Studs Terkel 4: The Good War

The interview I read was with Bob Ragmus, a rifleman during WWII.  He said that he remembers the war very well and that people that weren't there can not relate.  This made me think of how gruesome war is and was for soldiers.  Back home terms like "jap" and "nazi" were used everyday.  I feel that this connects to how people use derogatory words today such as the r-word or gay.  Overseas, many soldiers were young and "some lost their innocence."  The war changed them because in order to survive they had to mature and be strong.  The army was also a mixing pot similar to America.  Men from each part of the country came together to fight as one.  For the civil rights movement, I think that this was a big step that brought different races even closer together.  The role of people on the home front changed too.  Blacks had more factory jobs and women did more hands on work.  WWII on the home front was a turning point in American history because it was the start of a culture that still holds to this day.  The racial barrier is broken and women obtain more new jobs every single year that used to be only masculine jobs.  After the war life prospered and all of the soldiers came home.  Bob said that the "GI Bill was a blessing."  I'm glad they did this because being part of the army was a job and these men needed to support there families.  It also showed that the government had learned after WWI when the soldiers marched to D.C. for money.  Bob also was in Vietnam and remembers "every hour and every minute of the 42 days." He said that WWII was a lot different than Vietnam.  I feel that the problem the U.S. had in Vietnam is that they had the wrong strategy.  It was a different war than WWII and couldn't be fought the same way.  The VC laid a lot of booby traps and waited for the U.S. to come to them.  If the U.S. had adapted then maybe the war could have been won.  Overall, Ragmus teaches us that wars have a large effect on a nation and especially its citizens.