LIFE Magazine January 7, 1946

Gonz

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
Deja vu.

It looks like, when the chips are down & the outlook the bleakest, we can, as has been repeatedly pointed out, look to history to see it's all been done & said before.

Americans Are Losing the Victory in Europe


The troops returning home are worried. “We’ve lost the peace,” men tell you. “We can’t make it stick.”

A tour of the beaten-up cities of Europe six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone. Europeans. Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. They cite the evolution of the word “liberation.” Before the Normandy landings it meant to be freed from the tyranny of the Nazis. Now it stands in the minds of the civilians for one thing, looting.

You try to explain to these Europeans that they expected too much. They answer that they had a right to, that after the last war America was the hope of the world. They talk about the Hoover relief, the work of the Quakers, the speeches of Woodrow Wilson. They don’t blame us for the fading of that hope. But they blame us now.

Never has American prestige in Europe been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdy-ism of American troops, of out misunderstanding of European conditions. They say that the theft and sale of Army supplies by our troops is the basis of their black market. They blame us for the corruption and disorganization of UNRRA. They blame us for the fumbling timidity of our negotiations with the Soviet Union. They tell us that our mechanical de-nazification policy in Germany is producing results opposite to those we planned. “Have you no statesmen in America?” they ask.
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Source

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This is not the quietest of corners. Someting of this magnitude ought to elicit some response. Not looking for anything specifically...just surprised at the silence.
 
To the victor go the spoils. Most readers forget that an army is composed of people...individuals who fought hard to free a world. Once the world was free...a little partying was needed. Some went a bit too far... c'est la geurre, c'est la vie
 
Gonz said:
This is not the quietest of corners. Someting of this magnitude ought to elicit some response. Not looking for anything specifically...just surprised at the silence.
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The whole board was relatively quiet this weekend. This post didn't really scream out "Reply to me!"...seemed more like a historical text...like a "Read me and learn something" as opposed to something that should be argued over.

Happens to the best of us...good luck with your next inflamatory thread :D
 
Well fact is most Europeans still dislike America, Americans and the like, so what's your point?

You can't compare Iraq to Europe for many reasons. Firstly Iraq is a country of have nots and have nots always distust dislike and are jealous of the "haves". Secondly Iraq is Islamic and their interpretation of Islam makes the United States the axis of evil (in their minds).

So you can try and compare Iraq and World War Two as much as you like and the only people you will fool are fools.
 
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