D-DAY: DO WE DESERVE THE SACRIFICES MADE ON OUR BEHALF?

Too Much, Too Late
Baby boomers heap insincere praise on the "greatest generation."

BY DAVID GELERNTER
Friday, June 4, 2004

My political credo is simple and many people share it: I am against phonies. A cultural establishment that (on the whole) doesn't give a damn about World War II or its veterans thinks it can undo a half-century of indifference verging on contempt by repeating a silly phrase ("the greatest generation") like a magic spell while deploying fulsome praise like carpet bombing.

The campaign is especially intense among members of the 1960s generation who once chose to treat all present and former soldiers like dirt and are willing at long last to risk some friendly words about World War II veterans, now that most are safely underground and guaranteed not to talk back, enjoy their celebrity or start acting like they own the joint. A quick glance at the famous Hemingway B.S. detector shows the needle pegged at Maximum, where it's been all week, from Memorial Day through the D-Day anniversary run-up.

When I was in junior high school long ago, a touring arts program visited schools in New York state. One performance consisted of a celebrated actress reciting Emily Dickinson's poetry onstage for 90 minutes or so. I defy any audience to listen attentively to 90 minutes of Dickinson without showing the strain, and my school definitely wasn't having any.
A few minutes into the show, the auditorium was alive with student chatter, so loud a buzz you could barely hear the performance. Being a poetry-lover, I devoted myself to setting an example of rapt attention for, maybe, five minutes, at which point I threw in the towel and joined the mass murmur.

The actress manfully completed her performance. When it was over we gave her a stupendous ovation. We were glad it was finished and (more important) knew perfectly well that we had behaved like pigs and intended to make up for it by clapping and roaring and shouting. But the performer wasn't having any. She gave us a cold curtsy and left the stage and would not return for a second bow.

I have always admired her for that: a more memorable declaration than anything Dickinson ever wrote. And today's endless ovation for World War II vets doesn't change the fact that this nation has behaved boorishly, with colossal disrespect. If we cared about that war, the men who won it and the ideas it suggests, we would teach our children (at least) four topics:

• The major battles of the war. When I was a child in the 1960s, names like Corregidor and Iwo Jima were still sacred, and pronounced everywhere with respect. Writing in the 1960s about the battle of Midway, Samuel Eliot Morison stepped out of character to plead with his readers: "Threescore young aviators . . . met flaming death that day in reversing the verdict of battle. Think of them, reader, every Fourth of June. They and their comrades who survived changed the whole course of the Pacific War." Today the Battle of Midway has become niche-market nostalgia material, and most children (and many adults) have never heard of it. Thus we honor "the greatest generation." (And if I hear that phrase one more time I will surely puke.)

• The bestiality of the Japanese. The Japanese army saw captive soldiers as cowards, lower than lice. If we forget this we dishonor the thousands who were tortured and murdered, and put ourselves in danger of believing the soul-corroding lie that all cultures are equally bad or good. Some Americans nowadays seem to think America's behavior during the war was worse than Japan's--we did intern many loyal Americans of Japanese descent. That was unforgivable--and unspeakably trivial compared to Japan's unique achievement, mass murder one atrocity at a time.

In "The Other Nuremberg," Arnold Brackman cites (for instance) "the case of Lucas Doctolero, crucified, nails driven through hands, feet and skull"; "the case of a blind woman who was dragged from her home November 17, 1943, stripped naked, and hanged"; "five Filipinos thrown into a latrine and buried alive." In the Japanese-occupied Philippines alone, at least 131,028 civilians and Allied prisoners of war were murdered. The Japanese committed crimes against Allied POWs and Asians that would be hard still, today, for a respectable newspaper even to describe. Mr. Brackman's 1987 book must be read by everyone who cares about World War II and its veterans, or the human race.

• The attitude of American intellectuals. Before Pearl Harbor but long after the character of Hitlerism was clear--after the Nuremberg laws, the Kristallnacht pogrom, the establishment of Dachau and the Gestapo--American intellectuals tended to be dead against the U.S. joining Britain's war on Hitler.

