Some things no different 80 years later
I glanced at U.S. Independence Day celebrations at Mount Rushmore at the weekend, and began thinking about how things have changed since the magnificent monument was formally opened in 1941.
The population of the U.S. was about 40% of what it is today, and the world population was about 33% of today’s total. Hitler declared war on Europe in 1939 when the U.S. had a total of about 180,000 in its regular army, which was smaller than Portugal’s.
American soldiers still practised in uniforms and tin helmets from the First World War. Neither political party had appetite to join the war in Europe, they were content with president John Quincy Adams’ dictum from 120 years before: “America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy; she is a champion and vindicator only of her own.”
However, just before re-election in 1940 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) bolstered Britain’s faltering fortunes by signing a Land/Lease Agreement for 50 outof-date US warships to go to U.K.
By the next year, the U.S. war effort was in full swing with factories converted to build ships, planes, tanks and guns.
There were armaments for themselves and surplus for the U.K. on more lease agreements, and by the time they entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the U.S. was a world-class fighting machine.
Earlier that year, FDR met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Newfoundland, where besides pledges for more war supplies, foundations were laid for the post-war world.
So much has changed in eight decades, and yet much remains the same. History seems to be repeating itself, as witnessed by Black Lives Matter protests. Forty-seven U.S. cities had race riots in 1943 following a movement of AfricanAmericans from southern states to work in northern industrial centres.
Today, there is still hatred expressed on all sides. Maybe more people should take heed of what Austrian-born philosopher Karl Popper wrote at the end of the Second World War: “In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance."
That’s a good starting point, especially with U.S. having changed from the non-intervention stance of 80 years ago to now boasting the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.