Jun 15, 2024
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Notes on Achieving World Peace
By Vachel Blair
Sergeant Vachel Blair. photo: USAAC IntelligencePLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
NOTE: This is from three pages Blair jotted down, as if sketching out a speech, a few months after V-Day for World War Two, when he was 30.
Do you believe a man should be judged for merits alone? That’s what the Bill of Rights has shown to be the only practical thing to do. Prove it.
1. Children believe the world revolves around them. They cannot imagine how other people feel, for a while. Some people never do. (Children jeering a hunchback: cruel.)
2. Wisdom of the ages is in the Bill of Rights. No one has a monopoly on the wonders of the world. Give every man the break you want.
3. How worthy a man is has nothing to do with his name, or where he came from.
4. Like to act superior, chiefly? Indicates inferiority.
Here’s an Irishman. He’s your friend. OK, if you are Irish, you say “Great fellow.” Now change his face and his name only, everything else stays the same. He’s Hardwick—English. Same man. Is your attitude the same? Should be. Same with Jewish, and all minority groups.
2
It’s to our best interest to watch everything that went toward making the war.
Blair was studying film in New York when Pearl Harbor happened in December 1942, and bought this copy of the NY Times, around then making arrangements to enlist. photo: D. Blair1. Political and economic welfare of all nations. (The Great Depression, 1929-30, and tariffs)
2. Fascism anywhere, being incubated, or war anywhere.
3. The losers [Germany/Japan/Italy]: Make a real democracy.
4. Learn the problems of our neighbors, learn to known them and appreciate their good qualities. All nationalities have their good and bad points. They have their rights and the right to live just as minorities in our country. (We’re just lucky to be Americans.) It’s to our advantage to know and appreciate these people.
5. We “muddled through” the last war.
3
1. Bring it down to the level of the individual: What I can do personally.
2. Strike at the marrow, the “I’m out for myself” view. Narrow self-interest is impractical, it won’t work.
3. Bring in the airplane and the new smallness of the world.
4. We must A: Take responsibility, not drift. B: See the other guy’s point of view. C: Recognize that our welfare is bound up with world’s welfare.
Nobody is superman. We have our way of life, but once in a while it’s good to see other lives. We go motoring in the country for a change, and appreciate it.
Blair witnessed the cutting edge of modernity, flying in B-24 bombers, and was at an Army Air Corps base in New Mexico, headed for the Pacific theater, when the war ended. photo: D. BlairAdvantages of various nations: We’ve got the plumbing. Italians, the musicians and the food, and the French, fashion, food, art. Chinese, philosophers and ancient civilization, English, dependability.
Russia: a “new world.” Pluck and suffering during the war.
Germany: skilled craftsmen, order, precision.
U.S.A.: mass production
Mexico and Latin America: romance
We can see these nationalities right in the USA. Makes life interesting.
4
What to do personally?
1. Support the UN.
2. Don’t permit fascism to rise again.
3. Study what other nations have to contribute to the world.
4. Bring back our responsibility toward the world. It’s not good business, good sense, or practical to save a few $ in self-interest and lose the peace. If it costs a little to maintain the peace, OK. The bill will be 1/1,000,000 what it will cost us the next war, when cities will look like this: __________ [flat].
It’s up to us as individuals. Not the guy next door. You. Let’s not wish our way this time because our luck has run out.
When Blair bought this newspaper, announcing the end of the war in Europe, he didn't know his future wife was just emerging emaciated from an Austrian concentration camp. photo: D. Blair5
We made mistakes after the last war [WWI]. We have the responsibility of world leadership. We may have war thrust upon us, but we want to make sure we have done everything possible to prevent it. We have the most to lose. The mistakes of the last war, we’ve recognized them.
1. Didn’t join the League [of Nations]—[Instead] UN membership
2. Hawley-Smoot tariff—[Instead] reciprocal trade
3. Archangle [an Artic Ocean Russian town at the center of diplomacy in 1945], non-recognition of Russia—Recognized
4. Manchuria [the Japanese invasion of]—stopping oppression, [allowing] British [war] loan, and feeding Europe.
But for the grace of God we might have lost the atom bomb race. Germany had plans to hit N. Y. City. We have one more chance. Narrow self-interest will bring war down upon us.
