeating the larger, highly-trained Spanish forces. He wrote a constitution which developed the ideals of democracy and national identity amongst the Spanish colonies.

His amazing life is impossible to compress into a 10 minute read, so here are the key highlights of this heroic man.

Simón Bolívar was born Simón José Antonio de la Santísma Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios in Caracas in1783. He belonged to a wealthy, aristocratic family, owning gold and copper mines in Venezuela. His father died when he was only 3 and his mother when he was just 9. Young Simón was raised by an uncle, nurse and tutor. They sent him to a colonial academy, where he began to develop his keen affinity for military strategy.

At 16, his uncle sent Simón to Spain to complete his education. While in Madrid, he fell in love with the daughter of a Spanish nobleman, María Teresa Rodríguez. They fell in love, courted for 2 years and married in 1802. He eagerly took his beautiful new bride back to his home in Venezuela to begin a life together. Sadly, María quickly contracted yellow fever in Caracas, sickened, and died.

The 20-year-old Bolívar was emotionally crushed and vowed never to marry again. He returned to Europe and immersed himself in his studies. He visited Paris and became enamored with the bold French and American Revolutions. They planted in his mind the need for similar independence for Spanish Latin American. Simón met his old tutor in Madrid. He grasped his teacher’s hands, dropped to his knees, and vowed to not rest until he had freed his country as well.

At that time, the Viceroyalty of New Granada included Columbia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador. Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807 and found that the oppressed colonists were indeed ready for independence. Bolívar became heavily involved in the rebellion. He boldly spoke out passionately in public.

“Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish!“
Simon BolIvar

The Venezuela National Assembly declared independence from Spain in 1811. The new Republica de Venezuela became the 1st colony of the Spanish empire to begin a war for independence. Simón was thrilled and quickly joined the Venezuelan army. Though he had little formal military training, he was made a Lieutenant Colonel. He soon began to distinguish himself in early battles against the Spanish forces. It would be a long road to independence however.

By 1812, Spanish forces regained control of Venezuela. Bolívar and the revolutionary army fled to rebel-friendly New Granada (Columbia). There he wrote his famous, “El Manifesto de Cartagena” in which he urged Venezuelans not to give up and instead retake their independence.

“Not the Spanish, but our own disunity led us back into slavery. A strong government could have changed everything.”
Simon Bolivar

In 1813, he was given his first military command. He lead the revolutionary army back into Venezuela to begin the “Campaña Admirable” and liberate the country again. After numerous hard-fought battles against the Spaniards, he was able to reenter Caracas and establish the Second Venezuelan Republic. The people hailed Bolívar at only 30 as El Libertador and awarded him presidential powers.

However, this second republic was also to be short-lived.

The people were war-weary and turned against independence. Many still preferred Spanish colonial rule. A Civil War soon erupted, with Spain backing the loyalists. By 1815, half of Venezuela still belonged to Spain. Spanish led forces succeeded in driving Bolívar and his rebel army out of Venezuela a second time! He fled once again to Cartagena in New Granada.

A large Spanish army followed him, and Bolívar was forced to sail for Jamaica with only his officers. Never one to be discouraged, he simply planned for his return. The indefatigable Bolívar wrote his most famous essay, la Carta de Jamaica, directly to the Venezuelan people. He detailed his vision of a great federation of South American republics.

“I have been chosen by fate to break your chains. Misfortune is the ‘school of heroes.’ A people that love freedom will in the end be free!“
Simon Bolivar

A man of great energy and charisma, Bolívar set out to persuade the entire world to back his vision for an independent South America. He sought international support, but sadly both Great Britain and the U.S. declined. They were unwilling to anger the Spanish Empire and send aid of any kind.

Nevertheless, in 1816, his first expedition sailed with only 250 men and 7 ships, a force far too tiny to engage the 10,000-strong royal army. The Spanish were sure the foolish young rebel was finished this time. Bolívar began circulating proclamations, making up stories about supposed victories not yet achieved across the colony, building an image the invincible liberators in the people’s eyes.

“You are human beings, they are beasts. Fight, and you shall win! For God grants victory to perseverance.”
Simon Bolivar

Bolívar then conceived one of the most daring military campaigns in history.

It involved attacking not Caracas, but rather the capital of all New Grenada, Bogota. He’d been attacking on the eastern plains. On the western plains, Generals Francisco de Santander and Jose Paez were conducting similar guerrilla campaigns. During the rainy season, the plains turned to swamp and the Spanish troops withdrew.

Bolívar also knew the Spanish considered the Andes Mountains impassable during winter and lightly guarded that frontier. He called a War Council of his generals, all of them under 40 years of age, in a small hut without furniture, to discuss his daring plan to take Bogota.

In 1818, Bolívar’s 2,500 ragtag soldiers marched 350 miles through torrential rains, flooded plains, and swollen rivers. Half their cattle drowned. Nevertheless, Bolívar continually encouraged his tired men to push forward. In June, they began their ascent of the Andes. The army was woefully unprepared. By the time they were at 18,000 feet, their horses and cattle had died. The thinly uniformed men had little wood for fire. Nearly 1,000 men died of exposure on the perilous trek.

Those who made it were half-starved, but found a Columbian population eager to help. After Bolívar’s men had a few skirmishes with Spanish outposts, word reach the New Granada colonial commander Pablo Morillo. He prepared to meet the rebels in battle. At Boyaca near Bogata in August 1819, in a two-hour clash, Bolívar’s republic forces captured half of the 3,000 Spanish troops, the rest were either killed or fled.

It was the turning point for independence in South America.

The Spanish began to evacuate New Granada and the colonial empire started to collapse. Desertions from the royal army increased and citizens began supporting Bolívar. The legislature declared a new country of united provinces, the Republic of Gran Colombia consisting of New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela and Ecuador. The new government made Bolívar president and essentially a military dictator.

Now Bolívar also showed excellent political skills in negotiating the challenges of setting up a new republic, including writing a constitution. Bolívar and Morillo, the Spanish commander met in 1820 and signed a treaty. Bolívar did not rest on his laurels however. In 1821, he cleared the remaining Spanish forces from his beloved Venezuela.

Still, other Spanish forces remained entrenched far to the south.

With the help of his best commander, Antonio Jose de Sucre, he split the army, pushed south and attacked Quito from two sides, liberating Ecuador in 1822. It was in Quito that the Liberator met the second great love of his life, Manuela Sáenz. She was the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish nobleman and a zealous revolutionary. They never married, but she was his constant companion for the rest of his life.

This now left the remaining Spanish Viceroy of Peru to the south. The Argentine revolutionary General Jose de San Martin had successfully liberated parts of lower South America (first Argentina, then Chile). Between his army and Bolívar’s troops lay Peru, with 20,000 Spanish troops, the last in South America. San Martin’s troops marched over the Andes and took Lima on the coast in 1821. However, they’d not been able to push further inland and struggled to maintain independence. He sought out the help of Simón Bolívar.

