Was Reagan’s visit to the Bitburg Cemetery in 1985 an example of a brilliant mistake?

And a Pension in 20 years? Retire at 40?

The claims look to me like “ambit claims,” or an initial bargaining offer without prejudice. I suspect that a number of failures in bargaining happened. To a certain extent the workers may have not perceived their industrial weakness fully. But the demands people are viewing as too large were deliberately so to give a retreat position. Union bargaining isn’t line in the sand.

Yours,
Sam R.
 
The claims look to me like “ambit claims,” or an initial bargaining offer without prejudice. I suspect that a number of failures in bargaining happened. To a certain extent the workers may have not perceived their industrial weakness fully. But the demands people are viewing as too large were deliberately so to give a retreat position. Union bargaining isn’t line in the sand.

The Union thought their position unassailable, like the Postal Union in 1970.

But the Mail Sorters weren't looking for a 4 day week, and a instant pay increase that would buy them a brand new Land Yacht, and early retirement, while enjoying automatic cost of living adjustments each year.
Unlike the Strikers in 1970, who had mostly reasonable demands.

They had sympathy of the Public, and other workers.

The Air Controllers?
not so much.

Would like to know what the PATCO Leaders thought was too much to demand at first.. gov. supplied prostitutes and free cocaine? I kid. but only slightly.
BTW, their initial demands was for $22k more a year, and free international airline seats for travel, in addition to the free domestic seats they already had.

And they turned down RR pay increase offer before they decided to strike
 
. . an initial bargaining offer . .
I like this, but the initial position probably still needs to be something which 35 to 45% of the general public can agree with.

And then some back and forth, and some poker play if you will, and then — hopefully! — you win when you get about 55 to 60% of the public on your side. Of course, no guarantee real life will be this neat and tidy!
 
. . But the Mail Sorters weren't looking for a 4 day week, and a instant pay increase . .
marathag, I’m an easy sell on your position, because I remember newspaper letters during a teachers’ strike, and how much jealousy and resentment there was to the fact that teachers got the whole summer off, almost to the exclusion of any other issue.

But I hope you see some of my position, that even if moral right was with the government during the air traffic controllers’ strike, it set in motion an awful trend during the rest of the ‘80s.
 
youtube:
President Reagan's Remarks on giving the Congressional Gold Medal to Elie Wiesel on April 19, 1985

Reagan speaks first, and then Elie (and choppiness at very beginning before Reagan speaks).

And this is after Reagan announced that he would be visiting the Bitburg cemetery, but before the actual trip.
 
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But I hope you see some of my position, that even if moral right was with the government during the air traffic controllers’ strike, it set in motion an awful trend during the rest of the ‘80s.

Certainly agree, while PATCO deserved what they got, the Meat Packers and others certainly didn't
 
and from a few days early . . .
Reagan Defends Move to Visit German Graves : 'We Must Look to the Future,' He Says After Criticism From Jewish Groups, American Legion

Los Angeles Times, George Skelton, April 13, 1985
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-13/news/mn-12168_1_american-legion

' . . . . Clarence B. Bacon, national commander of the American Legion, said that by honoring dead German soldiers but not visiting either American graves or a Nazi death camp, Reagan "is perceived as honoring not those who fought for peace and freedom, but those who died for conquest and oppression."

'The legion, which has a membership of 2.5 million veterans, issued a statement saying it was "deeply disappointed" in Reagan's decision to visit the cemetery. . . '
Yes, the American Legion thought President Reagan was making a mistake, too.
 
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By the 90s following orders being ‘no excuse’ was extended to being any part of the German war effort. This was a period before that point where the controversy was viewed as which German soldiers where buried there. And no it didn’t hurt Reagan’s poll numbers.

That was due to stuff in the academia, such as Ordinary Men...
 
. . . stuff in the academia, such as Ordinary Men...


847451942


first published in 1992

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-019013-2

"On June 13, 1942, the commanding officer of Reserve Police Battalion 101 received orders to round up the Jews in the Polish town of Josefow and shoot all but the able-bodied males. Major Wilhelm Trapp, who wept over the order, gave his troops the extraordinary option of ``excusing themselves'' from the task. Of the 500 in the unit only a dozen did so, . . . "
Well, social pressure is strong, even for somewhat older men who were not fanatical Nazis.

No one wants to be called a coward. often a lot comes down to that.
 
Reagan: The Life
H. W. Brands, Penguin Random House, 2015.

https://books.google.com/books?id=w...ce matters and to lay the groundwork"&f=false

" . . . had its roots in a meeting between Reagan and West German chancellor Helmut Kohl in November 1984. Kohl traveled to Washington to discuss alliance matters and to lay the groundwork for a meeting of the G7 in Bonn the following May. Kohl confessed that he and other Germans had been offended by their country's exclusion from the fortieth-anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings, and he [Kohl] shared that a subsequent bury-the-hatchet meeting between himself and François Mitterrand of France at the World War I battlefield at Verdun had yielded good feelings . . . "
Doesn't mean you can go to the well a second time! Especially when circumstances really are somewhat different.
 
Spokesman Denies Kohl Made Emotional Plea On Cemetery Visit

AP, Susan J. Smith, April 22, 1985
https://www.apnews.com/f4dbe4bb3d882ae8a749ff1579b6b8c7

BONN, West Ger (AP) _ 'The government on Monday denied a statement by a former White House official that Chancellor Helmut Kohl broke down when he implored President Reagan to visit a German military cemetery.

'David Gergen’s description of an emotional appeal from Kohl during a visit to the White House in November was incorrect, chief government spokesman Peter Boenisch told The Associated Press. Gergen is a former White House communications director. . . '

.

' . . . ″I was at the discussion (in Washington). Kohl did not cry and he did not have any tears in his eyes,″ Boenisch said. . . '

.

.
This is something on which people can disagree. Someone might think they pulled themselves back from the brink as it were, and didn't break down. Someone else might think, yes, they kind of did break down. And this might also pertain to a person who's there as a witness and whether this other person knows the person well vs. that they don't.

Many interesting facets to this story. :)
 
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