History Is Everything That Has Ever Happened.

World War Ii, The Atomic Bomb, The Cold War, Made It Hard For Americans To Continue Their Optimism.

When Hitler Declared War On The United States, He Was Betting That German Soldiers, Raised Up In The Hitler Youth, Would Always Out Fight American Soldiers, Brought Up In The Boy Scouts. He Lost That Bet. The Boy Scouts Had Been Taught How To Figure Their Way Out Of Their Own Problems.

In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries You Have These Great Nation States Hurling Their Young Men At One Another. The Victory Was Really Going To Rest On Who Could Do The Best Job Of Bringing Up Their Kids To Become Efficient And Effective Soldiers. That's Pretty Grandiose, I Guess, But I Do Think That, And Thank God It's Been The Armies Of Democracy That Have Emerged From This As The Triumphant Armies.

I Was Taught By Professors Who Had Done Their Schooling In The 1930s. Most Of Them Were Scornful Of, Even Hated, Big Business.

In 1945, There Were More People Killed, More Buildings Destroyed, More High Explosives Set Off, More Fires Burning Than Before Or Since.