In July 1822, San Martin and Bolívar met in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

They met alone and there are sadly no records of their conference. They had two vastly different visions for governing the continent. It’s believed San Martin was disheartened by Bolívar’s insistence that only his view would prevail. He must have felt that only Bolívar’s military and political strength would free Peru. Gran Colombia was proof of that. San Martin decided to resign on the spot, turned over his army and returned to Argentina. The fate of Peru was now in Bolívar’s hands!

In 1824, Bolívar led his combined armies up into the Andean plateaus. At the top, Bolívar reviewed his troops and told them:

“Soldiers, you are about to finish the greatest undertaking Heaven has confided to men–that of saving an entire world from slavery!”
Simon Bolivar

A cat and mouse game ensued through the mountains crossed by steep ravines and deep rivers. Bolivar’s forces out maneuvered the Spanish army, which had numbered 18,000, and they surrendered to General Sucre.

Sucre’s report to Bolívar proudly announced, “The war is ended. The liberation of Peru complete.”

The people of upper Peru decided to form a separate nation in 1825. They named it Bolivia in Bolívar’s honor. He eventually wrote its constitution and accepted the position of lifetime president.

Bolívar received a letter from the then-aged Marquis de Lafayette on behalf of the family of President George Washington. Along with a gold medallion coined after the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. It read: “To the second Washington of the New World.” Bolívar was deeply touched and cherished it the rest of his life.

He began vigorously rebuilding and administering the war-devastated new republic. He convened a congress of the republics in Panama in 1826. Bolívar felt that a union of states would be mutually beneficial. He envisioned a combined league of the young nations.

“Its principles should be the sovereignty of the people, division of powers, civil liberty, prohibition of slavery and the abolition of monarchy.”
Simon Bolivar

But alas, it was not to be. Bolívar had succeeded in freeing colonies into federations, but their governments were inexperienced and fragile. Despite his desire to create a union of republics, similar to the United States, he faced opposition from factions that pushed for independent nations.

Bolívar was now torn between his republican values and the need to maintain order. He loved democracy, but feared that only a strong leader could hold it together. Bickering between factions, political conflicts, and resentment of his rule caused his influence to wane. Bolívar took dictatorial powers in 1828 just to hold Gran Colombia together.

Then in September 1828, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

Twenty six conspirators attacked the San Carlos Palace in Bogota at midnight. Bolívar’s life was saved by his mistress, Manuela Sáenz, who awakened him. He escaped by jumping out a window. Soldiers captured the conspirators who were all executed. It must have been a disheartening moment for Bolívar. He realized that he had become a dangerously polarizing figure in the same countries he freed.

In 1830, Bolívar resigned his presidency – turning down offers to become president for life. He preferred now to simply return to being an ordinary citizen. He planned to sail to Europe again and self-exile. But before he could set sail, he became gravely ill from tuberculosis. The treatment of the period was arsenic.

In December 1830, Simon Bolivar died at only 47 in Santa Marta, Colombia, losing his battle with tuberculosis. He is buried in his beloved Caracas, Venezuela. Bolívar was a visionary and charismatic leader. When the cause seemed lost, he always showed determination and courage. He had no desire for personal wealth. He began life wealthy, but ended it modestly. His legacy remains behind in the six countries he freed from Spanish colonial rule. To Latin Americans, Bolívar remains El Libertador, one of the greatest independence leaders in the history of the world.

“Colombians! My last wish is for the happiness of the patria. If my death contributes to the consolidation of the union, I shall be lowered in peace into my grave.”
Simon Bolivar

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

Podcast: The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky, Psychic or Charlatan?

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (or HPB to her followers) was a controversial 19th century medium, psychic, author and co-founder of the Theosophical Society. She claimed to be in contact with the ‘The Masters’, astral beings of great psychic powers who bestowed upon her the ancient secret science of Theosophy. The society grew from a modest start in 1875 to become a multi-national organization with thousands of members and branches that still exist to this day. But who was she really?

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (HPB), 1888

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The Munich Massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics

**Coffins of the Israeli Team killed at 1972 Munich Olympics**

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, eight terrorists disguised in tracksuits, carrying gym bags filled with assault rifles and hand grenades, breached the Olympic Village security. Just before dawn on September 5th, Black September terrorists of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), managed to enter the building where Israeli athletes were sleeping. Once inside, they murdered one athlete and one coach, taking 9 others hostage.

Thanks to press coverage of the Olympics, audiences around the world watched in horror as the nightmare unfolded on live television. More than 900 million watched the terrorist attack unfold on their home TVs. Terrorists armed with assault weapons wearing black ski masks patrolled the apartment balcony. It was the first time a terrorist act took place during an Olympic games.

Black September demanded the release of 234 Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails, and negotiations took an agonizing 23 hours. When authorities finally attempted a botched rescue attempt, all nine hostages were killed by the terrorists, along with five Black September members and one West German police officer. How could such a thing have happened during an Olympics, the symbol of world peace through athletics?

The 1972 Munich Olympic Games were supposed to be joyous.

West Germany was set to celebrate an international sporting festival of peace. Over a quarter century after World War II had been unleashed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, West Germany wanted to present itself as a modern, democratic state. Reminders of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, with its heavy Nazi propaganda, were a distant memory.

Less than 30 years after the Holocaust, when approximately 6 million Jews were murdered in Nazi Death Camps, Israel was going to the Munich Olympics with its biggest team ever. The significance was not lost on anyone. Several of the older team officials were Eastern Europeans, still bearing the arm tattoos from Nazi concentration camps.

The West German government wanted to downplay any military presence. Hailing the event as “The Games of Peace and Joy,” they avoided uniformed soldiers and police for unarmed guards. Israeli officials voiced concerns about the obvious lack of security at the Games. Nevertheless, Munich introduced the first-ever Olympic mascot, the dachshund “Waldi,” and its official motto, “The Cheerful Games.”

It certainly started out that way. American swimmer Mark Spitz, with his thick black mustache won 7 gold medals, setting world records in all seven of his events. He became the undisputed star of the Munich games. The image of Spitz with 7 gold medals on his bare chest was everywhere. It was a feat that stood for decades, surpassed only by American Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

The excitement continued with the surprising Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut. The sixteen year old “Sparrow from Minsk” came out of nowhere and soared to three gold medals in the balance beam, floor exercise, and team competition. Her acrobatic and athletic show helped revolutionize women’s gymnastics, ushering in a new era of popularity. Every little girl in the world wanted to be Olga Korbut.

For 10 days, the Munich Summer Games continued and were indeed joyous and cheerful. But behind the scenes, there were still questions regarding lax security. The early 1970s were overshadowed by numerous airplane hijackings by terrorists. The Munich police could have been better prepared for what was to come.

The Summer Games came to an abrupt halt the morning of September 5th.

