Clippings for 15 October 2009

Obama Quietly Deploying 13,000 More Troops to Afghanistan
Ewen MacAskill reports for The Guardian UK: "President Barack Obama is quietly deploying an extra 13,000 troops to Afghanistan, an unannounced move that is separate from a request by the US commander in the country for even more reinforcements."

Cheney & Co.: All Quite on the Counterterrot Front?
David Corn writes for Mother Jones: "On Tuesday, President Barack Obama visited the National Counterterrorism Center outside Washington and declared that "because of our efforts" al Qaeda and its allies have "lost operational capacity." He cited recent arrests of terrorist suspects in Colorado, New York, Illinois, and Texas, asserting that these actions have made the nation safer. Afterward, his critics responded with...silence. Since Obama was sworn in, conservative hawks, led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, have been pounding the president for being weak on national security, accusing him of leaving the country vulnerable to another catastrophic attack. But this chorus of scaremongers tends to go mute when the Obama administration scores apparent counterterrorism successes. Cheney, for instance, hasn't said anything publicly about the arrest last month of Najibullah Zazi, the Denver airport shuttle driver, and others accused of planning an al Qaeda bombing operation."

A War of Absurdity
Robert Scheer comments for Truthout: "There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaeda back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise. Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd."

Attorney Reports Human Rights Abuses of GI Resisters
Dahr Jamail reports for Turthout.org: "Attorneys and veteran's groups are alarmed by recent reports that two US Army soldiers imprisoned at the Fort Lewis Regional Correctional Facility (RCF) have been subjected to human rights abuses and violations of their constitutional rights."

Memo to Investigators: Dig Deep!
William Greider writes for The Nation: "When the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission opened for business on September 17, it was a nonevent for the media. Leading newspapers brushed aside chairman Phil Angelides, the former California state treasurer, and his declaration of purpose--'uncovering the facts and providing an unbiased historical accounting of what brought our financial system and our economy to its knees.' As Angelides put it, 'The fuses for that cataclysm were undoubtedly lit years before. It is our job to diligently and doggedly follow those fuses to their origins.'"

Moore: Banks Rewarded for 'Burning Down Our Economy'
Davis Edwards and Stephen Webster write for The Raw Story: "As the Dow Jones Industrial Average celebrates its triumphant return to 10,000 and Wall Street's infamous, massive bonuses return, The Los Angeles Times was left wondering Thursday morning: 'Where's the outrage?' As if to answer their question, filmmaker Michael Moore made an appearance on NBC's Today Show, explaining to interviewer Matt Lauer that such numbers are echoing from America's financial sector because bankers are being rewarded for 'burning down our economy.'"

Recommended Audio: Ralph Nader: "Only the Rich Can Save Us"

Truthout reporter Jason Leopold interviews Ralph Nader to discuss his latest book, "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us," a fictional account involving real-life public figures, including Warren Buffet, Ted Turner, Yoko Ono and Phil Donahue, who set off to start a progressive revolution using their enormous wealth. In addition, Nader gives analysis on President Obama's job performance thus far and on the debate surrounding health care reform.


Obama Isn't Helping. At Least the World Argued with Bush.
Naomi Klein comments for The Guardian UK: "Of all the explanations for Barack Obama's Nobel peace prize, the one that rang truest came from Nicolas Sarkozy. "It sets the seal on America's return to the heart of all the world's peoples." In other words, this was Europe's way of saying to America, "We love you again", like those weird renewal-of-vows ceremonies couples have after a rough patch."

Think Progress Makes Its Mark
Daniel Libit reports for Politico: "Can a liberal blog launched in the midst of the Bush era – a blog that once obsessed over Alberto Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and the outing of Valerie Plame – still make its mark in the age of Obama?  In the case of Think Progress, the answer so far is yes."'

