The Marshall Plan Dawn of the Cold War by Bennen Steil 2018 404pg

24/10/25 

George Washington's greatest act was to leave the presidency so that the US would not develop a monarchy and refused to serve a third term. In his farewell speech September 1796 he urged his countrymen to steer clear of permanent alliances, especially with Europe.  In 1939 less than 3% of American supported entering the European war and there were a series of Neutrality Acts

The US had fought 2  World Wars  that had cost 522 000 lives and on VE day there were 3,077 American troops in Europe, and Roosevelt was determined to return them as soon as possible, and not confront the Kremlin, however the US never returned to isolationism. The President was suspicious of the British Empire as it had once been.

Roosevelt realized that Stalin had not kept the Yalta agreement and that you can't do business with him. Yalta became a synonym for betrayal of freedom and appeasement.  In a meeting with Molotov who complained he had never been talked to that way. Truman said the Carry out your agreements. Truman infuriated Stalin by cutting off Lend Lease. Truman never imagined himself at Potsdam carving up Europe. Into spheres, but the Soviets were bent on sabotaging democracy.. Between America wanting to dismantle the British Empire and Henry Morgenthau Jnr. who  wanted to convert Germany into an agrarian, or agricultural, society.. It would have given Stalin control of a buffer with US indifference.

1947 January Under Truman the State Dept.  gained its full authority in foreign affaires and people like Dean Acheson, George Kennan , Will Clayton and General  Lucius Clay as well as Senator Arthur Vandenberg were in a position to reshape policy. Hiroshima had shaken the world

1945 44 nations had ratified the Bretton Woods agreement but the Soviets were staying out. The Cold War is a tern that George Orwell had coined in 1945. The Statin- Trieste line would mark the border.

1945 12 million ethnic Germans left eastern and southern Europe to return to occupied Germany. 50 million Europeans were homeless. The Nazis had run France with only 15,000 German functionaries and relied on willing French collaborators. The complete social , economic and political collapse was unparalleled in history.   Economic change ranged from Industrial planning in France to nationalization in  Britain and welfare state to seizure of farms and industries in Hungary. European Communist parties were promising a radical alternative to capitalism. The US heartland said bring the boys home and don't be Santa Claus.

1945 August Truman  cancelled the Lend Lease and promised economic reform at home.

British Imperial power came crashing down through lack of gold that was the only acceptable means of international payments. Meanwhile 1947 winter was the worst with blizzards and freezing in most of Europe.

Britain was withdrawing 40,000 troops from Greece, as she not afford it and Washington was asked to step in there as well as support Turkey.    

1947 February Marshals speech at Princeton. He noted that while active fighting had stopped, genuine peace had not yet been achieved.. The way America had just left Europe after WW 1 had not established security.

The first conflict that the US had to deal with Iran where the Soviets were organizing armed separatist is northern Iran. Truman sent the US fleet and Stalin backed down. The Stalin demanded that Ankara accept Russian bases on the Dardanelles. Truman who understood maps told Acheson to inform the Soviet Charge d'affaires of his full support for the Turkish rights to the straits and ordered a flotilla to the Mediterranean, so again Stalin backed away.

British insolvency would lead to the Soviets getting opportunities in 3 continents, leaving a breach of western defenses.

George Kennan had been in posted  to Moscow from 1933- 1937 and again from 1944 to 1946. He said that Russia was implacably hostile to American Interests and Russia expansionists plans had to be contained. Every Communist party in the world was a subservient instrument of Moscow.  A communist  police state was as big a threat as the Nazi one. Congress however felt that the US would be pulling the British chestnuts out of the fire.  

The Truman Doctrine was to protect Democracy everywhere in the world. Turkey had not suffered the war destruction like Greece but it shared a border with the Soviets. Marshal was sent to negotiate in Moscow. Between him and Acheson the concluded that you could not negotiate as solution with Stalin, who never kept any agreement. This was all given in a speech that Truman gave to the House that the US had to bring economic stability and political process to Europe This was a controversial speech and would be blamed later for Mc McCarthyism. . Initially there was resistance to the Truman doctrine on both sides of the isle. 

Marshal was the first 5 Star US General and was formal to the point he said only my wife calls me George. 

The Soviets felt because they had lost the most in the war they were entitled to most reparations. Marshall saw that they never negotiated in good faith and were trying to get the complete breakdown of Europe.

