"I saw tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes." That was just one of the stirring claims Arnold Schwarzenegger made during his prime-time speech at the Republican national convention last week. Picture the poor boy huddling in fear of the jack booted communists ruling his childhood!
The problem is, none of it is true.
Schwarzenegger, now a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born on July 30, 1947, in Styria, a part of Austria within 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.)
"When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets," Schwarzenegger told the Republican convention.
But the Soviets had already left Styria in July 1945, less than three months after the end of the war, so any Soviet tanks or troops were gone two years before Arnold was born.
In his convention address, Schwarzenegger also said: "As a kid, I saw the Socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left."
But the fact is that after the Soviets left Austria was governed by coalition governments, and generally right-wing conservative political parties including the People's party and the Social Democratic party. Between 1945 and 1970, all Austria's chancellors were conservatives, not Socialists. And, when Schwarzenegger left in 1968, Austria was run by a conservative government headed by chancellor Josef Klaus, a staunch Roman Catholic.
Little wonder Schwartzenegger chose Richard Nixon as his role model in becoming a Republican.
London Free Press: Arnold history claim mocked
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