Former Right-wing Leader Warns of Religious Right Violence: 'Anyone Can Be Killed'
Larisa Alexandrovna writes for The Raw Story: "Frank Schaeffer is an outspoken critic of the politicized Christian evangelical right. He sees the “End Times” movement as anti-Semitic. He fears that a right-wing terrorist might assassinate the President of the United States. None of these talking points would be novel on the left, but Schaeffer is hardly a bleeding heart liberal. His father, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, is considered to be the godfather of the modern religious right movement. Schaeffer himself took up the family mission and became a prominent speaker and writer, promoting many of the sentiments that have given rise to the politically active, extremely well organized and zealous movement of today. He left the religious right in the 1980s, and was a Republican until 2000."

Public Health before Wall Street Wealth
Robert Scheer comments for Truthdig.com: "Wonderful. The 13 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee get one faintly rational Republican to join them in a meaningless stab at health care reform and it throws the media into a titillated frenzy about what it all means. It means very little."

Baucus Committee OKs a Health Bill, but not Reform
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "If every kid in class finishes their homework except for one, guess which kid will get the most attention. That's right, the slacker.  And, when the slacker finally does turn in the assignment, it is invariably a slapdash job that fails to meet minimum standards.  So it is in the U.S. Senate, where the Finance Committee finally got around to finishing its health care reform assignment."

In Washington, the Revolving Door is Hazardous to Your Health
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship comment for Truthout.org: " On Tuesday, October 13, the Senate Finance Committee finally is scheduled to vote on its version of health care insurance reform. And therein lies yet another story in the endless saga of money and politics. In most polls, the majority of Americans favor a non-profit alternative - like Medicare - that would give the private health industry some competition. So if so many of us, including President Obama himself, want that public option, how come we're not getting one?"

Bush-era EPA Document on Climate Change Released
Jim Tankersley and Alexander C. Hart report for The Los Angeles Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a long-suppressed report by George W. Bush administration officials who had concluded - based on science - that the government should begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions because global warming posed serious risks to the country. The report, known as an 'endangerment finding,' was done in 2007. The Bush White House refused to make it public because it opposed new government efforts to regulate the gases most scientists see as the major cause of global warming."

First Woman to Win Nobel Prize for Economics
David Usborne and Sean O'Grady report for The Independent UK: "The grip enjoyed by men on the Nobel Prize for Economics was broken at last yesterday when Elinor Ostrom, a professor at the University of Indiana, became the first woman to be honoured with the award. Her win ensured that 2009 was a record-breaking Nobel year for women, with five female winners. "

Do Women Have the Blues
Barbara Ehrenreich writes for TomDispatch.com: "Feminism made women miserable. This, anyway, seems to be the most popular takeaway from 'The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,' a recent study by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers that purports to show that women have become steadily unhappier since 1972. Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington greeted the news with somber perplexity, but the more common response has been a triumphant: I told you so."

Empowered Women Bring Rich Rewards
Michelle Metallidis writes for The National: "It was while interviewing two teenage sex workers in Cambodia that Nicholas Kristof first felt a pang of conscience.  The New York Times journalist had travelled to Phnom Penh in 1996 to report on Cambodia’s sex trafficking industry, and, while sitting in one of the village’s brothels, found himself contemplating the dismal fate of his subjects. 'I walked out of there thinking I had this great story – that it was going to be front-page news and I was going to receive all this recognition for it – and then I thought: these girls are locked up in this brothel and they’re probably going to die of Aids unless something is done. As a human you can’t be neutral. So I chose the side of those girls.'”

The Struggle for Equal Rights
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, and Zaid Jilani write for The Progress Report at Think Progress: "As the Obama administration and congressional leadership push forward on health care, the fiscal stimulus, and the war in Afghanistan, many of their supporters are becoming frustrated that there hasn't been more aggressive movement on one of Obama's other campaign promises: equal rights for gays and lesbians, particularly on the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). On Sunday, tens of thousands of people marched on the nation's capital and demanded progress. The National Equality March coincided with National Coming Out Day and featured speeches by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Judy Shepard, whose son, Matthew, was brutally killed in 1998 because of his sexual orientation. The march came one day after LGBT advocates warmly welcomed President Obama at the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) annual dinner, where he acknowledged frustrations at the pace of progress but promised to keep pushing for equal rights. "I'm here with a simple message: I'm here with you in that fight," Obama said to rousing applause, adding, "[I]t's not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans petitioning for equal rights half a century ago. But I will say this: We have made progress and we will make more."

