Sunday Sampler of Anti-War Ads

[write-light.livejournal.com]

World Peaceways (1930s pacifist/anti-war organization) produced some of the boldest propaganda posters of that era, largely aimed at looking at what had come about in the aftermath of the First World War, including the Depression, and death on a scale the world had not seen before, as well as lasting enmity that was quickly brewing into the Second World War.

The name "World Peaceways" was used in the famous Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever" to represent the pacifist movement that Edith Keeler belonged to.  The story claimed that her peace work would keep America out of the war for too long and thus lead to Germany winning and taking over the United States. Kirk HAD to let her die - because if he saved her (as he apparently had) then all of history would change.



Full size (and very interesting and legible too): 1275x1600

Several others:











A quite interesting letterhead can be found HERE.

While kind of a "Debbie Downer" of the time, they did hold up the truth of war's effects on ordinary people in some truly striking (and for America, quite impressive) ads - back when we had an actual left wing element to our politics.  It's important to remember that this is not "post-war" - the milieu is entirely without awareness of what followed and what was "right" or "wrong" from OUR point of view. Most people adopt a more pragmatic "speak softly and carry a big stick" attitude - try not to fight but fight if you feel the cause is just.  For others, war is just endless death.

Comments

[thudpucker.livejournal.com]

I've always liked Eisenhower's statement that "the problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without," which accords with what you said about ends and means. The ends are the means. The ends are always the means, and if it was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it, then you did it wrong.

As far as World Peaceways goes, though there's fairly compelling evidence that the peace movement between the wars, and the huge rush to disarm after the "War to end all Wars" was extremely beneficial to Germany, because they were ignoring the Treaty of Versailles, and arming up while everyone else was arming down. Working for world peace only really works if everyone wants to play the game - and the trouble is, you're always going to have someone who doesn't want to play...