Saturday, February 9, 1946. Stalin declares war inevitable.

Stalin in an "election" speech carried on Soviet radio, stated another war was inevitable due to the "capitalist development of the world economy", and that the USSR needed to plan accordingly.

The Chairman:

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin has the floor.

(Comrade Stalin’s appearance in the rostrum was greeted by the voters with loud cheers lasting several minutes. The entire audience in the Bolshoi Theatre rose to its feet to greet Comrade Stalin. There were continuous cries of “Cheers for great Stalin!” “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for our beloved Stalin!” )

Comrade Stalin:

Comrades!

Eight years have passed since the last elections to the Supreme Soviet. This has been a period replete with events of a decisive nature. The first four years were years of intense labour on the part of Soviet people in carrying out the Third Five- Year Plan. The second four years covered the events of the war against the German and Japanese aggressors — the events of the Second World War. Undoubtedly, the war was the main event during the past period.

It would be wrong to think that the Second World War broke out accidentally, or as a result of blunders committed by certain statesmen, although blunders were certainly committed. As a matter of fact, the war broke out as the inevitable result of the development of world economic and political forces on the basis of present-day monopolistic capitalism. Marxists have more than once stated that the capitalist system of world economy contains the elements of a general crisis and military conflicts, that, in view of that, the development of world capitalism in our times does not proceed smoothly and evenly, but through crises and catastrophic wars. The point is that the uneven development of capitalist countries usually leads, in the course of time, to a sharp disturbance of the equilibrium within the world system of capitalism, and that group of capitalist countries regards itself as being less securely provides with raw materials and markets usually attempts to change the situation and to redistribute “spheres of influence” in its own favour — by employing armed force. As a result of this, the capitalist world is split into two hostile camps, and war breaks out between them . . .

And so, how should our victory [in World War II] be interpreted? What can this victory signify from the point of view of the state and the development of the internal forces of our country?

Our victory signifies, first of all, that our Soviet social system was victorious, that the Soviet social system successfully passed the test of fire in the war and proved that it is fully viable.

As we know, the foreign press on more than one occasion asserted that the Soviet social system was a “dangerous experiment” that was doomed to failure . . . [but] now we can say that the war has refuted all these assertions of the foreign press and has proved them to have been groundless. The war proved that the Soviet social system is a genuinely people’s system, which grew up from the ranks of the people and enjoys their powerful| support; that the Soviet social system is fully viable and stable form of organization of society . . .

Now a few words about the Communist Party’s plans of work for the immediate future. As you know, these plans are formulated in the new five-year plan, which is to be adopted in the very near future. The main tasks of the new five-year plan are to rehabilitate the devastated regions of our country, to restore industry and agriculture to the prewar level, and then to exceed that level to a more or less considerable extent. Apart from the fact that the rationing system is to be abolished in the very near future (loud and prolonged applause), special attention will be devoted to the expansion of the production of consumers’ goods, to raising the standard of living of the working people by steadily reducing the prices of all commodities (loud and prolonged applause), and to the extensive organization of scientific research institutes of every kind (applause) capable of giving the fullest scope to our scientific forces. (Loud applause.)

I have no doubt that if we give our scientists proper assistance they will be able in the very near future not only to overtake but even outstrip the achievements of science beyond the borders of our country. (Prolonged applause.)

As regards long-term plans, our Party intends to organize another powerful upswing of our national economy that will enable us to raise our industry to a level, say, three times as high as that of prewar industry. We must see to it that our industry shall be able to produce annually up to 50,000,000 tons of pig iron (prolonged applause ), up to 60,000,000 tons of steel (prolonged applause ), up to 500,000,000 tons of coal (prolonged applause ) and up to 60,000,000 tons of oil (prolonged applause ). Only when we succeed in doing that can we be sure that our Motherland will be insured against all contingencies. (Loud applause.) This will need, perhaps, another three five-year plans, if, not more. But it can be done, and we must do it. (Loud applause) . .

In conclusion, permit me to express my thanks for the confidence which you have shown me (loud and prolonged applause. A voice: “Cheers for the great leader of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “) by nominating me as a candidate for the Supreme Soviet. You need have no doubt that will do my best to justify your confidence. (All rise. Loud and prolonged applause rising to an ovation. Voices in different parts of the hall: “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for the great leader of the peoples!” “Glory to great Stalin!” “Long live Comrade Stalin, the candidate of the entire people!” “Glory to the creator of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was deported to his native Italy where he'd spend the rest of his life, dying in 1962 at age 64.

Luciano in 1948.

Born Salvatore Lucania, the Mafia boss had immigrated to the US in 1906 as a child.