Equality March Draws Protesters from Across the Nation
Amy Cavanaugh and Chris Johnson write for the Washington Blade: "From as far away as Alaska, thousands of LGBT people demanding marriage, adoption and immigration rights rallied Sunday at the National Equality March.  Jason Lee of Akron, Ohio, said that coming to D.C. to participate in the march was part of his 'year of coming out.' 'I’ve been out for a while, but this year I’m becoming a part of everything I can,' he said. 'I’m helping with Pride and joining anything I can be a part of.'”

Lt. Choi Won't Lie for His Country
Any Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "Lt. Dan Choi doesn’t want to lie. Choi, an Iraq war veteran and a graduate of West Point, declared last March 19 on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “I am gay.” Under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations, those three words are enough to get Choi kicked out of the military. Choi has become a vocal advocate for repealing the policy, having spoken before tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies at last Sunday’s National Equality March in Washington, D.C."

Covering the March's Coverage
Christopher Lisotta reports for The Advocate: "For many journalists, covering the National Equality March meant traveling to Washington, D.C., following the demonstrators as they marched from the White House, reporting on the energy of the event, and analyzing the panoply of speakers who addressed the crowds assembled in front of the Capitol building. For me, all I had to do was turn the TV on and fire up my laptop. It sounds easier, but I was trying to track the mainstream media coverage the march generated, no small task in a lightning-fast world where news outlets update almost instantly."

NYT: FAIR Had a Point
Fairness and accuracy in Reporting reports: "In response to FAIR's September 22 action alert, New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt agreed (10/11/09) that the paper's September 20 article about Medicare for all excluded supporters of a single-payer healthcare system. FAIR pointed out that the article, written by Katharine Seelye, laid out many arguments against single-payer--it would mean a big tax increase, it would hurt doctors, and so on--without including balancing responses from supporters."

Action Alert: Rush Limbaug Is a Racist Petition
Professional sports has always served to unite Americans across class, creed and race. Now Rush Limbaugh, whose career is driven by dividing Americans precisely along those lines, wants to buy an NFL football team. We stand with former and current NFL players in urging the league to reject Limbaugh's ownership bid. Sports fans deserve better.



Robert Greenwald Talks about Rush Limbaugh on The Ed Show


FOX Nation Uses Russell Simmons to Divide and Demonize America
Ellen writes for News Hounds: "Fox Nation, the website that boasts about its commitment to tolerance and civil discourse and its dedication to 'those who believe in the United States of America,' has made what can only be a calculated effort to lay on the hate with one of its top stories, Russell Simmons: God Will Destroy Us If We Don't Follow Obama. Clicking through to the post, you get the following 'fair and balanced' report. 'Over at HuffPo, Russell Simmons has let go of the wheel and bounced off a guard rail. His apocalyptic melodrama sounds like the typical Hollywood cliche of a Christian right-winger. But these lefties are all about projection, so that’s to be expected.'"

No Converts: Being a conscientious objector in World War II

May 15 is International Conscientious Objectors Day honoring those who for reasons of conscience choose not to take up arms or enter the military.

- by Christopher E. Renner
The victors write history. But often pieces of the whole story are left out or lost to time, especially pieces that don’t quite fit with the legends that arise around an historical event.

World War II was fought between the Axis Powers - Germany, Italy and Japan - against the Allies - the U. S., Great Britain and her colonies along with Free France and other nations as they were liberated. It is often referred to as the “Good War.”

Today the number of those who served in World War II is dwindling, but efforts are underway to capture the stories of those who served so the whole story of World War II can be preserved, including those that don’t quite fit. Charles Perkins has one of those stories.

For 16 years, K-State’s psychology department was home to Charles Perkins. Perkins earned his Ph.D. in 1946 at the University of Iowa. His career included Kent State University, Emory University - where he was department head from 1961 - 1964, and finally K-State from which he retired in 1986.

At 91, Charlie Perkins moves a little slower than he did in 1941. Today Perkins busies himself with grandchildren and caring for his wife of 62 years, Nancy, at their retirement home in Seattle. They moved to Seattle two years ago to be closer to grandchildren and Perkins’ favorite fishing spots in Montana. As such, he was interviewed via telephone for this article.

