Innocence is the Loser in the Game of War

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.Reconstruction is the theme of this weeks blog and I decided to start with a poem, written by an American writer Randall Jarrell. The poem titled, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” was published in 1945, the final year of World War II. The poem is meant to be metaphorical, describing how young soldiers fall prey to the call of duty. In the last line, “when I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose” highlights a theme that  the government views these soldiers lives as expendable willing to put them in harms way for the sake of a victory.  Overall the poem invokes a kind of innocence, like that of a baby and through the horrors of war that innocence becomes lost. What was reconstruction?  Was it the Marshall Plan,  the state creation of Israel, or was it rehoming millions of displaced persons? What it defiantly revealed was Americas emergence as a powerhouse. America achieved this goal, with use of the Marshall plan, America aimed its focus at “building a self sustaining industrialized Europe, one that thrived by intra-regional trade yet was firmly inserted into the America-dominated world economy.” By inserting itself into the creation of Israel, President Truman would create a seemingly unbreakable bond with the Jewish State. Truman quotes in a speech October 28, 1948., “It is my responsibility to see that our policy in Israel fits in with our policy throughout the world; second, it is my desire to help build in Palestine a strong, prosperous, free and independent democratic state. It must be large enough, free enough, and strong enough to make its people self-supporting and secure.” Fear of Soviet Communism lingered in the air and it was up to America to ensure democracy had its victory lap.  Americas attempted act of humanitarianism came in the form of the Displaced Persons Act. Though the legislation was designed to resettle thousands of European refugees, it only granted visas to those who had entered refugee camps before December 1945. Ultimately many jewish refugees suffered by this stipulation with only  50,000 from a quarter million were issued visas. Additionally, only those who were vetted as anti-communist were issued visas which made soviet occupied states citizens discriminated against. It has been noted that President Truman, who signed the act, recognized its xenophobic and anti-Semitic biases. He quoted in a 1948 speech, “the bad points of the bill are numerous.” “Together they form a pattern of discrimination and intolerance wholly inconsistent with the American sense of justice.” Reconstruction was far from perfect, it took grit and many hard decisions, it is clear from Trumans quotes that his job forced his signature even though he did not agree completely with the legislation.  I can only assume that a bit of innocence was lost in everyone after the war.