Last edition:

Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1960s, 1961, 1966, China, Crime, Dwight Eisenhower, Food, Homicide, Kim Il Sung, North Korea, Occupation of Korea, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, USSR

Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.

France launched a large-scale campaign to take the island province of Bến Tre Province in the Mekong Delta which was held by the Việt Minh.

President Truman gave a press conference.

The President's News Conference

February 7, 1946

THE PRESIDENT. [1.] I have a most interesting letter which I would like to read to you this morning, from the famous Dean of Canterbury, Mr. Hewlett Johnson. He says:

"My dear Mr. President:"--

This is dated 31st of January, 1946·

--"May I categorically deny a statement, which I understand has appeared in the American press, that I regarded America as 100 years behind in everything save religion and 150 years behind in that." [Laughter] "That statement, which is of course ridiculous, was made in a jocular mood by my predecessor." [More laughter]

"I neither endorsed such a statement, nor do I think it is true.

"I believe and constantly affirm that America leads the world in industrial adventure, activity and achievement. Indeed, I am accused in England of over-enthusiasm for America's achievement.

"I am convinced that we in Europe have rich lessons to learn from America, especially in enterprise and the arts of production.

"I believe also that America may learn in the future from some European experiments in distribution and planned economy.

"I only write because had such a statement really been made by me, it would have shown the most gross ingratitude for the over-abundant kindness I received from you and your countrymen."

If anybody wants a copy of that letter, we will furnish it.

[2.] Now to get down to serious things, I am particularly interested in this food situation.

In most of the wheat-producing countries of the world, outside of the United States and Canada, there has been almost a total crop failure in wheat. Australia's crop is a failure. South Africa had a drought. All Europe suffered from a drought, so far as the wheat situation is concerned. And in the far East, the production of rice in India is from 12 to 15 percent short of the usual crop, and they are always an importing country on that part of their food, and they import from Burma and Siam and Indochina. Those countries' rice crops are, of course, a total failure on account of the fact that they have--were in this war situation, and they also have had adverse weather conditions along with the war situation. The Japanese crop, I am informed, is 15 percent short of normal, and they import usually 15 percent of their rice for food.

It is proposed under this program which we have inaugurated, that we hope to be able to ship 6 million tons of wheat in the first half of 1946. Now, if anybody needs a lesson in arithmetic, that is about 200 million bushels. The measures ordered should make it possible for us to come closer to what we want to do by about 500,000 or a million tons.

Wheat and other food products which we plan to export during the first 6 months of this year will provide 50 million people with a diet of 2,000 calories a day, or 100 million with 1,000 calories a day for a 6 months' period.

Now, some of the people in the devastated countries of Europe are living on much less than 1,500 calories a day. We eat about 3,300 here in the United States. The situation is so serious that we felt it was absolutely essential to take every measure possible to help keep the people in these countries from starving; because in those countries which are our friends and allies, they are not to blame for the situation.

And in enemy countries we can't afford to see our enemies starve, even if they did bring this situation on themselves. We can't do that and live according to our own ideals.

We have asked Canada and Australia, and all the countries which are supposed to have surplus foods, to join us in this program; and I think every one of them will.

If you want a copy of these figures and things, Mr. Ayers will be able to furnish them to you after the conference.

Q. Mr. President, is it possible we may have meat rationing as a--may we have to come to that eventually?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope not. If the packing plants can run at full blast, it will not be necessary. If it becomes necessary, in order to keep 10 or 15 million people from starving to death, I think we ought to do it.

Q. Mr. President, can you throw any light, in that connection on that same story, in your meeting with the Cabinet?

THE PRESIDENT. That is substantially the statement that was issued yesterday as adopted by the Cabinet as a whole.

Q. Mr. President, under the Potsdam Declaration, the rations of the Germans should be no higher than the European average?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right.

Q. Does this worldwide shortage, particularly as it affects Europe, indicate there will have to be a cut in German rations?

THE PRESIDENT. There will probably have to be a cut in the whole European ration. There is a cut in the whole European ration now. That is what we are trying to meet. We are trying our best to meet the thing on as equitable a basis as we possibly can.

Q. But this thousand calories would be less than the Germans are getting. Are we going to feed the enemy better than our allies?

THE PRESIDENT. No, we are not. That is what we are trying to prevent. We are not going to do that. We are going to take care of our allies first. That figure is in Poland and Germany, principally.

Q. I was thinking of Poland, that is what I mean.

THE PRESIDENT. Poland and Germany. But we certainly are not going to treat our allies worse than our enemies, you can be assured of that.

Q. Mr. President, are there any mechanical difficulties in milling the flour?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I don't know enough about the milling business to answer the question.