US deputy military governor Lucius Clay banned further reparation deliveries from the American zone. The French wanted to take the heavily industrialized Ruhr region. French Communist would use the specter of German military revival as a fear against Washington and that other countries recovery should be put ahead of Germany. The Soviets wanted to control the whole of Germany. Walter Ulbricht had been groomed by Stalin to take over Germany.

Herbert Hoover following a trip to Europe concluded that the economies of Europe were interlinked to Germanies economy. Despite the heavy bombing 40% of Germanies housing stock remained as did 80% of its industrial plant and machine tool stock. Restraining Germany industrially would also keep Europe in rags.  Marshal understood that Washington had to act alone without Russia, he then gave a radio broadcast on the disagreements between Washington and Moscow.  The economic weakness of states makes them prone to communist takeover. Stalin had no intention of starting a war with the US if he could achieve this by other means. Economic recovery of Europe and Japan would be the central element of Soviet containment and would be cheaper than military readiness. Between 1945 and 1947 the US armed forces had shrunk from 12 million to 1.6 million. Economic aid had never been tries on such an enormous scale.   

Acheson had to shock the public into realizing the economic crises unfolding in Europe  and America's self interest in reversing it. At the same time Henry Wallace's election campaign against Truman was making things harder.  Unless countries could be self supporting there would be no stability in the world.

The instability in France was causing farmers to hoard grains and not supply the cities with food. France and Italy hd strong communist parties.

Kennan and his staff set up a 4 to 5 year program in the form of  outright  grants.  The US must run this show and it was based on the economic federation of Belgium -Netherlands- Luxembourg  Customs Union  This would unify the breadbasket of the east to the industrial center. Helping separate countries would not help and the US had to knock heads together to impose an agreement,    In Germany the US wanted to get the Germans to be self supporting. Stalin could not opt into this plan without giving up his reparation plan, Stalin had to either decline the Marshal plan or enter into an agreement that ended the Iron Curtain.   

Truman kept a distance from this as he said that "anything going on in  bearing my name Capital Hill will quiver a couple time turn belly up and die"    

1947 June 5  Marshall gave a speech on   at Harvard inviting Europe to present Washington with a compelling cooperation request for aid. Initiative must come from Europe. Our doctrine is against hunger poverty and chaos and not against any country. Any government that maneuvers to block recovery of other countries cannot expect our help.  If Moscow rejected the plan it would be the guilty party that divided Europe. Europe themselves had to establish the program of economic  reconstruction for Europe. However the content would be largely dictated by Washington. No mutual European aid, no American aid.

Moscow since the war redirected trade patterns towards the USSR and created a permanent security zone between itself and Germany. Russia said that the Marshall Plan was to ensure American economic domination of Europe, and Molotov obstructed its implementation in Eastern Europe. Molotov could have killed the plan by joining it Averill Harriman later reflected. Russia wanted European chaos not construction, this way these countries could become communist.  

John Maynard Keynes warned of a Financial Dunkirk in 1944 after the cessation on American war aid.   Britain and the US objected to reparation to Russia. 

British policy was to cooperate with all and dominate none. 

Both Poland and Czechoslovakia were keen to join  but Moscow would have not of that. Thus the world Bank halted consideration of a loan to Poland. Czechoslovakia tried to explain to Moscow that 80% of their raw materials came from the West. Jan Masaryk was assassinated by the Soviets

 Marshall realized that US-Soviet relations had  outlived their usefulness during his meeting with Stalin in Moscow.

1947 July,16 European nations including Turkey and the UK in Paris, with the British foreign minister as chairman . The conference set up the European Economic Co-operation CEEC. There would be only 6 weeks to forge a plan. What bound them was the need for dollars. 8 Eastern European states declined to attend under Moscow's instruction. Spain was excluded owing to the bitter opposition to Franco's dictatorship. France was forced to choose between the rise of German production or no plan financed by the US.

Later in 1952 it led to the European Coal and Steel Community and later to the Common Market of 1958. The different currencies would become fully convertible within the union. Italy wanted to be able to export Italians workers as a means of reducing its unemployed and France agreed to allow a limited migration from Italy. Britain had it own imperial arrangement for labor importation as only a quarter of her trade had been with Europe. West European customs Union was an essential step for democracy to resist Sovietization.

