THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

THIS IS THE DAY THE GREATEST GENERATION "SAVED THE WORLD!" | 2004-05-08

Today May 8, is V-E Day. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered. According to Tom Brokaw and others, when Germany fell to us and our Heroic Ally, Joseph Stalin, the world was saved. They tell us that the generation that saved Comrade Stalin was The Greatest Generation.

I loved my uncles who served in World War II, but what we are discussing here is not those people as individuals. We are talking about what that whole generation did.

So if my disagreement with this Greatest Generation nonsense makes you say "I am insulting your granddaddy or your Papa", please leave the room and let the grownups talk.

I don't like the World War II generation, as a generation, for exactly the same reason Tom Brokaw loves them dearly.

When the World War Generation came of age around 1940, the white male walked the world like a Colossus. When they ceased to be the dominant group, whites were groveling and begging the world for forgiveness.

By the time the World War II generation ceased to be the dominant group around 1980, anyone who was not fully committed to the end of the white race was a racist. Immigration and integration and miscegenation became the Final Solution to "the race problem." But this "race problem" existed ONLY in white countries and this "race problem" existed in ALL white countries.

No one says that "the race problem" will be solved by miscegenation in Asia or Africa. No one asks to massive third world immigration into Japan or Taiwan or the unpopulated areas of Africa or Brazil.

Only Brokaw's Greatest Generation would ever allowed such an idea to be accepted. As a liberal, Brokaw loves them dearly.

I don't.