Q. Mr. President, can you say whether there is any problem of hoarding wheat in other countries at the present time?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not familiar with it, if there is.

Q. Mr. President, in connection with the extraction order, there are some rough spots in the milling industry, and I take it that the objection to that order is to get the wheat and the order--you would not object to the order being workable or flexible, so long as you got the wheat?

THE PRESIDENT. That's the point exactly. And I think we will get their cooperation-I don't think there will be anybody who isn't anxious to keep people from starving to death. It's un-American, I think, to have the idea to let people starve.

Q. Mr. President, when you were discussing this with the experts--with the agricultural people particularly--did they bring up details of this wheat shortage--grain shortage--in certain areas where farmers would be anxious to keep the wheat right with them, and you have to get it out? Is that part of the problem?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I think every phase has been gone into by the agricultural experts.

Q. Any particular answer to that situation ?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't give you an answer to that. We hope that this situation will work out. The reports that have been made indicate that everybody seems to think it answers the purpose.

Q. Mr. President, if there will be no rationing here, are the mechanics such that we will cut down, just not buy so much; that is, the American people--

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. Make contributions, just like they would clothing and everything else. I think they will do that. I think they will be pleased to do that.

Q. Mr. President, who will handle the equitable distribution of these food supplies in the various countries?

THE PRESIDENT. UNRRA will handle most of it.

Q. It will continue under UNRRA?

THE PRESIDENT, Yes.

Q. Mr. President, does this 6 million tons represent an increase in our commitments, or a decrease in our commitments?

THE PRESIDENT. No. There is, I think, a slight decrease in our first commitments. You will have to get those figures categorically from the Secretary of Agriculture, who has been the conferee with our allies in this setup.

Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what estimate you have on wheat saving from the livestock reduction program?

THE PRESIDENT. About--between 25 and 50 million bushels.

Q. Well, do you believe that this saving is justified in the light of the danger of short liquidation of livestock?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think there will be any short liquidation of livestock. Livestock will be slaughtered at a lighter weight than they ordinarily would. And 225-pound hogs will, I think, make just as good eating as 300-pound ones; and I used to raise them.

Q. [Aside] Better.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, about Mr. Pauley. Are you going to withdraw his nomination?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not. I am backing Mr. Pauley. I think Mr. Pauley is an honest man, and I don't think he is the only honest man in Washington or in the oil business.

Q. Have you any comment?

THE PRESIDENT. I think he is a very capable administrator, because he was the Reparations Director up until just recently and did a magnificent job in that, and I have the utmost confidence in him.

Q. Did Secretary Ickes advise you of his testimony before?

THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss it with him.

Q. Do you intend to now?

THE PRESIDENT, No.

Q. Mr. President, did Ed Flynn confide in you yesterday, when he was going to leave your office, that he was going to criticize Mr. Ickes?

THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss Mr. Ickes with Mr. Flynn. He was discussing other matters.

Q. Can you tell us what you were discussing, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. It was political matters in the State of New York. [Laughter]

Q. Mr. President, you don't consider that this situation involves anything at all, any change in your relations with Mr. Ickes?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. Mr. Ickes can very well be mistaken the same as the rest of us.

[4.] Q. Mr. President, how is the price-what is the situation on the wage-price balance?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope to be able to make a complete statement on that in a day or two. I can't do it now.

Q. Will it come today possibly?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so.

Q. Do you anticipate, sir, that that would bring on an early settlement of the steel and other big strikes?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope so.

Q. Mr. President, has the administration made any suggestions on that wage-price formula that may be under consideration by U.S. Steel and Labor in their current sessions?

THE PRESIDENT. I haven't discussed the matter with either one, up to the present time.

Q. I was wondering whether Mr. Snyder may have passed it along for some suggestions for a formula?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. They are working on it. That's what they are working--it will all be worked out.

Q. Is it a materially new wage-price stabilization policy, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. No, it isn't. It's a working out of the situation we are faced with now, and I think it will be worked out in a very satisfactory manner.

Q. Can you say when, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope in the next day or two.

Q. There has been some speculation, Mr. President, that this will be called "the big steel formula"?

THE PRESIDENT [laughing]. I haven't heard that one.

Q. Does that mean it will be temporary, Mr. President, in meeting the present situation?

THE PRESIDENT. Here is the situation that we are trying to meet: We are all aware of the fact that what we need is production. We know that if we get production--mass production--on the basis that we are capable of putting out here in this country, that the situation will adjust itself; and whenever that situation comes about there will be no reason for a wage-price formula, for that will adjust itself.

And that is exactly what we have been working for, ever since V-J Day. That was the reason for the first directive on a wage price formula. It was my hope that we would, as soon as possible, begin working just as hard as we could to create production to meet the demand that has now piled up as a result of the war.