On Monday evening, the Israeli athletes enjoyed a night out, watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof, then dining out with the Israeli star of the musical, before returning to the Olympic Village. At 4:35 am early Tuesday morning, 8 members of the Black September terrorist group, disguised as athletes, scaled a chain link fence and entered the village.

They forced their way into the Israeli athletes’ quarters, apartments 1 and 3. Two team members, weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, attempted to fight back, only to be shot and killed. The terrorists collected nine other Israeli team members as hostages, tightly binding their hands and feet. Following the shots, chaos erupted at the Olympic village and the Munich police were called.

Black September demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and Arabs imprisoned in Israeli jails. To prove their intent, they tossed the bullet-ridden body of Weinberg out the main door onto the street. They kept the bloody body of Romano at the feet of the athletes as a grim reminder to remain submissive. The terrorists set a 9AM deadline for release of the political prisoners. Failure to meet it, they said, would result in 1 hostage being executed every hour.

Thanks to the Olympic TV and press coverage, soon the entire world knew.

The image of black masked kidnappers with assault rifles quickly spread across the globe. Munich’s law enforcement was woefully unprepared. They were trained for everyday crimes, not military trained terrorists. With no counter-terror unit, the West German government took control of the negotiations, along with Munich’s Police Chief Manfred Schreiber. But they did not have a cohesive plan. Hours of negotiation ensued, with much of the drama unfolding on live television.

West German negotiators were inclined to give in to the terrorist demands, but Israel leaders in Tel Aviv adamantly refused, stating there would be absolutely NO negotiations.

“If we should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world can feel that his life is safe.”
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir

At one point in the day, a Munich policewoman was used as an intermediary with the lead terrorist, Luttif Afif, who called himself ‘Issa.’ The two could be seen on live TV, Issa confidently standing in a doorway, leaning against the frame in a white hat and sunglasses. He shared cigarettes with the policewoman, dressed in civilian clothes, wearing a dress and sports jacket.

The terrorists rejected a German counteroffer of an unlimited amount of money. Responding back, ”Money and our lives mean nothing to us.” The Libyan and Tunisian ambassadors to Germany, as well as Egyptian members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were brought in. They succeeded in getting Black September to extend their deadline a total of five times, without further deaths.

Black September terrorists at the Munich Olympic Village

At one point, two of the Israeli hostages were allowed to appear on a second floor window to prove they were still alive. But when one tried to answer a question from German police, a terrorist clubbed him in the head with the butt of his rifle. The rest of the Israeli team quickly left Munich, as did Jewish-American swimmer Mark Spitz.

At the same time, the media provided the terrorists with valuable information on TV. West German authorities forgot to switch off electricity to the apartments and failed to remove the foreign press contingent from the Olympic Village. That meant that the terrorists were able to watch on TV how the police and snipers were positioned all around them. The poor hostages, closely trapped with them, must have realized there was no hope for rescue or release.

Finally at 4:30 pm, a squad of Munich police arrived at the Olympic Village disguised in sweat suits.

Their plan was to crawl down from ventilation shafts and kill the terrorists. However, camera crews followed the officers and broadcast the images live on TV. The terrorists were able to watch the police preparation live from the couches in the apartments. Issa was furious and threatened to kill two of the hostages if they did not withdraw immediately. The police retreated.

With negotiations failing, Black September shifted their demands and asked for transport to Cairo with the hostages. It seemed as though German authorities agreed to the terrorists’ demands and it was here TV coverage ended. Two military transport helicopters were brought to the Village. They flew the terrorists and hostages 15 miles to the nearby Fürstenfeldbruck NATO Air Base, where a 727 jet airplane was waiting.

It was there a second rescue was attempted. Unfortunately, only five police snipers were deployed as the German authorities still didn’t know the exact number of PLO terrorists. The snipers were inadequately trained for such an operation, poorly equipped with the wrong rifles, and had no radio contact with each other. The two helicopters landed in the dark at 10:30pm. The Bavarian Interior Minister then ordered the snipers to open fire.

The terrorists scrambled beneath the helicopters and returned fire, killing Anton Fliegerbauer, a German sniper. The 2 helicopter pilots managed to escape in the melee. Armored personnel carriers had been stuck in traffic and arrived late. When the attack vehicles rolled in, Issa shouted in anger and threw a hand grenade into one of the helicopters. The explosion incinerated the still bound hostages and destroyed the aircraft. The terrorists then riddled the Israeli athletes bound in the other helicopter with bullets.

The nine victims were: wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing master Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, and weightlifters David Berger and Ze’ev Friedman.

When the shooting ended, the leader Luttif Afif (Issa) and four other terrorists were also dead. Three surrendered and were captured alive by the police. West German spokesman Conrad Ahlers declared that the hostage operation had been a success. But hours later, the world found out the truth about the failed rescue attempt and the death of ALL 9 hostages.

The tragedy cast a dark shadow over what had been the memorably “Cheerful Games.” The Summer Games were put on hold for 34 hours. A memorial ceremony, attended by 3,000 athletes and 80,000 spectators, was conducted at the Olympic Stadium on September 6^th with all nation flags flying at half- mast. The IOC president, Avery Brundage, then proclaimed: “The Games must go on!“

The deadly operation gave the PLO a worldwide audience and made them a household name, ushering in a new era of bold global terrorism. Sadly, 3 weeks after the massacre, the 3 captured assassins were released as part of the hijack negotiations of German Lufthansa flight 615. The trio was flown to Libya where they received a hero’s welcome. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir set up a covert unit within Israel’s Mossad agency to hunt down and eliminate all those involved in the Munich Massacre. She called it Operation Wrath of God.

Several terrorist suspects were assassinated in the coming months throughout Europe and the Middle East. Black September’s Head Ali Hassan Salameh, was assassinated by car bomb in 1979 in the operation’s final mission. Mohammed Daoud Odeh, who masterminded the deadly assault, fled to Syria and died of cancer in Damascus in 2010.

The way the terrorists were so easily able to access to the village would forever change Olympic security protocols. Four years later, at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, the Israeli team commemorated their fallen at the Olympic stadium Opening Ceremony when they entered carrying the Israeli flag adorned with 9 long, black ribbons.

The Munich Massacre has been the subject of a number of books and films, including one by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who used it, and the subsequent Mossad assassinations, in his 2005 film, “Munich.” Forty-four years later, the IOC finally commemorated the victims before the 2016 Rio Summer Games. We should do the same at ALL future Olympic Games.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Podcast: The 10 Most Successful Vaccines in History

We used to take vaccines for granted. After all, they’ve been around for decades. Some, like small pox and polio, were given to our grandparents and even great-grandparents. We all received our last round of childhood shots as kids. So much so, we were shocked by a modern pandemic in 2020. This was due in part to the lack of a ready COVID vaccine AND a surprisingly vocal anti-vaccine contingent. How could that be?