Today's students learn (sometimes) about right-wing isolationists like Charles Lindbergh and the America Firsters. They are less likely to read documents like this, which appeared in Partisan Review (the U.S. intelligentsia's No. 1 favorite mag) in fall 1939, signed by John Dewey, William Carlos Williams, Meyer Schapiro and many more of the era's leading lights. "The last war showed only too clearly that we can have no faith in imperialist crusades to bring freedom to any people. Our entry into the war, under the slogan of 'Stop Hitler!' would actually result in the immediate introduction of totalitarianism over here. . . . The American masses can best help [the German people] by fighting at home to keep their own liberties." The intelligentsia acted on its convictions. "By one means or another," Diana Trilling later wrote of this period, "most of the intellectuals of our acquaintance evaded the draft."

Why rake up these Profiles in Disgrace? Because in the Iraq War era they have a painfully familiar ring.

• The veterans' neglected voice. World War II produced an extraordinary literature of first-person soldier narratives--most of them out of print or unknown. Books like George MacDonald Fraser's "Quartered Safe Out Here," Philip Ardery's "Bomber Pilot," James Fahey's "Pacific War Diary." If we were serious about commemorating the war, we would do something serious. The Library of America includes two volumes on "Reporting World War II," but where are the soldiers' memoirs versus the reporters'? If we were serious, we would have every grade school in the nation introduce itself to local veterans and invite them over. We'd use software to record these informal talks and weave them into a National Second World War Narrative in cyberspace. That would be a monument worth having.

Speaking of which: I am privileged to know a gentleman who enlisted in the Army as an aviation cadet in 1942, served in combat as a navigator in a B-24, was shot down and interned in Switzerland, escaped, and flew in the air transport command for the rest of the war. He became a scientist and had a long, distinguished career. Among his friends he is a celebrated raconteur, and his prose is strong and charming. He wrote up his World War II experiences, and no one--no magazine, no book publisher--will take them on. My suggestions have all bombed out.
If you're interested, give me a call. But I'm not holding my breath. The country is too busy toasting the "greatest generation" to pay attention to its actual members.

Mr. Gelernter is a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard and professor of computer science at Yale. He was also a victim of the Unabomber.

http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/view...a106c882a6a290

I raise my glass to the greatest generation.

Too Much, Too Late

I am privileged to know a gentleman who enlisted in the Army as an aviation cadet in 1942, served in combat as a navigator in a B-24, was shot down and interned in Switzerland, escaped,

http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/view...a106c882a6a290 Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Huh?

I raise my glass to the greatest generation. Originally Posted by timpage

Wow, I never knew that Switzerland held American POW's...

On 13 August 1943, the U.S. Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber "Death Dealer" sustained heavy battle damage that left only two out of four engines functioning. The pilot, First Lieutenant Alva "Jack" Geron, knew that they would never make it back over the Alps to their base in North Africa, so he instructed his navigator to divert to Switzerland. After crash-landing at Thurau near Wil, Switzerland, the crew set fire to Death Dealer before their capture and interrogation by the Swiss military.
As the Allied Strategic Air Offensive increased in scope, many other crippled U.S. aircraft also sought refuge in neutral Switzerland. By the end of World War II, over 1,500 American airmen had entered Switzerland in such a manner and were interned by the Swiss government. Those who attempted escape were sent to punishment camps, where many suffered conditions comparable to imprisonment by the Axis powers.

I might be wrong, but I would bet a paycheck that if walked out on the Streets of any Major US City, and just randomly asked people on the street what June 4th, D-Day meant, that 75 percent would not have a clue as to what you are talking about.

If you added 1945 into the equation, then it might get a little better, but not much.

Wow, I never knew that Switzerland held American POW's...