Perkins’ story of his involvement in World War II isn’t typical of those you will find in the World War II kiosk at the Robert Dole Center in Lawrence, or in the many story projects that have begun to record the tales of heroism and bravery that the men and women who fought have to tell.

During World War II, 34.5 million men registered for the draft. According to records obtained by Nebraska Educational Television for their 1993 film, A Matter of Conscience, 72,354 applied for conscientious objector (CO) status. Approximately 25,000 of those COs served in non-combatant roles while some 29,000 were exempted when they failed to pass the physical exam. This latter number is difficult to confirm given that record keeping on 4-F (physical defects) classifications are not complete. Over 6,000 men rejected the draft outright and chose to go to jail instead of serving the war effort. Also, 12,000 men chose to perform alternative service in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), which supervised these men and the work they conducted. As a CO, Perkins was among these men.

Preparing for War
Missing from some history books is the fact that America has always had COs. George Washington specifically exempted those “of tender conscience” from induction into the Continental Army. Our nation’s principle of religious freedom brought Mennonite, Amish, Brethren/Dunker and many Jews seeking to escape compulsory military service in Europe.

A closer look at American history reveals numerous utopian experimental communities that often included a commitment to peace and nonviolence. But, until World War II, if one was a pacifist or conscientious objector in America, one was usually given only a few options: violate one’s conscience by serving in the military; pay for another to go in one’s place (an option until the Civil War); flee to avoid service (draft dodging); or prison.

Scott Bennett’s Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915-1963 provides a complete historical overview leading up to the decisions the Roosevelt administration and Congress put in place for COs, following the reactions to imprisoning thousands of men who were COs in World War I.

In the months leading up to World War II, Congress recognized "CO Status" as a legitimate moral stand for the first time in our nation’s history. Under the law, objectors had two choices — they could go into the military but serve in non-combatant roles: the medical corps, food preparation, staff clerks, etc., or they were required to do "alternative service" here at home that was "work of national importance" in the Civilian Public Service (CPS).

The CPS was the product of a unique and conflicted collaboration between the U.S. government's Selective Service and the traditional peace churches: Mennonite/Amish, Church of the Brethren and Quakers. CPS was a response to the first peacetime draft in U.S. history, initiated more than a year before Pearl Harbor. It was also the first time COs were offered legal alternative service under civilian command.

The churches' goal was to prevent the fate COs suffered in World War I - including verbal harassment, physical beatings and death - and allow them to do "work of national importance" as an alternative to military service. The churches funded the CPS program through $7 million in donations.

For the government, their motivation came in part from the fall out caused by the lack of CO status in World War I and a fear that COs would have a negative impact on wartime morale. The government wanted to keep COs out of sight and saw the CPS as a means to that end.
CPS men were not limited to members of the peace churches; they represented over 200 religious groups and others, like Perkins, without church affiliation. Their only shared philosophy was the rejection of war.

“I just didn't believe war works and believed refusal to participate was a way to stop wars eventually,” said Perkins. “I had read Gandhi and Millis’ Road to War which had an effect on my thinking, but the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov probably had the greatest impact in that it showed me that people could do the worst things based on the best motives.”

Becoming a CO
Generally the process for being a CO was pretty straightforward. The candidate had to appear before the Draft Board to make his case. COs coming from the historic peace churches were granted their status based on their religious affiliation. Perkins never met with his draft board in Cambridge, Mass.

“I guest I had to write something stating my position, but I don’t remember. I spent about a year thinking about war and war resistance and it was tough going. It is hard to take a position on a vital issue with which none of your friends or relatives agreed,” he said.

In any case, his status as a CO was approved and he received his orders to report to a Mennonite-ran camp in Henry, Ill.

Perkins and Nancy were married two months before he entered his first CPS camp in July 1942. This was supposed to help him stay closer to Nancy who was still working on her graduate degree at the University of Iowa in his camp assignments, but other than a few months when he was assigned to a state hospital in Michigan, Nancy wasn’t with him.