We have had some stumbling blocks. We are trying to meet those stumbling blocks now. The first wage-price formula would have worked, if we had been able to arrive at the production we were hoping we were going to get.

[5.] Q. If the steel and other strikes are not settled, will there still be a Florida trip?

THE PRESIDENT. I am still going to Florida.

Q. [Aside] Good!

THE PRESIDENT. I can still do business by telephone.

[6.] Q. Has the committee from the House Territories Committee reported to you on their investigation of statehood for Hawaii?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right. They recommended

Q. Can you report your views?

THE PRESIDENT. They recommended that Hawaii ought to have statehood.

Q. As you made in your annual Message for immediate statehood?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right. I think they were--they are in favor of that very thing.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT, All right.

NOTE: President Truman's forty-seventh news conference was held in his office at the White House at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 7, 1946.

How nice it must have been to have a President who didn't sound like an idiot every time he spoke.

The India Burma Theater Roundup came out.  It was one of the many service newspapers of the Second World War.

The paper's masthead.

We've had Yank up here from time to time and that service magazine notably had a pinup in ever issue, an unfortunate indication of things to come, even though the pinup was always clothed.  Perhaps because of its distance from the continental US, the Roundup was packed with pinups.  This issue, which I'm not going to fully post, had a bikini clad young woman on every page.  I note that because, for whatever reason, I'd assumed that the bikini had come into being in the 1950s.  Not so, it had clearly arrived by the mid 1940s.

Because we put some newspapers up from the 1940s, well because we do it quite often, we've looked at quite a few and that's been revealing as well  The Rocky Mountain News was very obviously much more of a tabloid than it was later, and it had cheesecake photos in it a fair amount.  However, the other day going through it it had an article entitled "Denver Women Do Not Like Nude Look" featuring a woman wearing a see through blouse.  I don't doubt that Denver women didn't like it, but the fact that it even came up says something about the standards of the time.  Indeed, in looking at the issue for this day in 1946, a bikini clad actress was featured.  In a recent issue, a cartoon that focused on post war life had women a dressing room, naked bare backs to the viewer, in the drawing, with the cartoon page being the one that children favored.

Perhaps related, the Rocky Mountain News had this article for the day:

Hmmm.

In a more serious article:

And the Cold War was heating up.

This article for shoes in the same issue featured a type of shoe that we'd call a Service Shoe, that being an ankle high boot.  That type of boot has been discussed at length here, and is still made by companies like Red Wing and Whites.  They were the boot of the U.S. Army from 1902 until into World War Two, when they were replaced by the M1943 combat boot.  In 1945 some troops would still have had them.

The advertised manufacturer, Roblee, is still around.  They came into existence in 1908.  Roblee had been an Army contractor during World War Two and had made service shoes as well as jump boots.

Indeed both of the shoe designs depicted above would have worked for the Army uniform at the time, which leads us to suspect that these were contract overruns, or perhaps left over after contract terminations.

Related Threads:

Munson Last Boots, or how I became a hipster and didn't even know it. And reflections what hipster affectations mean.

Labels: Agrarianism, Agriculture, Army, Clothing, Commentary, Contra Mudum, Footwear, James Montgomery Flagg, Work

Wednesday, January 23, 1946. Soviet Agent installed by Truman.

Soviet agent Harry Dexter White was appointed by President Truman to be the American representative to the International Monetary fund despite a warning from the FBI that White had passed secret information to the Soviet Union.

He'd later be exposed by Whitaker Chambers.

The Soviets managed to place an impressive number of operatives into the U.S. government during the 1930s and into the 1940s.  This was in part because the Roosevelt Administration simply didn't take the matter seriously, even though its now very clear that there were warnings, probably mostly from the FBI. There's fairly good reason to believe that McCarthy's "lists" of Soviet agents, which later proved to be quite accurate, probably came from the FBI which had grown frustrated with successive administrations ignoring what it was learning.  The Army likewise had a list of Soviet agents that it closely held, in part out of the reasonable fear that it wouldn't be taken seriously and that if too much was revealed, it'd be leaked.

FWIW, there's every reason to believe that the Soviets continued to attempt to penetrate Western governments after the McCarthy era and also inserted sleeper agents into the U.S.  The great American mini series The Americans is based on this widely known effort, as well as the movie Little Nikita. While known, it isn't particularly paid attention to, today.  As has been noted recently, and not without good reason, there are questions as to whether or not Donald Trump may be a Russian asset of the captive type today, which would explain some of his actions.  He's definitely a Russian asset, but it may be because he simply has a weak 19th Century mind.