The US wanted the German economy to cease to be a burden to the US. This led to the early termination of Denazification and returned more responsibility to the German people. Europeans were compelled to cooperate more and demand less.

Both Italy and France had Communist Parties. Kennan had just released his book The Cold War. de Gaulle was worried about the collapse of  the Franc and the Italians were aware of how much their future depended on the Marshall Plan.

Back home Truman had to convince the Republican that the Marshall plan was the answer to communism. He got help from Republic Senator Vandenburg. 200 congressmen went to tour Europe on a fact finding tour. This major foreign program could be managed without imposing undue hardship on the American people. Republic Henry Stimson pointed out that having won the war at enormous cost the US could not afford to lose the peace and the penalty of delay would increase the size of the job. Think tanks were set up The council on Foreign Affairs and Brooking Institute. The plan was endorsed by 3.2 million American Legion member as well as the World Council of Churches.

The Age of Yalta has come to an end declared the New York Herald Tribune. The US forces had to be mobilized because of Russia's reaction and this was when Eastern Germany was written off. Moscow Radio directed a vitriol stream at the Marshall Plan.

Thomas Dewey the Republican Presidential contender said he would endorse the ERP European Recovery Plan. Before the vote, interim aid was sent to France , Italy and Austria. They were still  worried that France and Italy would go communist anyway.

Truman had taken a tough stand on Russia at the same time the appointment of General Marshall  was seen as above politics and the American people could identify with secretary Marshall. Aid would be cut off if a country came to be dominated by the Communist Party of Russia.

1947 Time Magazine named Marshall Man of the Year. Vandenberg started looking for things that Europe could provide for the US and found rare minerals, cobalt for aircraft engines and uranium for atomic energy. Other Congressmen sought military cooperation. Thus the US had moved far further from isolationism. It was Vandenberg's leadership that  and coordination that got the bill through the Senate. The Marshall plan would be run by the State Dept.

1948 Jan. the Senate passed the bill unanimously. and the first year $5.3 billion was appropriated. and by April implementation began.

The Czechoslovakia's had wanted to join despite Moscow and Masaryk had been pushed out of the window to his death as he had been planning to flee to the West that would embarrass the Russians. 80% of Czech people favored a western style democracy. Finland was forced to remain neutral.

Marshall managed to cajole the French to cooperate with the Germans if they wanted their share of the money also the French feared the Russians.  To join West Germany became a Federal Government. This was a direct threat to the Soviets.   Once the plan was implemented industrialist could start investing money. The Potsdam decisions  were now null and void.  

Stalin was now trying to push back and the threat was military, and  the    US were keen on securing bases the deal with this. 

Half the aid goods had to be sent on US ships    Both Spain and Ireland were excluded Spain as it was under a dictator and Ireland as they had been neutral and not invaded.                                             

The plan  would beat Communism be economic, rather than military means and take Western Europe off the US dole.1948 April the Marshall Plan became law remarkable in the it had only taken 10 months. A communist take over of Italy would have affected the Mediterranean and so the CIA took its covert action her and funded the Christian Democrats against the communist Party. Up to 10 million letters were mailed from the United States to Italy between early 1948 and the April election there to tell Italian relatives not to vote communist . There would soon be 150 ship with food fuel vehicles and equipment crossing the Atlantic.

1948 June West German changed from the occupation currency that the Russians had inflated. Almost immediately hoarded goods at manufacturer became available in stores. However this resulted in the Berlin blockade of  1948 June to 1949 May. Stalin was worried about the economic affect of the Americans in Germany. This was just after Stalin had expelled Titio's Yugoslavia from Cominform, this showed that the Kremlin could be defied by one of its own minions. The tension in Berlin showed Russian desperation with the success of the ERP.

1949 Tito's Yugoslavia abandoned the Greek Communist insurgents. Stalin blockade was launched as leverage in German. It had not stopped the Deutschmark or progress towards  a West German state or the creation of NATO. And the US in the Cold war demonstrated superior capability of will. West Germany was essential to the ERP.

General Lucius Clay the US army governor of West Germany now returned home he had guided  to a successful conclusion.

