The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters From the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

305 Pages·2006·1.16 MB·English

by  Michael Nash

the good fight continues

THE GOOD FIGHT CONTINUES
World War II Letters from the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
edited by
Peter N. Carroll, Michael Nash, and Melvin Small
a
new york university press
New York andLondon
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2006 by New York University
All rights reserved
Frontis: Poster by José Bardasano, 1937. Courtesy Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive,
Tamiment Library, NYU.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The good fight continues : World War II letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade /
edited by Peter N. Carroll, Michael Nash, and Melvin Small.
p. cm.
Letters selected from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives collection at
New York University's Tamiment Library.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–1659–5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–8147–1659–8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–1660–1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–8147–1660–1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Public opinion. 2. World War, 1939–1945—United States.
3. World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives, American. 4. World War, 1939–1945—
Participation, African American. 5. Anti-fascist movements—United States—History—
20th century. 6. United States—Foreign relations—1933–1945. 7. Soldiers—United
States—Correspondence. 8. Spain. Ejército Popular de la República. Abraham Lincoln
Battalion. 9. Spain—History—Civil War, 1936–1939—Veterans—Correspondence.
I. Carroll, Peter N. II. Nash, Michael, 1946– III. Small, Melvin. IV. Abraham
Lincoln Brigade Archives. V. Title: World War 2 letters from the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade. VI. Title: World War Two letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
D810.P85U535 2006
940.54'8173—dc22 2006012451
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the memory of twenty-four veterans of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade who were killed in World War II:
David Altman Lawrence Lustgarten
Herman Bottcher Andrew Militiadov
John Delehanty (Merchant Marine) Ignatz Moscowitz
Mike Feller Pedro Penino
Ben Gardner Tom Rissane (Merchant Marine)
Joe Gordon (Merchant Marine) Sidney Rosenblatt
Joseph Hecht Venerio Rossetto
Dr. Julius Hene Joseph D. Sacal
John Kozar (Merchant Marine) Conrade Silverman
Ernest Kozlowski Abe Susnov
Sidney Kurtz Joseph D. Truy
Frank Kustera Gerald Weinberg

contents
viii
Illustrations
ix
Preface
xiii
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 : Before Pearl Harbor 1
Chapter 2 : At War with the Army 42
Chapter 3 : Problems in Red and Black 116
Chapter 4 : In the Combat Theaters 151
Chapter 5 : Premature Antifascists and the Postwar World 225
Appendix : Biographical Index of Letter Writers 265
Bibliography 275
Index 277
About the Editors 290
vii
illustrations
Figure 1: Spanish Civil War Posters 29
Figure 2: “Airplane Factories” 33
Figure 3: John Dollard, Fear in BattleIllustrations 50
Figure 4: Drew Pearson, “The Washington
Merry-Go-Round” 54
Figure 5: Herman Bottcher Photograph 93
Figure 6: James Yates 129
Figure 7: 92nd Infantry Division Image 132
Figure 8: Vaughn Love 147
Figure 9: Seasons Greetings from the Weinbergs 169
Figure 10: Hy Wallach V-letter 181
Figure 11: Hy Wallach V-letter 2 185
V
Figure 12: Milton Wol Photograph 187
Figure 13: VALB Photograph for Publicity Flyer, 1945 236
Figure 14: 1945 Demonstration 237
Figure 15: Edward Carter Photograph 246
Figure 16: VALB Pamphlets 247
Figure 17: Arlington Case—Bob Thompson 261
viii
preface
Europe had been at war for twenty-seven months before the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drawing the United States
into World War II. But except for what the public could glimpse through
newspapers, newsreels, and radio, few Americans had faced the horror of
modern warfare: the use of airplanes to terrify and destroy civilian
populations or the coordinated air and ground attacks that the Germans
called blitzkrieg(lightning warfare). There was, however, one group of
Americans who had already confronted the fascist enemy on the
W W
battle eld and had rst-hand experience of the political stakes. These
1
were the U.S. veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a volunteer army
of about twenty-eight hundred men and women who sailed to Europe to
W
ght against fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
The men and women who formed the Lincoln Brigade in Spain had gone
to war in violation of U.S. neutrality laws that were intended to isolate
X
Americans from foreign con icts. American political leaders, including
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, hoped to avoid the entanglements that
had drawn the United States into World War I by prohibiting military aid
to warring countries and forbidding civilians from exposing themselves to
X
hostilities that might in ame public opinion. After General Francisco
Franco staged a military rebellion against the elected Spanish republic in
July 1936, the State Department barred civilians from traveling to that
embattled country. Although the major European powers accepted similar
X
principles of nonintervention in the Spanish con ict, it soon became
apparent that Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy were providing vital
military assistance to the fascist rebels. The Soviet Union and the
Communist International then moved to assist the legal government and
W
called for volunteers to aid the republic. In the end, some thirty- ve
W
thousand volunteers from fty countries joined the International
W
Brigades to ght for Spanish democracy.
In responding to these pleas, the Lincolns perceived Spain as a place
where they had an opportunity to stop further fascist aggression. Viewing
ix