Socialist Action /July 2001
The Greatest Generation? Reflections
of a World War II Veteran
By PAUL SIEGEL
We are being deluged by a flood of tributes to
the heroism of what the TV commentator Tom Brokaw has dubbed "the greatest
generation," the veterans of World War II. The immediate reason for
this torrent of tributes is the desire of the book and movie industries
to make money by marketing World War II as if it were a video game.
However, the basic, underlying reason is the desire
of the rulers of our society to glorify World War II soldiers as a means
of glorifying the American militarism that through its forces in bases abroad
and its overwhelming might dominates the world.
A description of some of my experiences in the
army during the war may serve to correct the picture given in these "tributes"
and present things that are not being talked about.
I was drafted in the summer of 1941. Probably few
people realize it now, but the draft was in effect a year before Pearl Harbor,
as the United States government was edging its way into the war.
On the latrine wall of the camps where I was stationed
was written in block letters "OHIO." "OHIO" stood for
"over the hill in October," a call for mass desertions in that
month.
Of course, October came and went, probably without
a single desertion. The consequence would have been severe, and Army discipline
is not easily broken, certainly not by disorganized individual action, but
"OHIO" indicated the feeling of the men about having been corralled.
The "OHIO" slogan is better understood
if we remember what has been forgotten, the resistance to the United States
entering the war. A congressman named Louis Ludlow had introduced in Congress
a constitutional amendment that provided for a national referendum to be
taken before Congress could declare a foreign war, and this amendment had
received immense support.
Pearl Harbor brought a grim realization that there
was no escape now. In the long waiting lines at the public telephones, as
soldiers called their parents and girl friends, seeking to exchange comfort
and reassurance, I heard no expression of patriotic fervor.
"For Mom and apple pie"
The newspapers were full of stories about soldiers'
reactions to the war. It became a half-joking journalistic cliche that a
common reply to the question why they were fighting was "for Mom and
apple pie."
It may have been a joke, but the phrase did seem
to capture a feeling that was widespread. "For Mom and apple pie"
did not mean that the men believed the German army would leap over the Atlantic
Ocean, invade American homes, and dictate the striking off of apple pie
from the national menu. It meant that they wanted to get home as soon as
possible.
The only way out of the Army was getting the war
over with and the only way to do so seemed to be by winning it. This and
the iron Army discipline was the main impelling force driving the soldiers.
To judge from the lack of discussion of the purpose of the war in barracks
bull sessions, there was little ideological motivation.
The Pentagon seemed to realize this, for it published
a set of materials that unit commanders were supposed to use in preparation
for required lectures on the war. In none of the bases at which I was stationed
were these lectures regarded by the soldiers as anything else than an ordeal.
The officers themselves regarded the compulsory
lectures as a nuisance. At one base the commander met the requirement by
having the lectures delivered over a loud-speaker while the soldiers were
performing their duties. Thus while a soldier on kitchen police was wrestling
with pots and pans he was being informed about the virtues of democracy.
At one lecture that I attended, the officer, discussing
the Atlantic theater of war, explained that the enemy was governed by the
pernicious doctrine of racism. Then, turning to the Pacific theater of war,
he referred to the Japanese as "little yellow monkeys."
The contradiction was not his alone. The United
States was fighting a war ostensibly for democracy and against racism, but
its army was segregated, with the inferior position of Blacks reinforcing
the racial prejudices fostered by American society.
These prejudices were manifested at a boxing tournament
at which I was present that was held to divert the restless soldiers as
they were waiting impatiently to go home after the defeat of Germany. A
bout between a Black soldier and a white soldier roused the fury of a portion
of the white soldiers, and violence seemed imminent.
In response, the base commander had the band play
"The Star-Spangled Banner" so that every one had to stand at attention,
allowing time for passions to cool. This was how racism was coped with in
the Army.
As for the heroic actions depicted in the war movies,
I can only say that I did not see combat, as I was engaged in the unheroic
task of taking care of medical records in a station hospital in England.
