The Good War . . . and the home front

This past week I spent a bunch of time working on things related to my forthcoming biography of Omar Bradley. In the process of that, I happened to review a ton of old newsreels related to the war.

This one on the Battle of the Bulge reminded me that the passing of years has rounded quite a lot of the edges off our picture of the war. We often think of World War II as having had one hundred and ten percent backing at home, from Dec. 7 until the end of August 1945. In the popular imagination, the war and our soldiers were always foremost in people's minds, and Americans gladly sacrificed to help bring victory.

The truth is much more complicated. If you listen to the tone of this newsreel - which was broadcast well after the Bulge had been won - you realize the narrator is berating people who are doing less than their bit back home. It's not particularly subtle.



(While Germany had been defeated when most people saw the film, the U.S. still faced difficult battles in the Pacific.)

From an (amateur) historian's point of view, the way the Bulge is presented here is fascinating on another level - the emphasis on the horrors and the horrendous toll (as opposed to, say, the heroes of the 101st or even the fact that the battle made it easier to get across the German frontier). The newsreel, others like it, and reporting that was being "spun" to keep Americans working hard for the war effort, all helped shape the view of the battle. That view influenced the first wave of historians, and in fact continues to influence us - it's hard to step away and look coldly at what happened without being at least somewhat swayed by these early reports.

Which isn't to comment on their accuracy, one way or the other. The footage, of course, is pretty cool.