August 1949 the first popular election in Germany Ardenauer coalition won, despite Stalin's attempt against it. he would serve 14 years. He was committed to Franco-German reproachment. In East Germany Walter Ulbricht followed Stalin's model. At the same time by 1949 August the Soviets had an atomic bomb. Wally Barbour said about the Kremlin believing that Germany was the key to controlling Bolshevism in Europe. He was the US ambassador to Israel between 1961 to 1973.

Both Poland and Czechoslovakia were sacrificed to the Soviet bloc to strengthen the US long term position. Between 1947 and 1952 when Marshall aid officially ended the industrial output of Marshall countries had increased by 60%. Note these countries production in 1945 was between 34 and 46% of what they had been prewar. Germany and Italy were down to 20%

1953 Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize.

------------------------------------------------

Lasting Effect.

Mitterrand as his prize for support on German unity secured from Kohl a public commitment on European monetary union. FDRs plans were for an American withdrawal from Europe. NATO through Truman overturned such plans and NATO might expand into the Warsaw Pact territory beginning with East Germany. Gorbechov demanded that a united Germany would be neutral or non aligned, so that   NATOs jurisdiction would not shift eastwards.  The deutschmark was used to force the pace of unification. Gorbechov was already pulling troops out of eastern Europe where some were selling their weapons on the black market. West German money was fueling the resentment of Ruble holding soldiers. Increasing the urgency to repatriate them. Thus the 1947 Marshall plan was serving as a catalyst for wider European integration. Germany would pay Moscow DM 12 billion and give it an interest free loan of DM 3 billion interest free to pay for the removal of its 400,000 troops. Marshall had left the door open to Moscow to participate in the plan, he did so on the basis that  Stalin would slam it shut The Visegrad countries e.g. the Czech Republic , Hungary,  Poland and Slovakia. Madeleine Albright struggled to convey that Russia was a friend against NATO and would protect Europe. The incorporation of Ukraine and adn Belarus in 1922, the Baltic countries in 1940 into the USSR bolster Russia's security while splitting control of Germany created only an equilibrium. The Warsaw Pact  was created in 1955 and  dissolved in 1991. The Russian republics declared independence 4 months later. Gorbochav resigned and the Soviet Union ended. Yelsin warned Clinton that NATOs movement to the Russian border would be a betrayal of the Russian people and did result in a more nationalistic government taking over and a more dangerous Russia. Clinton was committed to seeing Russia moving down the path to democracy.

Yelstin did not want to see Russia's border shrinking more so sent the army into breakaway Chechnya in 1994, then again in 1999 and then resigned in 1999. Days after the expansion of NATO, a bombing campaign started against Serbia

Truman had only added the military element after the Prague coup that showed that governments that could not protect themselves would be subverted by Moscow. Today we see that nothing in Russia's relationship to the west has changed.

Turkey a liberal democracy when it joined NATO in 1952 became less of one under Erdogan's leadership. In 1914 Orban in Hungary declared that "the era of liberal democracies is over"  Georgia and Ukraine Moscow tried to keep the regimes institutionally weak , unpalatable to the west and dependent on Russia.

1997 George Kennan who only died in 2001 aged 101  had written that expanding NATO would be a fateful error of the US policy of the entire post- cold war era and would have an adverse effect on Russian democratic development.

The Marshall Plan is remembered as one of the great achievements of American Foreign policy not merely because it is visionary but because it worked..

How did the GI bill fit into the play for  employment in the US? This stopped the job market being flooded with labor and paid to university and job training  giving a highly educated work force.  This provided $20 a week for  up to 52 weeks for 15 millions of soldiers returning to the job market.  

How did the Marshall plan merge in with American post  war economy?  This acted as a major economic stimulus that absorbed U.S. industrial and agricultural surpluses, prevented a post-war recession, and built long-term global markets for American goods

The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout.2026 207pg

 31/08/26

 A book right up to date of the problems of contemporary USA. Artie Dam, a fifty-something high-school history teacher in a small coastal town near Boston. 

Artie had taught history to 11th graders and had been the assistant soccer coach. In the class when Danny Marino mocked Rhoda Lazarre. Artie stood up and asked the kids " Do you ever feel superior to someone else because you are not. Artie's son Rob had been driving and had an accident killing his girlfriend Heather who had not been wearing a seatbelt and was crushed under the steering wheel. This changed both Rob and his family. Rob had a job in a high tech company that had contracts with the army. He married Francesca a concert pianist who was most of the time in Europe.