The USS Brevard rescued 4,296 Japanese civilians from the ship Enoshima Maru as it sank near Shanghai. The event retains the record for being the largest number of civilians rescued at sea.

The nationwide strike wave had spread to packing plants.

The Army was looking for a way to recruit men into the post war service.

Out Our Way had a cartoon about medical advice, which would still be good advice today.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 22, 1946. Central Intelligence Group formed.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1947, actors and actresses, Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Group, Iran, Kurds, Office of Strategic Services, Post War United States (and Canada), USSR, Women

Split Screen, additional labels.

Monday, December 31, 1945. The end of a historical episode and the dawn of a new one.*

Ad from the Sheridan newspaper, December 31, 1945.

December 31, 1945, marked the first peacetime New Years in much of the world, although not all of the world was at peace.

1945 marked the end of what we consider the oddly nostalgically recalled, but undeniably bloody, 1940s.  It's the operation of Yeoman's Eleventh Law of History, which provides:

Yeoman's Eleventh Law of History:  There are decades, but they are not decadal.

In common histories, people often reference the "40s", or the "50s", or the like.

The references are useful, but very imprecise.  Decades, as people recall them, really reflect eras, and the ears themselves do not device up so neatly.

The 1940s, for example, are heavily associated with World War Two.  The Second World War, however, in Asia really broke out in 1937 and in Europe in 1939.  Because the slide of one era into another is not precise, it's hard to say when the 1940s started, but 1938 would be a good place to begin it.  They clearly ended, however, in 1945.

The 1950s, in contrast, the way we remember them, started in 1955, with the end of the Korean War.  The period from 1945 to 1955 is really its own separate decade, and is nearly a forgotten one . It's sort of the Proto 1950s.  The 1950s we recall ended in 1964, at which time the 1960s, as we remember them, commenced.  The 60s lasted until about 1972, when the US was really pulling out of Vietnam, or perhaps to 1973.

And so on.  While this makes sense, as we do not tend to think of things in this fashion, we often miss that the flow of history works in this fashion, rather than in neat ten year groups.

1945 was the end of World War Two, and the beginning of the post war era, and era which we still live in.  It was the penultimate year of the 1940s, and to some degree, the penultimate year of the long 20th Century.¹  It was the year that the Second World War ended  with a massive technological nuclear flash, but it was also the year that featured the bloodiest fighting in a unified war that began as a series of wars in 1937 and 1939.

The end of the Second World War determined, or seemed to determine, questions that had arisen with the end of the Great War in 1918.  World War One had caused the death of the old order in much of Europe, an order that saw aristocracies dominate in varying degrees in many of the European, and indeed international, states.  The strain on the old order was obvious even before World War One, but it remained strong nonetheless.  The Great War killed it.

The death of the old order did not answer the question of what would replace it. Every nation that fought in the war, however, would see immediate political evolution due to the war, with all  of it reflecting forces that had been at work before the war.  In functioning democratic countries with stable governments, that resulted in an expanded franchise.  The UK extended the vote to entire classes that had not had it before the war, allowed Ireland to go independent, more or less, allowed its dominions to be actually independent, and extended the vote to women.  The US extended the vote to women and soon made Native Americans citizens, with new states being admitted to the union prior to the Second World War.  Canada and Australia obtained true political independence.

In countries that had strong aristocracies that opposed democracy, however, radical elements of the far left that had been underground to some degree leaped forward, the prime example being Imperial Russia, which became the Soviet Union.  As forces of the far left advanced, finding a great deal of support in in the formerly disenfranchised working class, forces of the far right appealed to the same base and to conservative aristocratic classes, crushing democratic forces in between, as in Germany, where the Nazis gained power.  In unstable democracies without long histories of democratic behavior, forces of the left and the right contested for total control, as in France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Mexico, with democracy faltering in many to some degree, sometimes totally.

World War Two was not, as some like to claim, a continuation of World War One, but rather a violent sorting out of the democratic, anti democratic, and populist forces it had unleashed.  Starting in the late 1920s it seemed that the question the world was faced with was whether the future was democratic, fascist or communist.  The Second World War determined, at least it seemed, that the world would not be fascist, but left the question of whether it would be communists or democratic undetermined.

Determining the question was bloody on a scale that we can no longer even imagine, although in terms of human history it was not all that long ago.  The expenditure of lives in the war by all contestants was enormous, with the fascist and the communists states freely willing to waste the lives of men, and the democratic ones emphasizing technology where they could.  All the combatants, however, acclimated themselves to conduct that at least the democratic ones would not have tolerated prior to the war, with mass bombing of urban targets being the most notable.  By 1945 the US, arguably the most moralistic of the combatants, was willing to engage in fire bombing and ultimately the atomic bomb to bring the war to a conclusion.