I am sure, though, that there were many acts of bravery: the extreme situation
of war can call forth the best in human beings such as coming to the aid
of one's buddies at the risk of one's own life, in addition to calling forth
the worst in human beings.
I doubt, however, that those who performed these
acts of bravery said, as one of the heroes in the film "Pearl Harbor"
did, "We're not anxious to die. Just anxious to matter." This
does not sound like any soldier I ever heard.
From my position in the station hospital I perceived
aspects of the war not portrayed in the war movies. Hospitalized commandos-soldiers
especially trained to engage in lightning raids on the coast of France-boasted
that they had killed coast guards who had surrendered to them, as the prisoners
would have impeded their operations.
This was, of course, in violation of the rules
of war, but the commandos were only violating them on a small scale while
their generals (and also those in the Pacific) were violating them on a
huge scale. The saturation bombing of major German cities (100,000 people
died in a single raid on Dresden alone) was what Roosevelt had rightly characterized
as "inhuman barbarism" when the Germans had engaged in the far
smaller bombing of the Dutch city of Rotterdam and the British city of Coventry
early in the war.
The Nazis' assembly-line murder of Jews, gypsies,
Poles, homosexuals, and others was the most awful manifestation of the barbarism
of World War II, but it was not the only manifestation.
"Bring the Boys Home"
Another aspect of the war unmentioned in the "tributes"
was the very large number of gunshot wounds incurred when soldiers "accidentally"
shot themselves in the foot. Although the Army did not find it expedient
to bring charges-it would in any event have been difficult or impossible
to prove-there can be little question that in just about every instance
the wound was purposefully inflicted. It was what Joseph Heller in "Catch
22" called "the million-dollar wound," the wound that would
get you back home.
When Japan surrendered, it seemed as if everyone
would be going home shortly, but then it was announced that troops would
be needed for occupation duty and that demobilization would proceed by stages
in a manner that soldiers found to be all too slow. Protests occurred at
various bases.
Only subsequently did I learn that the movement
had had its inception in the Pacific, where the demonstrations were larger,
more militant, and more political.
At its height 20,000 men came to a mass meeting
in Manila in response to a leaflet that stated, "The State Department
wants the army to back up its imperialism." The main demand of the
speeches was the rapid release of combat veterans, but speakers also denounced
in that connection U.S. troops being sent to aid Chiang Kai-shek against
the Communist forces in China and to aid the Dutch in Indonesia against
the nationalist forces of Sukarno.
Their assertion that the purpose of an American
occupation army in the Philippines was to restore to power wealthy landowners
who had collaborated with the Japanese conquerors while the Filipino people
had engaged in a war of resistance drew great cheers.
The army, while threatening courts martial if the
demonstrations continued, largely yielded to their pressure and the pressure
of support movements in the United States, greatly speeding up the demobilization.
However, by increasing the number of new inductees it carried through the
U.S. plans for the maintenance of bases and armies of occupation in both
Asia and Europe.
The "Bring the Boys Home" movement was
the biggest military rebellion in U.S. history. In this respect the soldiers
and sailors of World War II indeed constituted "the greatest generation."
No more than World War I fulfilled its slogans
of being a war to end all wars and of making the world safe for democracy
did World War II bring a lasting end to fascism. Indeed, immediately after
the war U.S. imperialism used its erstwhile enemies to combat social revolution.
In Japan MacArthur ruled in accordance with a memorandum
from his advisors that "in the interest of ... prevention of revolution
and communism" it was necessary to "prevent indictment and prosecution
of the Emperor as a war criminal." In Europe the United States recruited
thousands of Nazi war criminals and collaborators to act as spies and prospective
guerrilla troops against the Soviet Union.
Today a new generation faces the task of overthrowing
the capitalism that in crisis is the breeding-ground for fascism. Budding
neofascist movements are present in many countries of Europe, ready to burst
into poisonous flower as the crisis heats up-and the United States is not
immune. In fulfilling its task this generation will be proceeding in the
tradition of the "Bring the Boys Home" movement and the antiwar
struggle during the Vietnam war.
Socialist Action /July 2001 |