On 13 August 1943, the U.S. Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber "Death Dealer" sustained heavy battle damage that left only two out of four engines functioning. The pilot, First Lieutenant Alva "Jack" Geron, knew that they would never make it back over the Alps to their base in North Africa, so he instructed his navigator to divert to Switzerland. After crash-landing at Thurau near Wil, Switzerland, the crew set fire to Death Dealer before their capture and interrogation by the Swiss military.
As the Allied Strategic Air Offensive increased in scope, many other crippled U.S. aircraft also sought refuge in neutral Switzerland. By the end of World War II, over 1,500 American airmen had entered Switzerland in such a manner and were interned by the Swiss government. Those who attempted escape were sent to punishment camps, where many suffered conditions comparable to imprisonment by the Axis powers. Originally Posted by boardman

And not just Switzerland. Here is a great little 10 minute short film (excellent CG) with an interesting twist and explanation at the end.

http://vimeo.com/31202906

Jackie S. I think you meant to type June 6.

I think there are strong pockets of youth in this country that understand the sacrifice of the "greatest generation." They are generally located in what the media refers to as "fly over country."

I also respect the sacrifices the "current generation" made in the GWOT. Was watching cable tv about troops that were in Iraq. There was a US convoy leaving for a IED location. All along the way there truck was swarmed with Iraqis' on motorcycles that would come up and swat at the truck or steal anything they could. The troops inside were ordered not to engage the motorcycles. Couldn't swerve to knock them over even if it looked like they were putting an IED on the truck itself. I wouldn't have the discipline. Meanwhile at the IED site, the US troops where trying to figure out if they could disarm the IED and they believe they have the Iraqi triggerman spotted. Suddenly some Iraqi policemen come up, grab the IED, rip wires off of it and take the explosive part away. I then fully realized what Iaintlien was saying.

Most US students wouldn't come to school if the A/C was busted and they couldn't get wireless service.

That article is the biggest load of BS and it is no surprise that Whirlaway posted it. Nothing but unsupported wild generalizations.

That article is the biggest load of BS and it is no surprise that Whirlaway posted it. Nothing but unsupported wild generalizations. Originally Posted by BigLouie

and what parts are BS? with your supporting links please

They were not called POWs, they were called internees. Spain, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union all held Americans as internees. Some didn't try to hard to hold them (Switzerland and Spain) but others pretty much made them prisoners.

I have to agree with the corporal, which parts offended you Louise?

I might be wrong, but I would bet a paycheck that if walked out on the Streets of any Major US City, and just randomly asked people on the street what June 4th, D-Day meant, that 75 percent would not have a clue as to what you are talking about.

If you added 1945 into the equation, then it might get a little better, but not much. Originally Posted by Jackie S

There'd be a reason they wouldn't have a clue. D Day occurred on June 6, 1944. Not June 4, 1945.

They were not called POWs, they were called internees. Spain, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union all held Americans as internees. Some didn't try to hard to hold them (Switzerland and Spain) but others pretty much made them prisoners.

I have to agree with the corporal, which parts offended you Louise? Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn

Semantics don't you think?

Sorry I did not post the source for the information In my earlier post.

http://swissinternees.tripod.com/

According to that site Switzerland was pretty tough on the "Internees" sending those who tried to escape to punishment camps. It may be propaganda. I honestly haven't had time to research it enough. It kind of surprised me to learn it though.

There'd be a reason they wouldn't have a clue. D Day occurred on June 6, 1944. Not June 4, 1945. Originally Posted by timpage

Geeze, that was a hell of a brain fart. Sorry.

But I think you got my point.

Geeze, that was a hell of a brain fart. Sorry.

But I think you got my point. Originally Posted by Jackie S

I know, no worries.

The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of smart, well read and educated people who just don't know anything about history, especially war history. To those of us interested in such things, it seems incredible but we're in the minority. I bet not one person in 25 could even tell you what year WW2 started and ended....maybe less than that. And stuff like the Civil War? Forget about it, you might as well ask them questions about the Norman Conquest.