Posted on Jun 18, 2023 - 05:26 PM
By Vachel Blair
Sergeant Vachel Blair. photo: USAAC IntelligenceNOTE: This is from three pages Blair jotted down, as if sketching out a speech, a few months after V-Day for World War Two, when he was 30.
Do you believe a man should be judged for merits alone? That’s what the Bill of Rights has shown to be the only practical thing to do. Prove it.
1. Children believe the world revolves around them. They cannot imagine how other people feel, for a while. Some people never do. (Children jeering a hunchback: cruel.)
2. Wisdom of the ages is in the Bill of Rights. No one has a monopoly on the wonders of the world. Give every man the break you want.
3. How worthy a man is has nothing to do with his name, or where he came from.
4. Like to act superior, chiefly? Indicates inferiority.
Here’s an Irishman. He’s your friend. OK, if you are Irish, you say “Great fellow.” Now change his face and his name only, everything else stays the same. He’s Hardwick—English. Same man. Is your attitude the same? Should be. Same with Jewish, and all minority groups.
2
It’s to our best interest to watch everything that went toward making the war.
Blair was studying film in New York when Pearl Harbor happened in December 1942, and bought this copy of the NY Times, around then making arrangements to enlist. photo: D. Blair2. Fascism anywhere, being incubated, or war anywhere.
3. The losers [Germany/Japan/Italy]: Make a real democracy.
4. Learn the problems of our neighbors, learn to known them and appreciate their good qualities. All nationalities have their good and bad points. They have their rights and the right to live just as minorities in our country. (We’re just lucky to be Americans.) It’s to our advantage to know and appreciate these people.
5. We “muddled through” the last war.
3
1. Bring it down to the level of the individual: What I can do personally.
2. Strike at the marrow, the “I’m out for myself” view. Narrow self-interest is impractical, it won’t work.
3. Bring in the airplane and the new smallness of the world.
4. We must A: Take responsibility, not drift. B: See the other guy’s point of view. C: Recognize that our welfare is bound up with world’s welfare.
Nobody is superman. We have our way of life, but once in a while it’s good to see other lives. We go motoring in the country for a change, and appreciate it.
Blair witnessed the cutting edge of modernity, flying in B-24 bombers, and was at an Army Air Corps base in New Mexico, headed for the Pacific theater, when the war ended. photo: D. BlairRussia: a “new world.” Pluck and suffering during the war.
Germany: skilled craftsmen, order, precision.
U.S.A.: mass production
Mexico and Latin America: romance
We can see these nationalities right in the USA. Makes life interesting.
4
What to do personally?
1. Support the UN.
2. Don’t permit fascism to rise again.
3. Study what other nations have to contribute to the world.
4. Bring back our responsibility toward the world. It’s not good business, good sense, or practical to save a few $ in self-interest and lose the peace. If it costs a little to maintain the peace, OK. The bill will be 1/1,000,000 what it will cost us the next war, when cities will look like this: __________ [flat].
It’s up to us as individuals. Not the guy next door. You. Let’s not wish our way this time because our luck has run out.
When Blair bought this newspaper, announcing the end of the war in Europe, he didn't know his future wife was just emerging emaciated from an Austrian concentration camp. photo: D. BlairWe made mistakes after the last war [WWI]. We have the responsibility of world leadership. We may have war thrust upon us, but we want to make sure we have done everything possible to prevent it. We have the most to lose. The mistakes of the last war, we’ve recognized them.
1. Didn’t join the League [of Nations]—[Instead] UN membership
2. Hawley-Smoot tariff—[Instead] reciprocal trade
3. Archangle [an Artic Ocean Russian town at the center of diplomacy in 1945], non-recognition of Russia—Recognized
4. Manchuria [the Japanese invasion of]—stopping oppression, [allowing] British [war] loan, and feeding Europe.
But for the grace of God we might have lost the atom bomb race. Germany had plans to hit N. Y. City. We have one more chance. Narrow self-interest will bring war down upon us.
Posted on Jun 18, 2023 - 05:26 PM
