***** Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 01:48:35 -0500 (EST) From: mondokovo at AOL.COM Subject: [SLDRTY-L]: The "Go Home" Movement After WWII To: sldrty-l at igc.topica.com Reply-to: sldrty-l at igc.topica.com X-Topica-Id: <1048661321.inmta006.26623.1189825> List-Help: <http://igc.topica.com/lists/sldrty-l/>
Hi All: The draftee army of World War Two, once the German Army and the Imperial Forces of Japan surrendered, were ready to go home and resume their civilian lives. The U.S. War Department (as it was then correctly named) however wanted to use the GIs still in uniform in Europe and in Asia to break with the allied Soviet Union and start at once what later became known as the Cold War. But the GIs would have none of it. Large demonstrations of GIs took place in Paris and German cities where U.S. were stationed, as well in the Far East, forcing President Truman to institute a point system by which the entire draftee army of World War was quickly demobilized. This "Go Home" movement was organized by the troops (GIs in the parlance of the times) or more precisely by the non-coms of the veteran outfits and had nothing to do with any anti-war movement in the U.S. which in any case did not exist. I can speak with authority on this matter since I was a leading participant in it in Europe and spent many hours with Fred Halstead exchanging information about his similar experiences in the U.S. navy in the Far East. Thus the slogan "Support the troops, bring them home" did not originate in the immediate post WWII period: "(We) Go Home" was the slogan of the GIs themselves. Ed Kovacs *****
Two separate observations:
(1) I hope some left-wing artist will make a film or video documentary about the "Go Home" Movement after WWII.
(2) It made some sense for US leftists to add "Support the Troops" to the slogan "Bring the Troops Home" before the current war on Iraq began. It doesn't now. It will again make sense for US leftists to add "Support the Troops" to the slogan "Bring the Troops Home Now" if and when the US troops in Iraq and elsewhere begin to collectively make a demand that they be sent home. -- Yoshie
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