Norman Rockwell's famous childhood vaccination depiction — Norman Rockwell’s famous childhood vaccination depiction

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The Oversteegen Sisters – Teenage Resistance Assassins

The Oversteegen sisters were only teenagers when they joined the Dutch resistance in the Netherlands during World War II. Together with a young friend, Hannie Schaft, they gathered intelligence for the Resistance, provided Jewish safe houses, bombed railways and, most remarkably, lured Nazi officers into the woods, and shot them.

When World War II erupted in 1939, sisters Freddie and Truus Oversteegen, and their friend Hannie Schaft were just 14, 16 and 18 years old. Despite their ages, they formed an effective trio in the Dutch Resistance against the Nazis occupiers. Hannie was the intellectual one, Truus their leader, and Freddie the planner.

The Oversteegen sisters initially lived on a barge with their family in Schoten. They were raised with the mindset of resistance. Her parents had hidden Lithuanian refugees in the hold of their ship before the beginning the war. Once their parents divorced, Freddie and Truus were raised by their mother.

They grew up in Haarlem with their now single, working-class mom. Their mother considered herself a free-thinking socialist and taught her daughters the importance of fighting injustice. When the Netherlands was on the brink of war in 1939, she took a Jewish refugee couple into their home.

In their mother, Freddie and Truus witnessed both her moral compass and willingness to act when it really mattered. It’s no surprise the Oversteegen sisters would go on to join the Resistance. They would also learn that to help, you had to make sacrifices yourself. Fighting injustice and doing the right thing took exceptional bravery and fortitude.

They were to also to learn it was harder and far more brutal than they imagined.

In the spring of 1940, the Nazis invaded Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. It began an occupation that lasted 5 long years. In response, the girls joined their mother in distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets for the Resistance. Under cover of darkness, they glued resistance posters over German posters calling Dutch men to work in Germany, then scurried off on their bikes.

These simple acts weren’t just subversive, they were highly dangerous. If the Nazis caught the sisters, they’d likely be shot. The fact that they were both young girls meant that officials MIGHT not suspect them. This might be the reasons why, in 1941, a Haarlem Resistance commander asked their mother if he could recruit Freddie and Truus.

The Oversteegen sisters were eager to formally join and their mother consented. Only later would they learn what they’d actually have to do. Their initial duties included working in an emergency hospital in Enschede, shepherding Jewish refugees to new hiding places, and helping blow up the Haarlem railway line. When the resistance leader saw the girl’s dedication, he initiated their next level of involvement.

The sisters, who had never even held a gun before, were told they must “learn to shoot — and to shoot Nazis.”

How could young girls manage to commit such an act? Freddie described their motivation years later: “While we were biking, we saw German soldiers picking up people from the streets, including children, pushing them against a wall, and shooting them. This aroused such an enormous anger in me, such disgust, a feeling of ‘those dirty bastards.’ At that moment you are just a human being confronted with something very cruel. If you experience something like that, you find it justified to act against it.”

Young Freddie was the first to assassinate someone, a female Dutch official who was handing over lists of Jewish people to their Nazi occupiers. Freddie approached the woman as she was walking alone in a park, asked the lady for her name — and then with her heart pounding in her chest, shot her.

Freddie was the youngest and shortest, and wore her hair in two braids which made her look even more innocent. They enabled her to get away easily after shots were fired. Their method of attack often included drive-by shootings. Truus would cycle their bike near the target, while Freddie rode on the back. Freddie made sure there were no witnesses and then fired.

They always rode a bike, never walked. Freddie and Truus also became adept and famous for a 2nd assassination technique. They would use their natural good looks lure to German officers to their deaths. Freddie or Truus would flirt with an SS officer or Dutch collaborator in a local tavern, asking them if they would like to go “for a stroll” in the woods. The lustful victim would be led to the woods and shot by the other sister in a surprise attack. For Dutch collaborators, they focused on those who arrested or endangered Jewish refugees or Resistance members.

How did killing – even Nazis – make such young girls feel? In an interview, Freddie talked of the strange compulsion to help the victims get up again. “Yes, I’ve shot a gun at them and I’ve watched them fall. And what is inside us at such a moment? As humans, you still want to help them.”

In 1943, they joined forces with another young woman, Hannie Schaft.

Hannie was a red haired, former law student who dropped out because she refused to sign a pledge of loyalty to Germany. Hannie became their best friend and together, the three young women formed an effective sabotage and assassination cell. Young Freddie was particularly good at following targets or keeping a lookout in broad daylight, since she looked so innocent.

The trio did have to draw the line once. The Resistance asked them to take the children of a senior Nazi officer hostage. The children were then to be exchanged for captured members of the Dutch resistance. But if the negotiations fell through, they would have to kill them to demonstrate their resolve. At that point, the girls refused to carry out the mission. “We are not Nazis,” they said. “The Resistance doesn’t murder children.”

A former commander commented. “They were unusual, these girls. There were women involved in the Dutch resistance, but not in the way these girls were.” Both sisters never revealed how many Nazis or collaborators they assassinated. Their response would be that ‘they were soldiers, and soldiers don’t say.’ There are no records of how many “liquidations,” as they called them, were conducted successfully, but they are credited with many during the war.

Hold no romantic image of their escapades. They were not Hollywood spies. While their feats were remarkable, their pursuit of the right thing was nevertheless ruthless. The Oversteegens struggled to come to terms with their actions. All three of them suffered from depression, insomnia, and severe nightmares.

In 1945, Hannie Schaft was caught at a checkpoint and arrested for treason.

She was executed by the Nazis just 3 weeks before the end of the war. When the executioner only wounded her on the first try, Hannie’s last words were, “I’m a better shot.” The ‘girl with the red hair’ went on to become a legendary icon of female Dutch resistance. The sisters were devastated when the Nazis killed their best friend. Truus and Freddie both survived the war, but carried emotional scars for the rest of their lives.

After the war, the Oversteegen sisters dealt with the trauma of killing people and losing their best friend. Freddie lived a quiet life. She went from espionage to coping with more normal things like getting married and having babies. Truus also married and had four children. She expressed herself in her art through sculpture, shared her story in lectures, and became famous in the Netherlands. Truus wrote a book about their experiences during the war, Not Then, Not Now, Not Ever, published in 1982.

Freddie lived a more secluded life, focusing on raising her family. Freddie’s son, Remi, believes the war never stopped for his mother and aunt, and actually lasted 80 more years for them. He expressed a similar sentiment in an interview “We never had to say ‘Remember when’ to them, because we always knew it remained at the top of their minds.”

