Soldiers returning home at the Belarusian Railway Station in Moscow
Today, Americans have the utmost respect for veterans that fought abroad for our country’s freedom and many of us believe they deserve special treatment for their service. But this unfortunately was not the case for many decades, across many wars, across the globe. The treatment of veterans and veterans’ expectations when returning home, as pointed out by Australian historians Martin Crotty and Mark Edele in their article “Total War and Entitlement: Towards a Global History of Veteran Privilege” is similar across the globe, regardless of factors like the home country’s government system. Their article was particularly interesting because it compared and contrasted the veteran’s experience in two totally different countries: Australia and the USSR. “If veterans were just a product of postwar societies, or even of elites constructing and exploiting them for dubious ends, why, one may ask, did demobilized soldiers everywhere attempt to organize and try to claim a special status? Why do the discourses, demands, and language show such striking similarity in countries like Australia and the Soviet Union, places and cultures which could hardly be more different?” (Crotty & Edele, 31). Exploring the idea of the “global veteran” puts this large group of people in a different light. In the United States, we are used to winning wars, but obviously this is not the case everywhere. Veterans felt entitled to special treatment and government attention because they felt as if they’re all fighting, physically fighting, for something. People don’t just choose to join the military for no reason (if they even have a choice); they feel compelled by their country to go out and help. The war experienced shaped their lives, regardless of the country they’re fighting for. They’re looking to either maintain the homefront or better the lives of the people they live around. Just as a worker expects to get paid for the hours the put in at the factory, the veteran expects special treatment for their service.
Unfortunately though, governments are not endless fonts of money. Obviously, help should be given to veterans to get back on their feet, but veterans are not the only citizens in need. Governments have the terrible responsibility of choosing what group receives more money- veterans or the elderly? Disabled persons or veterans? But it isn’t always just about money for veterans; as Christina Jarvis discussed in her article ““If He Comes Home Nervous”: U.S. World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Postwar Masculinities” an overwhelming amount of American Veterans returned from WWII physically healthy, but mentally destroyed. There is no amount of money that can take away the pain of seeing your fellow soldiers killed, or having insomnia or night terrors. What veterans need from society, Jarvis says, is a rebuilding of their masculinization and services to get them back into a healthy state of mind and a productive citizen of the country. When these issues were first being realized across the board, there was still media censorship regarding those veterans (Jarvis, 101). Slowly but surely though, this group of veterans was remasculinized to both themselves and the public. What I find most interesting though, is the process of figuring out that their masculinity was broken by having mental health issues due to the war, and that the American idea of a “man” was so fragile. (Jarvis, 112).
I really liked your post and I think it’s interesting how you talked about a collective experience. Despite all the different circumstances, such as whether or not their side was victorious and the type of government they were returning to, all soldiers equally experienced the horrors of the war and wanted compensation. I think it was interesting how you related this to the mental illness article as well, again linking the common veteran experience across factors.
I really enjoyed how you shifted perspective to the “global veteran.” I myself usually picture American soldiers when I hear the word “veteran,” but like you said in your article, not all countries are used to winning wars. This is a good point and has changed my outlook when it comes the word “veteran.” Were other countries more efficient or less efficient at helping their veterans than the United States?