America can take back the millions of Colorado beetle it dropped on Poland in the 1960s to destroy Poland's potato crops - or perhaps just nuke 'em with their missiles.
How pathetic. First and foremost it’s not 1960’s as you have stated but 1950 to be exact when first communist propaganda reports appeared making this claim by 1951 they have abounded this claim and you won’t find this kind of reports in official press. To give credibility to the report they often quoted the supposed confession of American pilot Robert Hilard who was shut down over Korea and allegedly confessed to taking part in air drop of colorado beetle over East Germany, which brings us to a second point even the communist propaganda machine at the time was not stupid enough to make a direct claim as to American involvement over Polish territory at the time. The media campaign at the time aimed to force the use of pesticide like Polish made azotox or Soviet produced HCH not to mention gamex or DDT to which your average uneducated “potato farmer” as you have put it was reluctant to use and once sarcastic jokes started to be wildly circulated among the population they abandoned this claim. Here’s an example of one such joke:
“Did you know that the Soviets have used their airforce to plant over 2 million hectares of crops? Ha you call this “News”. As a matter of fact Americans were the first to use their airforce for agricultural purpose. Howe’s that? Who do you suppose made a beetle drop over East Germany?
Since most of the independent farmers were against the use of pesticide over their fields even though they were find 500 zloty for the refusal many did and the government organized youth brigades of beetle pickers a much more eco friendly approach to deal with the problem. Today we all know what the effects of DDT are. By 1954 even the official press published sarcastic remarks aimed at the official campaign of the time. For instance in popular magazine “Szpilki” of that time one can read "Jak nam donoszą nasi korespondenci, w gminie Głuchów (pow. skierniewicki) pojawił się wyjątkowo złośliwy gatunek stonki. Kiedy dzielna drużyna przeciwstonkowa z gromady Byczki wyruszyła w pole – stonka nie stawiała oporu. Połów był duży, ale cóż się okazało po powrocie do bazy? Oto złośliwa stonka zamieniła się w same koniki polne..."
Fact is that while there were claims of 10 thousand places in Poland where an unusually large groups of beetle population was reported all of which were located in Western Poland btw, by 1956 there were 72 thousand such places reported all over the country. The moral of the story is that due to the reluctance of uneducated potato farmers to believe their government official position and campaign to use the new wonder cure DDT, even the mighty communist propaganda had to change their tactics and approach in dealing with this crisis.
What do you mean exactly? Even if Poland was occupied by Russia at the time, that still doesn't give USA the right to destroy Poland's crops. SOS! Save Our Spuds.
Surely you jest.
Edit: Normally I would ignore this but once too many times I have seen comments such as “potato farmer” or “wieśniak” on your part. So what’s wrong with being a potato farmer in your view? or Wieśniak?