Throughout much of their long lives, the Netherlands failed to properly recognize the Oversteegen sister’s achievements, even sidelining them as “communists” due to their mother’s leanings. During the last years of their lives they yearned, not for fame, but simply more acknowledgment of their role. It was only in 2014 that Freddie and Truus were awarded the Mobilisatie-Oorlogskruis, Dutch Mobilization War Cross by Nederlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

**Sisters Freddie and Truus Oversteegen** in 2014

It became the highlight in their lives. Two streets in Haarlem were named after them. So many years after doing their heroic work in secret, they were glad for the public recognition. They wanted their stories to be known—to teach people that, even when such acts are necessary, “you must always remain human.” Truus Menger-Oversteegen died in 2016 at age 92. Freddie Dekker-Oversteegen passed 2 years later in 2018, also at 92.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

Podcast: Who Burned the Great Library of Alexandria?

Egypt’s Great Library of Alexandria was once the largest of the ancient world, containing the works of Homer, Plato, Euclid, Socrates, Aristotle and hundreds more. Close to one million books and scrolls from across Greece, Assyria, Egypt, Persia and India filled its vast shelves. It’s believed to have been completely destroyed in a devastating fire about 2000 years ago and its thousands of priceless works burnt to ashes. But exactly How, When and Who is responsible remains a perplexing mystery.

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Operation Gunnerside: The Most Important WWII Mission you Never Heard Of

Norwegian Commandos of Operation Gunnerside — **Norwegian Commandos of World War II Operation Gunnerside**

Operation Gunnerside was arguably the most important covert mission of World War II. It’s goal was daunting – to prevent Adolf Hitler from creating the atomic bomb first. Gunnerside would do so by denying the Nazi’s enough heavy water (deuterium oxide) to build a nuclear weapon.

The Vemork hydroelectric plant, located in a remote valley in Norway, produced both electricity and fertilizer. A precious byproduct was heavy water. When the Nazis invaded Norway, they took control of the Vemork plant. Major Lief Tronstad, a former chemist at Vemork, now with British SOE (Special Operations Execution) was assigned the task of denying the Nazi’s heavy water.

In late 1942, the Allies launched Operation Freshman to destroy the plant with a full assault. Norwegian and British commandos were to parachute into Norway.

The mission was a complete disaster!

One airplane and two gliders crashed near the plant in bad weather. The others were forced to run back. Those who survived were captured, interrogated and ultimately executed by the Gestapo, 41 in all. Plus now, the Nazi’s knew of the British interest in destroying Vemork.

The Allies still had to disable the plant, so they attempted a second mission. This time a small covert raid called Operation Gunnerside, the brainstorm of Major Tronstad. Lt Joachim Ronnenberg lead the new mission with 5 hand-picked Norwegian commandos, none over the age of 31. Training for the raid included memorizing a scale model of the Vemork plant meticulously built by Tronstad.

In February 1943, Operation Gunnerside got off to a bad start. A freak snowstorm forced the team to be air dropped 18 miles from the plant! It took the men a week to trek cross country on snow shoes and skies to meet up with 4 Norwegian commandos who had managed to survive Operation Freshman.

The original 4 men had carried out extensive reconnaissance on Vemork.

Following the failed assault, the Germans had laid land mines along the steep mountainside above the plant. Plus they doubled the guards on a narrow suspension bridge, the main entry to the facility. The weak point in the defenses was the steep, 660-ft deep ravine the bridge spanned, which the Germans judged too treacherous and impassable. But 1 of the Norwegians had discovered a way to descend the ravine, cross the frozen river, ascend the other side and reach the plant unseen at night!

So just before midnight, the saboteurs crossed the icy ravine in darkness and below zero temperatures. During a changing of the guards, they managed to creep into the facility undetected. The 10 men split into two teams; five would destroy the equipment while the other five would act as lookouts. Lt Ronnenberg and another man began laying the charges. Their target was a battery of 18 electrolysis ‘cells’ which held the last stage of heavy water production.

They encountered a Norwegian foreman inside the electrolysis chamber, reading the instruments and filling out logbooks. The man seemed more concerned about saving his reading glasses before they lit the charges. They ordered the man to run upstairs, lie down and keep his mouth open so as not to burst his eardrums. There were four main charges with short two-minute fuses. Ronnenberg did not trust the foreman and decided to cut the fuses to just 30 seconds!

He ordered his men from the room, lit the fuses and ran for his life.

**Vemork hydroelectric power plant at Telemark**

The blast was deafening inside the chamber, but the guards outside barely noticed. As the lookout team held their machine guns ready, only one Nazi guard emerged with a flashlight, and after brief inspection, returned to his station! The guards assumed the sound came from the plant’s machinery which occasionally made loud noises.

Ronnenberg’s team met the lookout party just outside the gates. What astonished them all was that the Germans did not yet realize that their facility had been sabotaged. The guards’ attention was probably more focused on staying warm in the below zero winter night than on any loud noise from a noisy powerplant. The foreman would soon report the explosion however.

They hurried back across the ravine’s river and began climbing a zigzag trail leading to the top of the mountain. That was when the plant’s sirens finally began to sound. It took them three long hours to climb 700 meters to the ridge summit. Only then could they could put on their skis and escape faster down the other side of the mountain.

Unlike its predecessor, Operation Gunnerside was a complete success.

Though the plant itself was only slightly damaged, more than 1,000 pounds of heavy water had been destroyed, along with the electrolysis equipment needed to create it. The Nazis responded with a heavily armed search party of 3,000 German soldiers that scoured the mountainsides. They would be too late. All 10 commandoes escaped to the coast alive.

The raid halted production of heavy water for nearly a year, but the Allies knew the Nazis would soon be making it again. Another raid was out of the question due to heightened security, so a bombing raid was launched in November 1943 that severely damaged the facility. This was followed in 1944 by the SOE sabotaging and sinking the ferry SF Hydro near Telemark, carrying a large shipment of heavy water to Germany.

The Gunnerside mission was arguably the most productive act of sabotage of the entire war. The Nazi’s nuclear program never proceeded fast enough to give Adolf Hitler, and his V2 rockets, an atomic bomb before the war ended. The U.S. Manhattan Project, under Robert Oppenheimer, succeeded where the Nazis failed, eventually dropping a bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. Every member of the Vemork team received war honors, with Ronnenberg receiving the Distinguished Service Order. Their exploits were even turned into a 1965 Hollywood movie, loosely based on the facts, The Heroes of Telemark, starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.

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The Stalin Great Purge and the Brutal Gulags

After the death of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, the infamous Josef Stalin came to power in the Soviet Union. In the late 1930s, Stalin began a ruthless campaign known as The Great Purge, referred to by the Russian people as the Great Terror. Any person or group perceived in Stalin’s twisted mind as a threat to his power was arrested, given a sham trial, and either executed on the spot or sent to the Gulags. The Gulags were the Soviet system of horrific forced labor camps scattered across the USSR, many in Siberia. While Adolf Hitler had his Nazi Concentration Camps, Stalin had his Gulags. They were far from the Bolshevik dream of a Communist utopia – free from the evils of western imperialism.

Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks revolted against Czar Nicholas II in 1917 to create a supposedly equal communist society, free of capitalism. The Soviet Union became anything but. Lenin died of a sudden stroke in 1924. Under his successor Josef Stalin, the USSR became a regime laced with suppression and brutality. The Gulag system was a shrewd punishment. Stalin’s ‘threats to Communism’ weren’t just eliminated, they were turned into forced labor to build his state.

