This entry is a subentry of Veterans.
Over 16 million American men and women served in World War II, and their return home had a profound impact on them and on society. The sudden end of the war in September 1945 complicated demobilization. A shortage of transports as well as the need to maintain occupation forces in Japan and Germany meant long delays in bringing some troops home, especially from the Pacific theater. G.I.s staged demonstrations in Manila, Calcutta, Paris, and several other cities, demanding an immediate return. They were supported by their families. As portrayed in films like The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), once they returned to the United States, they sought in various ways to resume their civilian lives and put the war behind them.
Despite the fears expressed by some social commentators about the destructive influences of war on combatants, the reintegration of veterans into American society produced neither economic upheaval nor a dangerous new class of men unable to accept the norms of civilian life. Returning G.I.s and their families faced a severe shortage of housing; consumer goods also remained in short supply in 1946 and 1947. The generous adjustment allowances provided by the G.I. Bill smoothed the transition of many ex‐servicemen and ‐women into civilian life. Military service did take a significant emotional toll on a number of former servicepeople, especially those who had been in combat. There were also many disabled veterans. But the majority of veterans returned successfully to a society that vindicated their efforts on behalf of the “Good War.” In turn, many returning veterans expressed the strong desire to “get on with their lives,” and after V‐J Day both marriage and birth rates soared as scores of former servicepeople started families.
As a political force, the impact of the World War II veterans on American politics remained important, if often elusive. Their numbers as a potential voting bloc helped explain why politicians showered such an array of benefits, including property tax breaks, educational benefits, and preferences of public employment. Every U.S. president from 1953 to 1992 had served in World War II, and veterans of this conflict also made up a significant portion of both houses of Congress in the period.
The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Disabled American Veterans attracted a significant share of eligible former servicemen and women. Efforts on the part of some liberal left veterans to create a new mass‐based veterans' organization, the American Veterans Committee (AVC), failed. Tarred by critics for being a Communist front organization, the AVC won the allegiance of only a small fraction of veterans. Even after the “Good War,” the majority of veterans never joined any established veterans' organization. Furthermore, in contrast to veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and later the Vietnam War, the World War II veterans expressed little interest in sponsoring or lobbying for either local or national monuments marking their service, at least until the fiftieth anniversary of the war in the 1990s, when many of its veterans were already passing from the scene.
[See also Memorials, War; World War II: Postwar Impact.]
Bibliography
- Davis R. B. Ross, Preparing for Ulysses: Politics and Veterans During World War II, 1969.
- Richard Severo and Lewis Milford, The Wages of War: When America's Soldiers Came Home—From Valley Forge to Vietnam, 1989