Truman as Time's Man of the Year, posted under fair use exception.

The significance of the atomic age, contrary to the way things are currently remembered, was appreciated immediately.  Truman was Time magazine's Man of the Year, pictured in front of a fist grasping nuclear firebolts.  Newspapers, even by late 1945, were pondering what atomic warfare would mean.

The war not only determined that fascism would not be the future of Europe, or Asia, but it it changed everything about everything, and much of that not for the good.

We've argued it here before, but the Second World War created the modern United States, and more than that, modern American culture, in both good, and bad, ways.

Tire rationing came to an end on this day in 1945.

The most oblivious, at first was the change to the economy, which was little understood.  Pent up consumer demand dating back to the start of the Great Depression  meant that the country did not slide back into the depression as nearly all Western economist had feared.  Adding to this, however, was the fact that none of the European industrial powers, along with Japan, had not suffered some level of industrial destruction. The U.S.'s industrial base was not only left intact, it had expanded.  Only Canada could claim to enjoy the same situation, although its economy was much smaller.  American workers took advantage of the situation nearly immediately with a wave of strikes demanding higher wages, strikes that were in fact largely successful.  The economic golden age that current Republican populists imagine to have existed in the past reached its most pronounced form in the 1950s which is still looked back upon fondly, if inaccurately, in the same way that singer Billy Joel imagined it to have been in his lamet Allentown

Well our fathers fought the Second World War

Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore

Met our mothers in the USO

Asked them to dance

Danced with them slow

And we're living here in Allentown

The obliteration of European industry created the illusion of some sort of American economic uniqueness that remains to this day and which the country is presently attempting to sort out by restoring it, which will not and cannot work.  Part of that also involves an imagined domestic perfection that doesn't' reflect what was going on in reality either.

Prior to the Second World War the domestic culture of the United States was different in nearly every fashion.  Even the horrors of World War One had not changes that.  Most Americans lived closer to the poverty line than they do today, even if most Americans lived in families.  Most Americans did not attend college or university, and most men didn't graduate from high school.  There was a minimum of surplus wealth on the part of the average, although that had started to change by imd 1920s, only to be retarded by the Great Depression.  Most people did not move far from home.  Most men and women married people who grew up near them and were part of the same class and religion, although a surprisingly large lifelong bachelor class existed, particularly in certain occupations.

The war changed nearly all of that, and even during the war itself.

The first peacetime Federal draft in the nation's history took thousands of young men away from their homes starting in 1940 and 41, and of course became the major wartime draft that continued on until after the war, and with some hiatus, basically until 1973.  The country would not have tolerated a peacetime draft prior to 1940, and barely did in 1940 and 1941.  The country's views on the military, which prior to the war was sort of a type of disdain but acceptance of it as necessary, as long as it was small, completely changed during the war so that by the war's end the concept of a large peacetime military was fully accepted, and even admired, although that would be disrupted again due to the Vietnam War for a time.  

Prior to the war, soldiering was, for enlisted men and junior officers, a bachelor occupation with servicemen largely looked down upon as lazy. The enlisted ranks often contained large numbers of immigrants, although that is still true.  After the war, the view of servicemen, many of whom for decades were conscripts on relatively short enlistments changed radically.

The expectation of marriage changed as well, even at a time that wartime marriages came into periods of great stress.  Prior to the war a fair number of blue collar workers and nearly all non owner agricultural workers were lifelong bachelors.

Cowboys Out Our Way from December 31, 1945.  The two working hands are discussing "Sugar", their former ranch cook, who just married a rich widow, and Stiffy, the oldest cowhand on the ranch.

This ended after the war for a variety of reasons, one simple one being that entire classes of men who had never really lived any other life now had seen at least much of the country, and some large sections of the globe.  Men who had planned on a life of working on the farm or ranch and living in a bunkhouse no longer found that appealing and no longer believed they had to do that.  For those who returned to their states of origin, and huge number of them did not, this often meant taking up a job in towns and cities, rather than in fields.  Quite a few used the GI Bill to advance an education that benefited them at a time in which a university education guaranteed a white collar job.  Regions that had large reservations found that many returning Native American veterans chose to live in towns and cities near the reservations they were from, rather than on them where living conditions remained comparatively primitive.  Lots of men married who would not have otherwise.  The average marriage age notably dropped for the first time in decades and remained depressed in the 1950s.

Lots of couples got divorced in fairly quick order as well.