“COs varied in a lot of ways,” he said. “Some were political objectors. A large number of them just plain refused to serve” and were sentenced to prison as a result. In fact, one out of every six men in U.S. prisons during World War II was a draft resister. “I might have joined those who just plain refused, if I hadn’t received the medical discharge,” he said.

“As far as I could tell just about everyone I knew supported my decision to be a CO, but few if any agreed with my position,” said Perkins.

The life of a conscientious objector was often extremely difficult, especially for those who were not members of the traditional peace churches. Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, and Jews are all among the ranks of COs and often this meant that society, friends and family rejected them.

“I think this depended on the CO,” said Perkins. “If he was sincere and open about his beliefs, he was accepted or at least not hassled openly.”

But it also depended “on the sort of people he had contact with,” he said.

CPS people had about the same amount of leave as military personnel.

“Riding on trains during leave I would bring up the fact that I was a CO, if it could be worked into the conversation,” said Perkins, “and had some good discussions but no converts. The Mennonites guys tried to avoid conversation with strangers for fear of violence.”

During World War I, Mennonite, Brethren and Quaker COs often faced violence for their pacifist beliefs. The CPS was supposed to eliminate such incidents.

Melvin Gingerich in his book Service for Peace, a History of Mennonite Civilian Public Service, reports that over 2,000 COs were imprisoned in World War I because they refused to take up arms. Will McKale, archivist at Fort Riley’s Cavalry Museum, confirmed that two Mennonites were beaten at Fort Riley for their refusal to take up arms, but that “no COs were assigned to the base during World War II.”

CPS camps members found themselves reviled by the communities located nearby. In PBS’s The Good War, World War II CO Martin Ponch gives an example of the resentment CPS members encountered when he tells of how the City of Plymouth, N.H., allowed nearly a third of the city to burn down rather than call on the services of the trained firefighters at the CPS camp outside of town.

Life in the Camp
In early 1941 COs began receiving orders to report to CPS camps. Most expected to stay for six months based on government issued information. An expectation that would prove to be false as most COs would stay in the camps for the duration of the war and others would not be released from duty until 1947, two years after World War II had ended.

According to Albert Keim in his book The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service, COs were required to work nine-hour days, six days a week, often at hard labor. In addition they were expected to pay the government $35 a month for their room and board. Those that could, covered this expense on their own, but for many this expense was covered at great cost by their congregations. These same congregations provided an additional $2.50 a month for expenses. The families of married COs had no such support. For them the war years were a time of dire poverty.

Perkins was in CPS service for one and a half years before receiving a medial discharge. Following his first assignment at Henry, Ill., he was transferred to Downey, Idaho, where he worked in soil conservation.

“Soil conservation was done mostly by the shovelful,” said Perkins. “The regular soil conservation men who assigned the work were not permitted to have COs do work that would put them in regular contact with farmers that the service had contracts.” As a result, the CPS members mostly worked on isolated projects.

Finally he was assigned to a state hospital in Michigan where he preformed the duties of a registered nurse, even if he had no formal training as one.

Life in the camp “was a case of culture shock. I had refused to claim religious grounds [for my status as a CO] and almost all the other campees there were fundamentalists,” said Perkins. “Their attitudes were very different from mine. In Henry there was a fair amount of conflict between a small group of radicals and the Mennonites in control. The radicals wanted things to be done democratically.”

Camp life was pretty routine.

“You got up fairly early, had breakfast and then were driven to where ever we would work,” he said. The men had a fair amount of free time, which was spent talking to other COs, or in Perkins case, writing letters home to Nancy.

“The camp in Idaho was a little more liberal. About half were people who thought in terms of the social effect of war and weren’t really religious,” he said.

Such thinking was more in line with Perkins’ own beliefs.

His work in Michigan was an eye opening experience. “The state hospital was pretty bad, but not as bad as some of them,” he said.

Long-term contributions
Beginning in 1942 and following agitation and work walkouts, COs began to take on responsibilities not originally foreseen by the CPS structure. COs began to fill the rank of those working in mental institutions which had seen their employees leave for better-paying jobs in the war industries. According to The Good War over 3,000 COs worked in 41 mental institutions in 20 states, and at 17 training schools for "mental deficients" in 12 states. This work is perhaps the most significant long-term contribution World War II COs made to the national welfare.