Stalin had to fight his way to power, declaring himself premier in 1929. The United Opposition was a political group which never approved of Stalin’s rule. Some members of the old Bolshevik party questioned his authority. Some Communists saw Stalin as dictatorial and corrupt. Stalin’s authority was questioned by influential comrades like Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin. A suspicious and paranoid Stalin believed anyone with ties to Lenin was therefore a threat and needed to go.

Stalin’s solution was his Great Purge.

It began quietly in 1934 with the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a prominent Bolshevik. Kirov was murdered in broad daylight at Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad. Many believe Stalin himself, a friend of Kirov, ordered the hit. This gave Stalin the perfect excuse to commence his purge. He used Kirov’s death as evidence a traitorous faction in the Communist party was trying to eliminate its leaders. There’s no hard evidence that Stalin ordered Kirov’s death, but it’s simply too much of a coincidence.

Stalin decided to get rid of the loudest dissidents and original Bolsheviks from the 1917 Revolution. He launched his purge claiming he’d uncovered a dangerous cabal of Communist traitors. Kirov’s death led to staged trials in Moscow of Stalin’s rivals and critics, which he labeled the “Leftist Counter-Revolutionary Bloc.” 14 former high-ranking Communists, like Nikolai Bukharin, were arrested for treason. The accused were ruthlessly tortured, or their close families threatened, until the pathetic men admitted to being traitors and spies. Stalin had them all executed.

From 1936 to 1938, the Soviet secret police, the so-called NKVD [People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs], then conducted field trials of lesser threats who were arrested, tried, found guilty and executed as well. While the Moscow Trials were conducted in legitimate courtrooms, the secret police utilized a swift, unjust method, employing 3-member committees responsible for sentencing the ‘anti-Soviets’ to death.

Stalin didn’t stop with executing just his rivals.

Stalin freely used the term The Fifth Column, to identify his “Enemies of the People.” Stalin often used propaganda buzzwords like “subversives, intelligentsia, and counter-revolutionary.” Any of these labels would land a person in a Gulag or firing squad. The labels meant one thing: TRAITOR. In all, about 1/3 of the Communist Party’s 3 million members were purged and sent to the Gulags.

The paranoid Stalin even had 30,000 members of his own Red Army and Navy executed, because he suspected, without evidence, that they were plotting a military coup. The Great Purge removed field marshals, generals, admirals, commanders, and commissars. Over 100 high ranking officers were all executed.

And still Stalin was not satisfied. He expanded his Great Purge to include aristocrats, landowners, ethnic minorities, and foreigners. Then came the educated academics, scientists, even medical doctors. Finally, it included journalists, writers, artists and students. All were sent to the Gulags. No one, it seemed, was safe.

When everyone was a potential suspect, Soviet-wide paranoia meant everyone suspected their neighbor. The rampant Purge caused pervasive fear and eventually broke the will of the Soviet people. At least 750,000 were executed during the Great Purge. Some believe the true death count to be twice as high. More than a million others were sent to the Gulags. Overall, the camps held about 18 million Soviet citizens from the late 1920s until Stalin’s death in 1953.

What was life like in the Gulags, where millions were sent to suffer?

The word “Gulag” is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, Russian for Main Camp Administration. All laborers were officially known as “political prisoners.” Conditions were brutal: prisoners worked up to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, often in cold, severe weather. Thousands died of starvation, disease, or execution. Even women endured the harsh conditions. Many of them facing the daily threat of rape or assault by guards or male prisoners.

By the time Stalin took control, the Gulag system had 84 small labor camps spread across the USSR, most in Russia and Siberia. Under Stalin’s rule, the prison population grew exponentially. Daily life was organized around forced hard labor as both a tool of ‘Re-education,’ and a source of revenue for Stalin’s regime. He viewed the Gulags both a way to get rid of threats and as cheap labor to boost his industries.

Gulag inmates dug canals, built railroads and highways, constructed dams and cargo ships. They mined coal, tin and copper, and cut acres of timber from Siberia’s thick forests. Prisoners were given sentences, and if they met their quotas and survived their term, they were released. But since there was a constant influx of new prisoners, Gulag officials thought little about preserving the health of their workforce. The Gulag inmates were both expendable and replaceable.

Prisoners were given crude tools and no safety equipment. The daily tasks were so grueling, some would cut or burn themselves to avoid work. Prisoners drudged through brutal Russian weather in sub-zero temperatures. Food was rationed and if prisoners didn’t complete their quotas, they received less. Thousands died of exhaustion, starvation or disease.

Starvation in particular was a constant factor and deliberate. It allowed camp officials to control the population. Even normal rations, which were given to prisoners who exceeded their quotas, did not make up for the calories lost during hard labor. As the hopeless inmates grew physically weaker, and failed to meet their quotas, they earned less food and became weaker still.

Camp conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary. Violence was common among inmates as they stole food and supplies from each other. The environment created a cruel form of Darwinism — survival of the fittest. Any potential friendship with a fellow prisoner was squashed by competition. It was hard to form alliances or rebellions when you’re fighting over food and resources.

‘Any human feelings — love, friendship, charity, mercy, decency — vanished along with your body’s flesh. Bread was not issued in equal pieces, but thrown onto a pile in the dirt. Run fast and grab! Knock down your comrades, and tear it from their hands! … You hate them — they are your rivals in life and death.’
Quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (1973).

By 1939, Stalin had to focus on Hitler and the Nazis in World War II, so he slowed his purge in order to send men to the German front instead. Stalin then had the head of his NKYD shot. Nikolai Yezhov was feared only next to Stalin. Yezhov’s predecessor was in the Moscow trials and executed. After dutifully carrying our Stalin’s orders, he too met a similar fate. Yezhov was executed in 1940, after ‘confessing‘ to anti-Soviet activity. Stalin didn’t just target threats, but also those who served him.

Soviet Gulag prisoners awaiting orders in Siberia

The final act of the Purge occurred when Stalin had his old rival Leon Trotsky killed in 1940. Trotsky was expelled from the Communist party in 1929 and exiled by Stalin. At the Moscow Trials, Trotsky was sentenced to death in absentia. After several assassination attempts, Leon Trotsky was finally murdered in Mexico. A communist agent killed him with an ice pick to the head.

After World War II, the arrests and exiles continued until Stalin’s death in 1953 at age 74. The Gulag system weakened immediately. Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchez, was a staunch critic of the camps and the Purge. He acknowledged that most prisoners were, in fact, innocent. Within days, millions were released.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics itself later collapsed in 1991.