This was because of a "marry in haste" situation that had broken out during the war.  Couples who figured that the male's chances of surviving the great blood letting were fairly slim and were willing to accordingly gamble, where as previously they would not have been.  Moreover, many of the couples that married were of different backgrounds and different regions of the country, and not the literal "girl next door" so often portrayed.  A really good portrayal of the this sort of situation was given in the brilliant 1946 film The Best Years of Their Lives, which gave a dramatic, but fairly accurate, examination of the domestic situation of the post war years.  Of note, 1946 also gave the country It's a Wonderful Life, which really portrayed the prewar, not the wartime or postwar, domestic ideal.

The amazing film The Best Years of Our Lives which captured the immediate impact of World War Two on Americans.

It's a Wonderful Life, also released in 1946, but which really portrayed the nature of American life from the 1910s until the late 1930s, although it was set in 1946.  It's gone on to be a sentimental Christmas classic.

One of the things The Best Years of Their Lives examined was divorce, which had been disdained, with good reason, prior to the war.  Now it was becoming rapidly accepted, which was a major evolution in American domestic culture, and not a good one.  And of course it wasn't just this.  Divorce became common post war in a way that it never had been before, and the concept of divorce without fault was introduced.  First introduced by a modern nation in 1917 in Russia, and codified by the Communist in 1926, it was introduced into the United States in California in 1969 where it was signed into law by the divorced (1949) and remarried (1952) Governor Ronald Reagan.

Final scene in The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.  It's emblematic that the film concludes with a recently divorced central character proposing, over the objection of her father, to a young woman who had vowed to break up that characters marriage (she doesn't).

The Best Years of Their Lives also depicts fairly heavy drinking, and not in an accepting fashion, but in a relatively realistic one .That was also something that the war really brought in.  Returning veterans were often very broken men, and alcohol abuse was an enduring feature of their lives, along with chronic cigarette smoking.  This bled over into the culture in general and an increased acceptance of heavy alcohol use became common, and indeed is something often featured in post war films in a routine fashion.  Men who had endured killing on a mass scale often never really adjusted back to a normal life, and resorted to the bottle in varying degrees.

At least by my observation, some of these men became downright mean.  We hate to say that about "The Greatest Generation", but it's an enduring theme of the recollections of many of their children.  Alcoholic fathers who were extremely demanding on their male children seems to have been routine.  Again, by my observation, many of the same children, who went on to rebel during the 1960s, returned to their childhood roots and became mean demanding fathers to their own children, making World War Two the domestic abuse gift that keeps on giving.

While certainly most returning veterans did not become mean, or abusive, it has to be noted that the Second World War started the country off on a destruction of the natural relationship between men and women we're also still dealing with.

Not since the American Civil War had so many young men been taken away from their homes and never in the country's history had so many young men been kept in the company of young men overseas.  War involves the ultimate vice, the killing of other human beings, and all other vices naturally come along with it, in varying degrees by personality, and by military culture.

All wars involve the abuse of women, the most spectacular example during the Second World War being the mass rapes, often accompanied by murder of the victims, by the Red Army late in the Second World War.  There are some examples by Western armies as well, but they are much smaller in scale.  Also notable, however, was the largescale outbreak of prostitution in Europe, some of which was conducted nearly publicly in places that would never have tolerated it before the war.  Economic desperation caused much of it in some areas, which included underaged European women prostituting themselves in some instances and the military simply accepting it.² 

Bill Mauldin in 1945.  The diminutive Mauldin appeared a little younger than he actually was, being 24 years old at the time of this photograph.  Indeed, Mauldin strongly resembled, oddly enough, Rockwell's Will Gillis depiction of an average GI.  Mauldin's appearance contributed to a public view of the cartoonist that fit very much in with the public's image of "fresh faced American boys" in general, but he'd already lived a hard life by the time he entered the service.  She son of New Mexican farmer/ranchers who were partially native American, Mauldin's early life had been somewhat chaotic and his teenage years were more so, being somewhat on his own by that time and living a somewhat odd life by the time he was in high school.  While Mauldin is associated with the typical GI, his status as a member of the staff of two separate Army newspapers lead to an atypical existence including have a teenage Italian mistress when he was in Italy.  In some ways Mauldin reflects the best and the worst of Army life in his cartoons and for that matter in actual service life.

Even where not completely sordid, plenty of misconduct occurred in all of the ranks.  This is depicted in the recent series Master of the Air with at least one of the affairs depicted actually having occurred.  In fictional form, it's portrayed in 1956's The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit.

The Man In the Gray Flannel Suit from 1956, but which starts off in World War Two and the moral failings in combat of the central character, including the violation of his marital vows.

This was bound to have some impact on the wider culture, and we've argued that it lead to the wider acceptance of the objectification of women.  Indeed, thousands of men became acclimated to the centerfolds in Yank during the war, making the introduction of Playboy in 1953 not all that much of the big leap as its claimed to be.