Alex Sareyan in The Turning Point discusses how the conditions of these institutions were extreme with patients often suffering cruel and inhumane treatment at the hands of institutional officials. In response, CO's introduced nonviolent methods of patient care, took legal action and won a lawsuit against the state of Virginia for humane treatment of patients, and contributed to the founding of what became the National Mental Health Foundation.

Sareyan points out that the COs most important work was a shocking 1946 Life Magazine exposé that brought national attention to the issue of mental health and treatment of patients. Life reporter Albert Q. Maisel’s exposé was based on first-hand accounts by COs. Their reports shocked the nation as they revealed the squalid and repressive conditions in mental institutions and lead to reforms that continue to the present day.

“I don’t think my time as a CO had any effect on me in terms of people’s reactions. I came to my views very much on my own. Most of my friends volunteer for the military. My brother was a paratrooper who fought in the Philippines, one sister was a WAC and the other lost a husband who was serving in the navy.”

“What it did was make me more committed to social issues,” said Perkins. He was involved in the civil rights movement during his time in Atlanta and in Iowa City where he helped with organization and participated in protests and probably wouldn’t have been had he not developed his CO attitudes.

“The people in my age group that I run into talk about nonviolence, but back then no one used the term,” Perkins said. Nonviolence is how many of his generation are today reaching out to new COs, some of whom have come to their decisions based on their experiences as active duty military and thinking about what they are being asked to do.

The Center on Conscience and War, which advises military personnel on CO discharges, reported on April 14, 2003 that several hundred service members had contact their group for assistance in applying for CO status since the start of 2003--when many soldiers realized they might have to fight in the Iraq war.

The Government Accountability Office report found that from 2002 to 2006 the active and reserve components of all the military reported processing 425 applications for conscientious objectors. Two of the most publicized cases in recent months involve Spc. Jeremy Hinzman and Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia. Like Perkins, they have come to the decisions based on their life experiences that have lead them to conclude that war isn’t the answer.


World War II CO Timeline

1940
July 1 - Congress passes the Selective service Training and Service Act of 1940 creating the first peacetime draft in US history. Signed into law by President Roosevelt on September 16, conscientious objectors (COs) are exempted on the basis of training and belief.
October 5 - Historic peace churches - Quakers, Church of the Brethren and Mennonites -form the National Service Board for Religious Conscientious Objectors.
October 30 - Conscription begins.
December 17 - Civilian Public Service is established to provide COs with the opportunity to serve their country by doing “work of national importance.” The federal government and the peace churches jointly create 151 camps across the country to inter legal COs.
1941
May 15 - First COs receive orders to report to the CPS camp at Patapsco, Maryland.
1942
February 16 - COs walk out of a CPS camp in Merom, Indiana, because of the lack of “work of national importance.”
March 5 - COs begin performing other tasks (as smoke jumpers, attendants in mental hospitals, human guinea pigs) as detached CPS units working outside of the camps.
June - First CPS unit arrives at Eastern State Mental Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1943
June - First smoke jumpers assigned to work in Missoula, Montana.
December 23 - Segregation at Danbury Federal Prison ends as the result of a four-month work strike by 23 COs.
1944
January/February - the Civilian Public Service Union is organized at the CPS camp in Big Flats, New York. The union provides an organized means of communication and group action among the COs nation-wide.
June 24 - COs volunteer as guinea pigs for influenza and pneumonia experiments.
1945
May 7 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
Aug 6 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
Aug 9 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
Aug 14 - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
Oct 24 - United Nations is officially born.
1946
May - COs who had worked in mental hospitals found the National Mental Health Foundation.
Life magazine reporter, Albert Q. Maisel, writes an exposé based of first-hand accounts by COs that shocks the nation as it reveals the conditions in mental institutions.
1947
April - COs George Houser and Bayard Rustin and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organize the first Freedom Ride though south.
Last COs released from CPS camps - two years after the end of World War II.