Brooke Astor Quotes
I had a job; I was, during the war, a nurse, a 'Gray Lady.' We wore a veil and a gray dress.
Astor, Brooke. Footprints. Doubleday, 1980.
This incredibly accurate prediction was made before the United States had entered the War when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Nehru had been educated in England and lived there at various times where he was one of the intelligence. He virulently detested Fascism and made very careful distinctions between the level of morality of British Colonialism and the much greater evil of Hitler-Mussolini Fascism. Few anti-colonial leaders then and since were able to see the shades of grey and make such a nuanced analysis. He foresaw that devastation caused by Fascist aggression and the world reaction would be so profound that the entire world order would change radically. Few others realized that at this time.
What is particularly interesting about this quotation is that it shows the role that vengeance played in the support of the war effort. Revenge is a “baser” motive than making the world safe for democracy or preserving freedom or stopping dictators. Yet the political and military leadership did not shy away from revenge as a war aim. Contrast this with later wars. Arguably the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor created a different dimension than existed in the Korean or Vietnam wars. Yet in the War on Terror, the attack of 9-11, created a situation like Pearl Harbor did. Yet President Bush and other political and military leaders had a definite policy of never acknowledging that revenge was a factor, despite the fact that many Americans openly saw this as a major war aim.
This quotation, over half a century later, was cited to show the contrast in the requested role of the American public during the War on Terror / Iraq War and in WWII. Every citizen in WWII had an important role involving personal and family effort and sacrifice, while the George W. Bush administration in contrast did not initiate oil utilization conservation, or ask the public to buy war bonds, pay additional taxes. Instead Americans were told to travel more and spend money.
Women were needed in industry and the military. See {584783}.
The Patent Office was one of the most imposing buildings in Civil War Washington. There was truly a society at war where every resource was put to us for the war effort. Walt Whitman, in addition to being a great poet, was a nurse.
Assigned to the Treasury Department to create war bond posters
Roberta Brooke Astor was an American philanthropist, socialite, and writer who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob Astor. Brooke Astor was the author of two novels and two volumes of personal memoirs.
