Copyright © 2023
By Ralph F. Couey
Almost 90 years ago, the United States was beginning to crawl out of the depths of the Great Depression. The recovery had begun as early as 1933, but the economy suffered another severe downturn in 1937-38, but by mid-1938, growth became rapid. It would take World War II to complete the recovery. The grinding misery of that decade was the worst economic crisis of this country's history. That it coincided with the onset of the Dust Bowl, and the accompanying collapse of the farm economy in the prairie and plains states served to deepen the crisis.
Internationally, while the United States wallowed in misery, two nations, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan embarked on mutual paths towards global dominance. It seems, in retrospect, unfair that just at the point when Americans could finally draw a breath, yet another crisis loomed. Politically, the nation was deeply divided. The experience of the first World War left a sour tasted in the mouths of many. We had been dragged into a stalemated war through alliances with European governments. Many Americans were fed up with taking part in the squabbles of old countries. The word "isolationist" was coined to describe this frustration. If, they felt, America could ignore the rest of the world, then we would no longer have to send young men to fight in wars that had little to do with us. This division made its way to Washington, where the Senate and House fought endless rhetorical battles either for or against arming our friends, and strengthening the forces that would defend us. In 1935, there were only 119,000 soldiers in the Army. That is less than the number of the Blue and Grey who faced each other at Gettysburg. By 1938, however, the threat from Germany and Japan was clear, and looming was the prospect of fighting two major wars simultaneously. Even after those numbers boomed to over 8 million by 1942, there was still a strong feeling of vulnerability in those early months of the War.
In the years since, the world has endured its times of crises. War, in scattered places across the globe, has been pretty much continuous. But the big, world-circling conflict has not occurred. There were moments when things were close, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and two computer glitches, one by the U.S., and one by the Soviets in 1979 and 1983. But the very fragile humans who were involved managed to not push the proverbial button.
A little over a year ago, Vladimir Putin sent Russian combat forces into Ukraine. Putin's claim of the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine was and remains laughable. The world was initially horrified, then surprised that the cream of Russian soldiery did not run roughshod over their opponents. It's fair to say that as the situation stands today, Ukraine has not only successfully protected most of its territory, but also fought the mighty Russian army to a standstill. Now Putin has other problems. Many men and women of military age have fled the country. Large numbers of Russian soldiers have either defected or surrendered. The international community has not looked with approval on Putin's aggressive actions, and the mood among the Russian citizenry is not at all enthusiastic.