Over their 30 years, the Gulags killed at least six million, roughly a third of all those imprisoned. A true death toll is hard to determine as the NKVD covered their tracks well. The Gulags left deep scars, both physically and psychologically. The Gulag’s dark history left generations of Russians scarred and damaged. Survivors suffered poverty and PTSD long after their release. Even today, some survivors are still too fearful to talk about their experiences. Perhaps rightly so, under Vladimir Putin.

The true horrors of the Gulags were kept hidden within the USSR for decades. Unlike the Nazi Holocaust Concentration camps, no film or images of the Gulags were shown to the public. In 1973, The Gulag Archipelago was published by Russian survivor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The book detailed the true atrocities of the Gulags. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union, but returned to Russia in 1994.

Stalin’s Gulags demonstrates just one of the evils of Soviet-style Communism. The camps were justified because they were utilized for the greater good. Much like the German people, Soviet citizens didn’t see themselves as villains. Propaganda told them they were living the dream of a “Virtuous Revolution.” However, Karl Marx’s utopian vision only led to a brutal dictator and the horrors of the Gulags.

Under his successor Nikita Khrushchev, some of the camps were turned into criminal prisons. It wasn’t until 1987 that Mikhail Gorbachev, himself a grandson of Gulag victims, officially eliminated the camps. The legacy of the gulags remains forever a part of Soviet history. Today, Russia is lead by President Vladimir Putin, who has his own agenda for reclaiming the former republics of the Soviet Union.

And what of Josef Stalin? After his victory over Germany in World War II, he was seen as a bold, national hero, though still greatly feared by all. He led the Soviet Union to become a global nuclear superpower in the new Cold War with the democratic West.

Today, we see Josef Stalin for what he was – a paranoid, manipulative sociopath, devoid of any humanity or empathy. He used fear and intimidation to rule the Soviet government and the people. I will leave you with one of Josef Stalin’s more infamous quotes.

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
Josef Stalin

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Project Castle Bravo was a Human-Made Armageddon

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South Pacific Hydrogen Bomb explosion above ground tes, 1954 — **South Pacific Hydrogen Bomb explosion above ground test, 1954**

On Monday March 1st, 1954, at 6:45 in the morning, the U.S. carried out its largest nuclear detonation ever – CASTLE BRAVO – at the Bikini Atoll in the south Pacific Marshall Islands. Both military servicemen and Marshall Islanders got to experience first-hand what Armageddon would truly be like. The explosion turned out to be 2.5 times bigger than planned and caused far higher levels of radioactive fallout than ever predicted. Castle Bravo was the worst radiological disaster in American atomic history.

The Manhattan Project, lead by Robert Oppenheimer, developed the first atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan. Not long after, the Soviet Union developed the bomb as well, leading to the nuclear arms race and The Cold War. This lead to the issue, for both sides, of where to test such deadly weapons and deal with the resulting radioactive fall out.

The Marshal Islands’ isolation had proved a blessing throughout their history. The small island chain, about 1,800 miles from Papua New Guinea, was free from outside conflict until World War II, when it served as a Japanese outpost. After the war, the US took over the atolls, which is when their remoteness became their curse.

The U.S. military realized its isolation made it ideal for testing nuclear bombs. In 1946, the US military governor asked the native Bikini Atoll residents to temporarily relocate for “the good of mankind.” The islanders agreed believing they would be able to return to their homes after a few months. Bikini Atoll would remain uninhabitable for more than 70 years.

The Bravo bomb was the first in Operation Castle, a series of thermonuclear tests by the US military.

Nicknamed Shrimp, the bomb weighed 23,500 pounds and was America’s first weaponized hydrogen bomb meant to be delivered by bomber. “Shrimp” ended up yielding the equivalent of 15 megatons of TNT. Scientists had seriously miscalculated and expected only FIVE. They based the location of observation posts and ships outside a “Safety Exclusion Zone” on a 5 megaton yield.

Zero hour for Castle Bravo was at just after dawn at 6:45 am local time. Officers, scientists, and serviceman yawned and drank black coffee as they stretched and waited. From the moment the bomb detonated, everyone knew something had gone terribly wrong. A so-called ‘tritium bonus’ occurred in the nuclear reaction, causing extremely energetic fusion. An explosion began that can only be described as Apocalyptic.

The flash was overwhelming, even by the standards of atomic bombs. Men saw their bones appear as shadows through their skin. Blinding light burst through the smallest cracks in secured doors. Bravo’s blast wave was far more intense than expected. 30 miles away from Ground Zero, Navy sailors said the heat was “like having a blowtorch applied to their uniforms.” Battle-hardened World War II veterans took to their knees to pray, believing the atmosphere had caught fire and they were witnessing the end of the world.

Seconds after detonation, a mushroom cloud 4.5 miles wide began to rapidly grow. It rose 1,000 feet per second into the sky, topping out at 130,000 feet. The shock wave destroyed buildings outside of the expected damage zone, and nearly knocked observation planes out of the sky, miles away. The fireball itself was hotter than the surface of the sun!

Castle Bravo ended up being 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The explosion left a 250 feet deep crater on the ocean floor, a diameter of 6,500 feet. But that was just the beginning of the disaster. It released so much radioactive debris into the atmosphere that it fell over 7,000 square miles. It contaminated the inhabitants of ALL the nearby Marshall atolls, the US servicemen present, and even the unfortunate crew of a Japanese fishing trawler, miles away.

To make matters worse, weather forecasters predicted that high-altitude winds would blow the fallout away from inhabited islands. Instead, the wind blew the radioactive cloud toward them. Fallout rained down on ships and sailors. Captains ordered entire crews below decks, and sealed all hatches for days to escape contamination. Despite knowing the risk of spreading fallout to nearby inhabited islands, Major General Percy Clarkson had ordered the test to continue as planned.

The wind spread radioactive particles downwind, affecting the inhabited atolls of Rongelap, Utirik, and Ailinginae. Fallout dusted U.S. servicemen stationed on nearby Rongerik Island. Approximately 5 hours after the detonation, it began to rain radioactive fallout at Rongelap. Within hours, the atoll was covered with a fine, white powder. None of the inhabitants knew it was radioactive fallout.

Delighted children giggled and played in the ‘snow,’ even licking it off their hands

About 90 minutes after the explosion, the fallout reached an unfortunate Japanese fishing boat, the Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Fifth Lucky Dragon), 80 miles east of the test site. All 23 crew members were severely exposed to high levels of radiation, one dying months later. Their irradiated fish were brought back to Japan and unknowingly entered the market, later causing a panic. With the memory of Hiroshima only 9 years earlier, this created a diplomatic nightmare and provoked international outrage. The U.S. eventually agreed to pay more than $15 million in compensation to the Fukuryu Maru survivors.

Emergency evacuations by the US were too slow to limit lethal doses of radiation and islanders didn’t know about the consequences of fallout. The U.S. military evacuated Rongelap 2 days after the test, relocating them to Majuro, the capital. Within a week, the U.S. launched a study on the effects of radiation on the islanders and provided medical care. The military however never explained to the inhabitants that a study was being conducted on them. Rarely was a translator even present. Marshallese were given potassium iodide pills with no explanation as to why. For years later, Marshall islanders experienced numerous health problems, including birth defects and thyroid cancer.