Artie had been married to Evie for 34 years, she had married someone from the working class. They had had a quiet wedding . Where as Evie's sister  a few years later had a lavish wedding to a young man  and were divorced 10 years later. His father in law paid off Arties student loans so he now felt like a free man. History tells us that in all, that there has never been a time when people were not killing each other.

Rob came home, he and Francesca were through, he had met someone else. Rachel was a social worker at a hospital in Boston and helped people after they left the  hospital. Rachel wanted children but Francesca did not. A plumber came to fix the faucet and was depressed as his wife was having a affair and his son Danny Marino  knew about it. Danny had written in the first day essay " Every thing in this world is a big stinking lies and people suck.

Artie had been brought up in a basement apartment and his father was the caretaker of 3 buildings. His mother had been crazy and was institutionalized a few times. Artie's sister had not married till she was almost thirty and both their parent had died the year of their marriage. 

Evie had a hard time getting pregnant but they went on a holiday to London where a month later the discovered she was pregnant.. Reginald only married Flossie because she said she was regnant and she wasn't, she was never happy.

Artie took the dingy out to his boat, and lost grip of his sailboat and was being carried down by his heavy boots. A motor boat came and saved him, at hospital it took him time to warm and they checked that he had not had a heart attack. His son Rob asked him if he wanted to kill himself.  At the hospital in the days when one was still able to smoke, Artie had his tonsils out as a kid. The was an oldish woman smoking and her story was that she had cancer and they had to remove half her tongue, she lived alone and she was  scared. Arties father had spoken to her and discovered she had no money and no arrangement for when she left the hospital. She was grateful that he spoke to her while she wept. She is the only one who doesn't hold back the truth.

They saw Francesca playing her heart out on the piano at Carnegie hall. She said she was looking for god when she played ,

Rob and Francesca were going to separate because he could not see the way forward with her never home. Rachel was introduced to them, Evie said she liked  dressing trying to look cool.

Danny Marino was a mess his mother had moved out and back 3 days later. At the soccer game someone had shouted "Jew hater" and there was a fight on the field. A year ago the hostages had been taken in Gaza. 

Ken was the Guy who saved Artie and they met for dinner often as they had a lot in common. Kens had grown up in South Boston and his father was a postman. They had a close friendship and Artie even mentioned that he knew that he hadn't fathered Rob. This friendship was solid despite Kens choice of politics and that Ken was very Catholic.

Artie gave assignments to kids to read letters of Union soldiers to discuss, there was a complaint that Confederate soldiers letters should also be studied.  Hoover Lakeland office had a black and white photo of Martin Luther King giving his Washington speech.  Hoover said to Artie. He (Trump) is going to win "people want authority" he has a cult following. Hoover shot himself in his office. Later it was revealed that he was under investigation by the FBI for harboring illegals immigrants at this home and had received death threats , his mistress had turned him in.

Artie had gone to a Catholic school but not church but the concept of evil never left him. His mother came from an Irish family in S. Boston. She and  sister that was put into an orphanage because of their poverty, after the father died and they received a widows check the girls returned home.  Artie's mother hated the Italian neighbours yet when was always talking to them on the step outside. When mother was in a mental institution Mrs. Ferraro cooked for them.

Students knew little about the holocaust which they should have been taught the year before. He had lied to the students as they could not bring about world peace nobody could.

At the end of summer the boat  get pulled out of the water and wrapped for winter. 

Marie had wanted their fathers genes passed on died with her still born baby.

Elon Musks father was a awful man, and Elon probably had Asperger's.

He understood that Rob had thought about suicide, he was an engineer in a company with government contracts and could not discuss his job. He gets a letter from Reginald Mac Donald  discovers that his mom could not fall pregnant and he had obliged her. He was informed that Reg's DNA was sent for testing and he could have his tested at the same lab. His parents went to London on holiday and after that she fell pregnant and Reg is the father. They had lived a lie together.   Later Evie wanted to take Artie to London and again but he refused  to go.         

Rob has no plans to tell his mother. . Rob did not look like  Reg but had Reg's gait.

Rachel was going home to her parents for Thanksgiving so Francesca was invited home to Robs parents. Rob had been valedictorian of his class and Reg had cheered. Reg had married Flossie because she lied about being pregnant

Is there such a thing as free will Carl Jung is the one to ask? He believed in collective unconscious and coined the words extroversion and introversion.

