"a bunch of radicals in Washington"& Best Years of Our Lives

[Felix C]

You folks remember that scene in the film from 1946. I realize it is a film but how prevalent was this notion of the American public being duped into war? I find the film rings true on many levels in terms of mirroring actual U.S. society of the era but find the scene alluded to above a bit strange. It is something more fitting for the later Red hunts synonymous with McCarthy.

[Carl Schwamberger]

I dont have percentatges or other forms of hard numbers. Post 1945 there were at least to 'anti war' school, probablly more. One were the anti Roosevelt folks, for whom everything associated with the president or Democratic party was bad. The post war Pearl Harbor Conspiricy theorists are often time from this group. A second group would be those who followed one of the anti war lines post 1918. That is the war was created by & US participation forced by the rich and powerfull who benefitted or hoped to benefit from it. These people are much vatied in who the "Rich and Powerfull" were. Bankers, Jewish bankers, Industrialists, Merchants of Death, Capitolists, Jews, Communists, Socialists, Politicians. My older uncles and aunts on my mothers side of the family were suspicious of the "English", which derived from their Irish ancestory.

The converse is there were many people who blamed the nazis, Japanese, Facists, Germans, or humanity in general.