Since Castle Bravo, the U.S. has had to provide more than $1 billion to the affected atolls which includes medical treatment, health care, island rehabilitation and resettlement. The two countries reached a bilateral agreement designed to award compensation to victims of cancers and other serious health effects, such as burns and birth defects.

Atmospheric wind shear and ocean currents continued to spread fallout from the explosion.

Traces of radioactive material were later found in Japan, Australia and even India. Castle Bravo was not the first test at Bikini Atoll, the US held 67 atmospheric tests in the Pacific Ocean through 1958. And the US was not the only country conducting atmospheric testing in its territories. The Soviet Union equaled the US in its Cold War nuclear testing program.

Marshall Islanders finally began to return home in the early 1970s, nearly 30 years after testing began. However, surveillance in 1978 found that the inhabitants of Bikini Atoll exhibited dangerously high levels of radioactivity and the entire population was once again evacuated. The island natives are still in forced exile. Today, the danger comes from consuming contaminated food or water. The detonation crater is still visible from the air and looks like a fierce dragon took a chomp out of the atoll. In a way, it had.

Aerial view of Bikini Atoll Castle Bravo crater — **Aerial view of Bikini Atoll Castle Bravo underwater crater today**

Castle Bravo triggered a backlash around the world against atmospheric nuclear testing. In 1955, the United Nations created the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. In 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, finally prohibited nuclear testing in the atmosphere or underwater. For better or worse, nuclear tests could henceforth only be conducted underground.

Castle Bravo’s fallout even inspired the creation of a Japanese science fiction movie legend, the great reptile Godzilla, “King of Monsters.” Using nuclear power to instead generate electricity became a whole different safety issue. It led to later power plant disasters like Three Mile Island in the U.S., Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan.

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Galileo Faced Science Deniers in the Catholic Church

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Galileo's Trial before the Italian Inquisition — **Galileo’s Trial before the Italian Inquisition**

In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the Stephen Hawking of his day – both famous & respected across Europe. Nonetheless, he was ordered by the Pope in Rome to stand trial before the Italian Inquisition. Known for its brutal interrogations by torture, it was the most feared and notorious court in all of Europe. His crime – Galileo’s Science, daring to state that the sun, not the earth, was at the center of the universe – was pure heresy!

The Roman Catholic Inquisition, be it Italian or Spanish, had been rooting out what it considered sacrilege and witchcraft since the medieval Dark Ages. Throw into this irrational mess Galileo’s clear evidence disproving long held Church teachings when it came to Earth and the heavens and you had the recipe for a life-threatening scientific stand.

The Catholic Church had in essence become the first Science Deniers.

This was actually the 2nd time Galileo was called before the Inquisition. In 1616, he had been forbidden from teaching his “heliocentric” beliefs about the sun. Galileo reluctantly agreed at the time to stop. It’s worth mentioning that the famous astronomer was actually a deeply religious man. He supported the ideals of Christianity, if not all its beliefs. He had even fathered three illegitimate children out of wedlock.

Galileo perfected the refracting telescope, allowing him to explore the nighttime heavens. Amongst his many discoveries was not only did the planet Jupiter have 4 moons, but those heavenly bodies orbited around the planet! He discovered that Venus, like the Earth’s moon, had phases, meaning it too orbited the sun. He published his findings in The Starry Messenger and it became an instant Renaissance best seller. Unfortunately, this also supported the church-banned heliocentric theories of the late astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus.

At that time, Galileo was free to write about anything he wanted, even heliocentricism. That is as long as he wrote it as a personal hypothesis, and did NOT try to pass it off as scientific fact. As a born scientist and stubborn intellectual however, Galileo simply could not abide by such restrictive church laws. He published The Starry Messenger as science fact.

He then convinced his old friend, Pope Urban VIII, to let him write a book that showed both sides of the debate – geocentric and heliocentric. His book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, had a fictional argument between two characters who held either view of where the earth and the sun stood in the near universe. Galileo, however, made the dim-witted geocentric character to be the clear loser of the debate.

A furious Pope Urban ordered Galileo to appear before the Inquisition in Rome on charges of heresy.

Galileo was no fool, understood the risks, and knew the danger he was now in. Men had been brutally tortured in dungeons and burned at the stake for far lesser crimes of ‘sorcery.’ The astronomer however still believed that TRUTH and LOGIC would win in the end. Even with the single-minded, religious fanatics who ran the Inquisition would come to reason. Alas, how naïve and wrong he was.

On the opening day of his trial, he stood before his accuser, the Grand Inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola. Church officials interpreted his Dialogue as a clear violation of his 1616 Agreement. Galileo disagreed vehemently, but his position hardly mattered. Heliocentricism flew in the face of centuries of Catholic Church teaching. The court used numerous scripture passages from the Bible’s Old Testament to defend their geocentric views. The Grand Inquisitor claimed that Galileo’s revolutionary telescope was nothing more than a magician’s trick.

Found guilty of heresy, Galileo was condemned to imprisonment rather than death.

He was given an opportunity to recant however, and not spend the rest of his life in a cold, dark dungeon cell. At the time, Galileo was already 70 years old and in poor health. At his beloved (illegitimate) daughter’s pleading, Livia herself a nun, he reluctantly agreed to recant. With his head bowed, wearing the white robes of a penitent, he told the scowling Inquisitor that he “cursed any heresies which he may have espoused in the past.”

Galileo hoped his old friend Pope Urban would help him, and in the end, he did. Galileo was placed under house arrest rather than prison. Having avoided burning at the stake, one could say he got off with a mere slap on the wrist. He was forced to retire to his estate in Florence, a defeated and dejected man. In his own house, he could neither write, teach, nor travel without the Church’s express permission. Nevertheless, while under house arrest he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, which he had published in Holland to avoid the censor. It was in Florence he remained till his death in 1642 at the age of 78.

**Renaissance Astronomer Galileo Galilei**

The Catholic Church finally lifted the ban on all of Galileo’s works over a century later in 1758 by Pope Benedict XIV. In 1992, Pope John Paul II admitted that Galileo Galilei was wrongly charged. He regretted the astronomer’s treatment by the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps as a posthumous consolation, NASA named a Jupiter probe in his honor. The sturdy satellite thoroughly explored the giant planet in 1995, including the four famous moons discovered by the astronomer – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Unfortunately, science deniers still exist in our culture even today, centuries after the cruel Inquisition, often in positions of political or religious power. Disputed subject can range from such hot topics as vaccines to evolution to climate change. Deniers and conspiracy theorists continue to stubbornly refute the basic laws of science and Mother Nature, at their own, and often, our risk. But Mother Nature, like Galileo Galilei, has a stubborn way of proving them all wrong, in the end.

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