With the election half the country was stunned and half was jubilant.

Artie realized that he had been mentally removed from his father. His father spoke of how difficult it was to be a German after WW1 and a German veteran of that war. Then came the depression. Artie felt he never learned who had his father been. He learned about sex hearing it through the ceiling.

A women unfaithful to her husband ,her therapist Evie tried to convince her not to tell her husband- honesty comes in different forms. 

Finally Rob realizes that Rachel has issues as she is a kleptomaniac i.e. she is screwed up.  Artie at school late catches Danny writing Fuck --- on the wall. The 2 of them work to erase it and nothing was said. Mr. Dam had ushered him into the world of adults .and changed him. Danny did not want to be like his parents. Kids were worried on how they would pay for their education. Later he told Danny to get his grades as high as possible as he had a chance to get a scholarship. But my father wants me to go into his plumbing business! Does your father love you, then he will understand?

The guy would be in prison if he wasn't bombing the Gazans his corrupt. Artie was aware how much people lied to each other. Few students saw themselves with any prospects in the world. 

He heard that a guy died Charles Schwartz who had a men's clothing store and would go to the homes of his obese customers too embarrassed to come into his store measure them and get them their size clothes delivered.  He was the guy who dealt with Artie when he had a kleptomaniac problem.  Is the Pope catholic ? means yes that is obvious.

Artie " they worst thing I did to my father was that I was not there for him" Rob says he is thinking of writing to Heathers parents. Rob was now out of work with the change of administration.. 

Evelyn Peabody tried to kill herself with Klonopin pills.

----------------Epilogue

Artie watched  as President Trump sneeringly humiliated the leader of Ukraine in the Oval office, and talked of making Gaza "the new French Riviera. He felt his country was committing suicide. Rob came with Francesca and they seemed very much a couple. Rob suggested they go out in the boat, without the cellphone. He told Artie his working for the European Union and it is serious stuff that is why they should use the burner phone. American intelligence can't be trusted any more and are working on their own AI platform. Stay off social media. Rob has a EU Passport. Suddenly a heavy fog came down and they could not see their way back and they panicked but ten minutes later the fog cleared. That was the Winter that Hoover Lakeland shot himself and the new principal was a woman who Artie had misgivings about. Don't say boys and girls as you are not sure of their gender. Students were now using ChatGPT to do their assignments. Students realized that Dam-dam went crazy and had" lost it". Artie missed Rob and Francesca tremendously, then Francesca had a miscarriage and this was hard on Artie.

His friends Carl and Anne retired. Because he loved history the state of the country weighed down on him. Talking to Anne he said "My occupation is gone just like Othello" Rob had been detained for 2 hours at immigration and said he would not risk  coming  back again. Artie died of a heart attack. Danny came to the funeral. Francesca was playing music composed by Artie. Kenneth was talking to the father of Heather Morrison's at the funeral. Evie realized that Artie was a saint and never remarried.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upward Bound by Woody Brown 2026  183 pg.  4/10/26

Upward bound is an asylum form of  day care centre for autistic children or adults. Jorge a gentle giant and eloper as he would suddenly run off. The narrator's parents refused to accept that he was an idiot because he was speechless., just had to untangle the channels in the brain. His mother worked with him, reading to him children classics and poetry. He also had an aid through middle and high school, he got a high school diploma. The mother became his aid at community college. He became an English Major and dreamed of supporting himself at college by writing a novel. Every morning people would sign the clients in, he could sign but slowly. His father suddenly died of a heart attack. He could not get an actual job as the door was bolted from the inside. When he sees a crime movie he has already figured out who did it 5 minutes after it started. He has many needs and little to  give in return.

At Target Jorge looked for Mr. Potato head. Copacetic vibe -relax no problem. Carlos and Jorge had a connection between them, without language and Jorge gets comfort from Carlos    OCD  patterns, compulsive disorders. Cerebral palsy makes muscles and joints stiff, freezes the face and prevents speech. Tom is in a wheelchair and sometimes is just forgotten.

Echolalia repetitive speech by a child, not voluntary.

College students part timers go home for the summer break, kids who live elsewhere need summer jobs, but feel inadequate in the role.

The school district and Regional Centre had been providing speech therapy , physical therapy, occupational therapy till the age of 18 then it falls away.  They doctor pointed doubt that patients with Spastic quadriparesis have a short life span. He needs someone to read to him a few hours a day.

