V Was for Victory.... (7)

Politics and American Culture During WWII (7). John Morton Blum. New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1976.

Why read it? Perspective from the Home Front in World War II. The effects of American propaganda on the American people. A completely different view of a war from our more recent wars, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.

Ideas:

“…war reporting continually discriminated against those Americans who had grown up outside of the dominant culture.” p. 63.

John Hersey: “But what I really wondered was whether any of them [soldiers] gave a single thought to what the hell this war was all about.” p. 66.

“Did these men, who might be about to die, have any war aims?” p. 66.

“What were they fighting for, anyway?” p. 66.

“Jesus, what I’d give for a piece of blueberry pie.” p. 66.

“To get the goddam thing over and get home.” p. 66.

“Most regard the war as a job to be done and there is not much willingness to discuss what we are fighting for.” p. 67.

Ernie Pyle: “We see the war from the worm’s eye view, and our segment of the picture consists only of tired soldiers who are alive and don’t want to die…of shocked men wandering back down the hill from battle….” p. 68.

To be continued.