If you thought there was less second-guessing about our occupation of Europe after World War II than there is now about Iraq, you'd be wrong. A few weeks ago, an Internet site dug up a 1946 Life magazine cover story written by John Dos Pasos (search). It was titled, "Americans are losing the victory in Europe," and the piece is filled with quotes from disgruntled GIs, saying things like "We've lost the peace," and, "We can't make it stick."
The author also worries about how we are alienating the world with our occupation: "Never has American prestige in Europe been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdyism of American troops, of our misunderstanding of European conditions."
Another Internet site has found a 1946 edition of the Saturday Evening Post that featured a similar cover story. In a piece entitled, "How We Botched the German Occupation," the author argues that our mission was never well defined: "We have got into this German job without understanding what we were tackling or why."
Occupation, it turns out, is never very popular. You can read it all on Instapundit.com.
And that's the Asman Observer.
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