Stricken with patriotism and fueled by a deep hatred of Adolf Hitler, approximately 16.1 million Americans served in World War II. While much is said about this “Greatest Generation’s” courage and heroism, much less is said about the massive and far-reaching impact that these veterans had on both the societal and cultural landscape of the United States.
Perhaps the best way to look at these veteran’s impact on culture is by studying their own unique culture. Crotty & Edele’s Total War and Entitlement: Towards a Global History of Veteran Privilege does just that, identifying and explaining one of the most important aspects of veteran culture. While the essay focuses specifically on Australian and Soviet veterans, the nature of veterans’ unique shared experiences makes this study relevant to American culture. In this essay, Crotty & Edele postulate that the intense experience of being a veteran – especially a veteran who has seen conflict – forges an extremely tight bond between members of the military. This closeness translates to a sense of benefit entitlement upon return from deployment, which veterans used to “exempt them from demands for further sacrifice in the national good; it was the turn of other (implicitly lesser) citizens to bear the brunt of hardship” (Cost of War).
Crotty & Edele point out that this sense of entitlement was a driving force in post-WWII politics, framing our current globo-societal perspective of veterans. Especially considering the post-traumatic stress epidemic that plagues veterans (discussed in Jarvis’ If He Comes Home Nervous), it is clear that veterans in America – and the entire world – made sacrifices to their state that thus entitled them to extra benefits from the state. Depending on the circumstances, these benefits could be extremely beneficial or completely non-existent. Regardless, the veterans ARE entitled. They do deserve the benefits that they fight to receive.
The political cartoon is really thought-provoking. We think of the end of war as the end of suffering. Veterans return home and we have this image of confetti flying, parade floats driving by, and families embracing in the street but the veterans still had many issues to face in the years to come. The most burdensome one was medical issues either physical and mental and the cartoon does a really good job of showing that.
I think that your picture goes with your article well because in many cases soldiers battling post traumatic stress and problem when arriving back home is true. Just because the fighting stops does not mean the war is over for many soldiers returning home. The United States has gotten a lot better since World War II in regards to helping soldiers return to living normal lives when they come back home.