Patriot's History: World War 2, 1945 (Chap 17)
Grand Old Flag, George M. CohanProud to be an American, Bill Pitts and Choir
America the Beautiful, Bill Pitts and Choir
God Bless America, Kate Smith
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Summary What won the war? Our discipline, free enterprise, and will to win. But communism's spread, the size of Roosevelt's government, the Bomb, the Holocaust - they all remind us of the war's unending cost. Chapter What won the war? Our individuality, unlike Japan, along with discipline, would be the key. And liberty! For we were even free to hold elections during war (in Germany it took a bomb attempt on Hitler). Industry was also key, as Kaiser's "Ships for Liberty" delivered goods; and business, with the guarantee of War Bonds stirring even greater energy among a patriotic public, would produce supplies for Europe, and for Russia. So profuse the output even FDR had sense to leave free enterprise alone, as business would achieve what socialism couldn't (though the income tax was raised to unseen heights, as FDR's attacks on innovative rich would last for many years). Some liberties were sacrificed amidst the fears produced by war: surveillance by the FBI was status quo. The propaganda blitz would buy another term for Roosevelt (over Dewey, '44). And overseas, with Patton in the Europe war, we won the Battle of the Bulge; but in a sense we lost, as Russia took advantage of events to take Berlin. As Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt planned (at Yalta) Europe's fate, the West rejoiced in grand displays of victory (although the Holocaust and Soviet expansion - much of Europe lost to Communism - tempered this). The atom bomb (Manhattan Project) surfaced now, the desert calm demolished in New Mexico, its power felt a hundred miles away. And soon a bomb would melt Hiroshima (Paul Tibbets, the Enola Gay); and then at Nagasaki, with Japan's delay in their surrender. Truman didn't hesitate to seek an end to war. We still deliberate about the so-called "arsenal of righteousness" that spawned this force. Historians assess the reasons: first, the other option, to invade Japan, would kill a million people. To persuade Japan to quit was, secondly, impossible - their citizens were clinging to a fanciful allegiance to the Emperor. They'd even kill their children and themselves in order to fulfill their duty. Third, like Nazis, many Japanese were brutal, evil, with an eagerness to seize the chance to torture prisoners. Reflect, instead, upon the Holocaust, the seven million dead as Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Eichmann shaped the rite of slaughter: "Judenfrei" -- remove the "parasite" from Deutschland; FDR deciding to ignore the issue in his zealous quest to win the war. |