http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/03/schwarzenegger.ap/index.html VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Austrian historians are ridiculing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for telling the Republican National Convention that he saw Soviet tanks in his homeland as a child and left a "Socialist" country when he moved away in 1968. Recalling that the Soviets once occupied part of Austria in the aftermath of World War II, Schwarzenegger told the convention on Tuesday: "I saw tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes." No way, historians say, challenging Schwarzenegger's knowledge of postwar history -- if not his enduring popularity among Austrians who admire him for rising from a penniless immigrant to the highest official in America's most populous state. "It's a fact -- as a child he could not have seen a Soviet tank in Styria," the southeastern province where Schwarzenegger was born and raised, historian Stefan Karner told the Vienna newspaper Kurier. Schwarzenegger, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born on July 30, 1947, when Styria and the neighboring province of Carinthia belonged to the British zone. At the time, postwar Austria was occupied by the four wartime allies, which also included the United States, the Soviet Union and France. The Soviets already had left Styria in July 1945, less than three months after the end of the war, Karner noted. "Let me tell you this: As a boy, I lived for many years across the street from where the Russians were based in Vienna -- and honestly, I never saw a Russian tank there," retiree Franz Nitsch said Friday. "He said it all on purpose -- and that's bad." In his convention address, Schwarzenegger also said: "As a kid, I saw the Socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left" in 1955 and Austria regained its independence. But Martin Polaschek, a law history scholar and vice rector of Graz University, told Kurier that Austria was governed by coalition governments, including the conservative People's Party and the Social Democratic Party. Between 1945 and 1970, all the nation's chancellors were conservatives -- not Socialists. What's more, when Schwarzenegger left in 1968, Austria was run by a conservative government headed by People's Party Chancellor Josef Klaus, a staunch Roman Catholic and a sharp critic of both the Socialists as well as the Communists ruling in countries across the Iron Curtain. Schwarzenegger "confuses a free country with a Socialist one," said Polaschek, referring to East European Communist officials' routine descriptions of their countries as Socialist. Polaschek saw the moderate Republican governor's recollections at the convention as a tactical move. Schwarzenegger, he said, was "using the old Communist enemy image for Bush's election campaign." "He did not speak as a historian, after all, but as a politician," Polaschek said. Norbert Darabos, a ranking official of Austria's opposition Social Democratic Party, sharply criticized Schwarzenegger's "disdain for his former homeland." "The Terminator is constructing a rather bizarre Austria image," he said. But many ordinary Austrians seemed to be in a forgiving mood Friday over the gaffes. "Maybe he has a wrong recollection -- it's so many years since he left," said Wilma Fadrany, 32, a Vienna waitress. "There must be political reasons for such comments," she said. "You've got to tell the (convention delegates) what they want to hear in order to win them over. Politicians always talk the way it fits into their agenda."
Actually, "all people lie". Politicians just do so in front of more people on more serious issues. There's a difference between you or I calling in "sick" with a BS cold and Bush telling everyone of Iraq's WMDs.
How DARE the liberals besmirch a veteran who has saved America from certain doom at the hands of power hungry aliens and robots COUNTLESS times! SHAMELESS.
As usual with the Reagan, Bush, Schwarznegger folks you can't really say Arnold is lying. The side effects, of alzheimers, alcoholic induced organic brain damage take a tol. In Arnold's case steroid abuse may be the culprit.
this is like in 1983 when Ronald Reagan told the Prime Minister of Israel that when he was in the army he photographed the Nazi death camps in Europre, when in reality he spent the entire WWII in Hollywood making training films for the army.
Hey I'll give you all people lie. But there is a huge difference between a little white lie and a huge lie intended to persuade public opinion in favor of a war that will cost thousands of lives.
The AP article is wrong. I would remind people that the AP falsely acccused a pro-Bush crowd of booing when Bush mentioned Clinton's heart problems at a speech. Here's more on how they are wrong on this: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007727.php Another Whopper from the Associated Press Wizbang points out another hoax perpetrated by the Associated Press. AP reporter Roland Prinz has attacked Arnold Schwarzenegger's convention speech as historically inaccurate. Prinz cited two alleged inaccuracies; the first was Arnold's claim to have seen Soviet tanks in the streets of Austria when he was a boy. Prinz quotes an Austrian historian: "It's a fact -- as a child he could not have seen a Soviet tank in Styria," the southeastern province where Schwarzenegger was born and raised, historian Stefan Karner told the Vienna newspaper Kurier. Schwarzenegger, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born on July 30, 1947, when Styria and the neighboring province of Carinthia belonged to the British zone. The Soviets already had left Styria in July 1945, less than three months after the end of the war, Karner noted. This criticism is absurd. Arnold didn't say that he saw Soviet troops in Styria; on the contrary, he made it clear that he was talking about the Soviet zone: When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes. I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector. So what's the point? There isn't any. What Arnold said was precisely accurate. Some versions of the AP article, like this one on CNN, at least include a quote from Arnold's spokeswoman to the effect that Arnold never said the tanks were in his home town, and he referred to the Soviet sector. This is a bit odd, since anyone who read Arnold's actual words would realize that the AP story isn't a story, and it is hard to understand how a news organization like CNN can run an article like this one without spending two minutes to determine whether there is any story there or not. Worse yet are the many news outlets that ran the AP story, but without the explanation from Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman. See, for example, the Guardian's version of the article. This Wisconsin television station headlines its story: "Schwarzenegger Ridiculed For Falsehoods In Speech." But, amazingly enough, the station actually prints the relevant portions of Schwarzenegger's speech immediately after the truncated AP story. Apparently no one read the speech, and compared it to what was said by the Austrian historian. The second inaccuracy alleged by the AP is Arnold's characterization of Austria as a "socialist" country. Prinz points out that: "Austria was governed by coalition governments, including the conservative People's Party and the Social Democratic Party. Between 1945 and 1970, all the nation's chancellors were conservatives -- not Socialists." Of course, Arnold did not say that the chancellor of Austria was a member of the Socialist Party. As his audience clearly understood, he was talking about a government-dominated economy of the sort that prevailed over most if not all of western Europe in the post-war years. The fact that Austria's Chancellors came from the "conservative" People's Party does not invalidate Arnold's point. Here is how the U.S. State Department describes Austria's economy during the relevant time: Austria has a well-developed social market economy with a high standard of living in which the government has played an important role. The government nationalized many of the country's largest firms in the early post-war period to protect them from Soviet takeover as war reparations. For many years, the government and its state-owned industries conglomerate played a very important role in the Austrian economy. However, starting in the early 1990s, the group broke apart, state-owned firms started to operate largely as private businesses, and the government wholly or partially privatized many of these firms. Which is, of course, exacctly what Arnold was talking about. It is also worth noting that three years before Schwarzenegger left Austria, the "conservative" People's Party, which had for some years governed in coalition with the Socialist Party, took a sharp swing to the left: After much debate, in 1965 the [People's] party adopted the Klagenfurt Manifesto, which referred to the ÖVP as an "open people's party" of the "new center." The manifesto laid less emphasis than previous ones on the priority of personal property in a democracy. It also stressed the importance of expanding economic welfare and educational opportunities for all social groups. All of which helps to explain why Arnold came to America in search of freedom and economic opportunity. So the AP's claim that Schwarzenegger misrepresented the postwar history of Austria is a transparent falsehood. Once again, the AP isn't reporting the news; it is trying to help the Democrats win the election, by any means necessary. But the fact that the AP story is false--and obviously false, to anyone who bothers to read what Arnold actually said--has not prevented it from being picked up by, at current count, 539 news outlets.