Mariana had the role of Carlos's mother since she was 11, their mother was a drunk and in jail for robbery.

Ann had a lifeguard certificate so was now their life guard. So extra sessions were added to the pool so that all could get in every day. When poop was seen in the pool they had to get everyone  out. Her first day at Upward bound was a Kafka nightmare surrounded by alien creatures. People who could not walk without lurching, some were silent. This would be good for her resume. The place needed helpers badly. Had she toured the place before agreeing she would have kept walking right out. She should have kept a journal this summer to use as  part of an honours thesis. She felt infected as a person surrounded by zombies. The staff all wore a uniform T-shirt, these people were not retarded they were out of control of their bodies. Ann was thinking  of taking a speech pathology class.

 Carlos is in his mid twenties and has already spent time in jail. 

Getting all 20 into their bathing suits took virtually the whole staff. Autism comes with anxiety, the patients did not like it there and it was boring for them. Emma's mother told her she liked music and she liked it when Ann sang her Beatle songs.  Carlos had no background in disability things.  His sister got him the job after she had been working there a  long time.  The  other staffers were either too young or too stupid to teach Carlos anything. His sister Mariana was the key to survival here she was the best thing at the place. Carlos's mother had chosen drugs and booze over him. His mother had gone to prison when Carlos was 6 and Mariana was 16.  However he still said to Mariana "You are not my mother "when tried to keep him from getting into trouble.

Dave was a Luddite - It is inadvisable to play music as they get overstimulated. He had to deal with insurance and liability. Dave got to be director of Upward Bound without a special ed. or psychology background, and doesn't know about the dominant disability of each client. He depends on Carlos. Dave had come California to work at Hollywood, would love a big Hollywood night with an actress benefactor , but there's no money, he can barely pay salaries. At the show they have girls going round with donation baskets

About a third of the clients live in group homes. The others live at home. 

Walter and Emma like being together; he likes people talking to him as a one sided conversation. They have the same kind of autism and would need trained aids to help this but there are none at Upward bound. They need to point at letters to have a conversation. 

Camp Cammie which is controlled by Upward Bound is for disabled kids and adults. he had his father's bag and he took out of it a pill container a counselor saw that and in a panic grabbed it as none of them were supposed to have medication as this was given to them as needed. Oh my God did you take all of these. If Camp Cammie would not tolerate him who would.

Jorge-   the emergency contact on Jorge's file is the social worker, he is an adult and his family is not responsible for him like a child. Abandonment is part of his make up. Carlos was the only  person who cares about him, and honestly had some affection for him

 2

Avery was a cashier at Target and on a Friday a big tall Latino arrived and gave a shriek. Ten funky people on autopilot and 2 handlers came from Upward Bound like a Magic School bus. The helpers looked young and did not have their cell phones out. Slowly Avery became aware that the group was made up of individuals each different. One was in a wheelchair. This group never buys anything and for her it is the end of her week at 2pm she has a Sociology lecture. The girl aid is a pretty collage student. You earn more as a student in retail. Avery has a stepdad who doesn't like her and wants her out of the house. She sees no future in retail and got a  lot out of psychology class. She can see herself mending broken bodies but not mental problems. Looking on this group she thinks adversity is an incentive for soul building.  Every person struggles with something. Incontinence has got to be a burden.

Jorge ran across the road and a policeman pulled out his revolver and shot at him Carlos had just moved in to comfort Jorge and the bullet went into his abdomen. An ambulance arrived and Mariana went with it also . Carlos died on the way to hospital. The police took Jorge and sent him to a psychiatric hold for 72 hours. The trigger happy cop should have been in the loony bin.  Freaks like Jorge shouldn't be allowed near our homes or parks.

That ended a brief rotten chapter of my life. Carlos was the  best thing about Upward Bound. At the funeral we learn that  Carlos's dad  had left the family and the mother had worked 2 jobs. Carlos had found himself in Jorge , Drew and Emma. Dave took credit for turning Carlos around? Carlos always liked you Walter.

   Walter qualifies for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) with his mother, Lisa, acting as his provider.   Walters' mom decided that she could stop working and take care of him if they moved to a smaller house so they could get by. Walter  started writing a memorial about Carlos, then about Jorge. Walter kept on writing.