First issue of Yank's pinup girl.

Donna Reed as a Yank centerfold.  Reed was well known actress by this time, and is perhaps best known for her role in The Best Years Of Our Lives.  Her actual last name was Mullenger but as she started acting during World War Two, her studio changed it to Reed over her objection.  She became a peace activist during the Vietnam War.

Actress Susan Hayward as a Yank centerfold.

Playboy often gets credit for firing the open shots of the disastrous Sexual Revolution, but it can be argued that Yank did.  At any rate, by the wars end, millions of men had served in places were morality of all types was at a low ebb, and had ogled the girls in Yank, and perhaps painted topless or nude figures on government aircraft.  That this would have some effect, particularly later when bogus sex studies were released as scientific texts, isn't too surprising. The major erosion of the natural order between men and women that came into full fruition after the late 1960s had some roots that went at least as far back as the 1910s, but World War Two gave it a major boost.

The war also gave a major boost to automobiles.

Prior to the war, and during it, the US relied on rail transportation. But new types of automobiles, notably 4x4s, were introduced during the war, and cars overall simply improved.  By 1950 it was clear that road building and automobiles had become a major American obsession, spawned in part by the heavy road use, in spite of automobiles, that occurred during the war.  4x4s, which were strictly an industrial vehicle, were introduced into civilian use shortly after the war, with pickup truck variants ending the need for ranches to have cowboys in the high country during the winter, and allowing any part of the country to be accessed to some degree by sportsmen or agriculturalist year around.

1947 Sheridan newspaper advertisement for what was probably a surplus Dodge WC.

Reliance on equine transportation, in contrast, started to decline markedly.  

December 31, 1945 brought the news that Hirohito had renounced claims to divinity, with the nature of the Japanese monarchical claim on that point never understood by Westerners in the first place.  He did not ever claim to have been a god, and it was soon learned that the majority of the Japanese had never believed in the imperial family's claim to a unique divine status in the first place.

The war ended, seemingly for good, Japanese militarism.  It also seems to have ended German militarism as well, something assisted by the fact that the Soviets ended up with Prussia, it's source.

The war, of course, also advanced the frontiers of Soviet domination beyond its 1940 status, something the Soviets had been working on since 1917.  This would prove to be temporary, as would the Soviet Union itself, but that could not be foreseen in 1945.  A world that had worried about whether fascism, communism, or democracy would prevail, now worried over whether communism or democracy would be the ultimate victors.

In China, where on this day an unsuccessful treaty between the Nationalist and the Communists would be signed, a contest more resembling the pre World War Two one was going on, revived from its 1927 start and temporary hiatus during the Second World War.

1945 was a fateful year.  For Americans it started with American troops fighting the Germans in Bulge in Operation Wachts am Rhein and in Alsatia in Operation Nordwind.  For the Soviets, January 1945 would be the bloodiest month of the war, as it would be for the Germans.  For the Japanese, it marked pitched resistance to Allied advances everywhere, and a desperate effort to advance in China.  It all came to an end in August, 1945, and by December 31, 1945, the world was trying to sort out where it was going.  Much of it could be anticipated, but much could not be.

Some additional items:

Today in World War II History—December 31, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 31, 1945: US National War Labor Board is disbanded. US ends tire rationing. British Home Guard is officially disbanded.

The prewar world was gone forever.  Sorting that out is still going on.

Related threads:

Father Arne and the Greatest Failure of the Greatest Generation

Baby Boom Generation, Great Migration, It was because of World War Two, mehr Mensch sein, trends, World War II (Greatest) Generation, World War Two, Yeoman's Fourth Law of History

Footnotes:

*I had typed out a very long and detailed look at the 1940s, and 1945, for the December 31, 1945 entry, before some computer glitch entirely wiped it out.  It's completely gone.

I may try to reconstruct it a bit, but the fact that I started working on it some time ago is a deterrent to that. And even if I do, a reconstructed post is never as good as the original.

1.  Like decades, centuries don't really track the calendar precisely either.  The 20th Century arguably began around 1898 or so, and continued on, perhaps, to 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

2.  An interesting sympathetic depiction of a woman engaging in prostitution due to economic desperation in found in the 1946 Italian film Paisa'.

Last edition:  

Saturday, December 29, 1945. Korean protests on US decision.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1948, Adolf Hitler, Army, Cartoons, Eva Braun, It was because of World War Two, J.R. Williams, Korea, Occupation of Korea, Operation Blacklist Forty, U.S. Coast Guard

Monday, December 31, 1945. The end of a historical episode and the dawn of a new one, additional labels.

Monday, December 31, 1945. The end of a historical episode and the dawn of a new one, additional labels, part two.