Reports Of Ww2 Essay, Research Paper
Persuasive Paper
The assigned reading was for the most part the telling of soldiers stories, whether they told of the stories they’d had or the story they were currently taking part in. As a whole they weren’t looking to sway my opinion in any particular direction regarding the war, just describe the situation. The first piece of writing that I found persuasive came from I. F. Stone, a writer for The Nation who was stationed behind a desk in Washington instead of behind a bunker at the time of the war. I mention the fact that he was a desk jockey because it was something I took personally when reading of the heroics of the reporter writing from the front lines. I said to myself the first time reading through his report “Why should I listen to this coward, he is trying to tell us that we are doing enough? What a hypocrite. He needs to get off his rear, get a gun and into G.I. gear.”. However after reading the piece and seeing how it moved me, I saw how important a role a reporter could play back home. Stone’s article “A plea to admit Jewish refugees” was the only writing that looked at the war from the broader sense of things. Most war time reporters concentrated more on what was happening in the platoons, the men’s feelings and keeping moral high. This was an essential role that reporters filled, not only for the soldiers but for the folks back in the States. I know that if I was in that particular situation that I wouldn’t be worrying about the Jewish refugees so much as I would be trying to avoid the bullets whizzing over head. It’s important to concentrate on one thing at a time. However since Stone could look at the war as more of a political battle than a battle of day to day survival, it made him curious about what exactly are our objectives were and are we properly utilizing our resources. Through his researching he found that the only support that we were really giving was militarily, and other than that we entered the war rather half-heartedly.
The most persuasive part of the article in my eyes was how he made it seem as though we were the bad guy, it was our pathetic attempt or rather apathetic part in this war that is most disgraceful. Stone states, “The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men but the doing of evil by good men”, pointing the accusing finger at America. His point being, here we are with all this potential to be the Big Brother to the world an yet we do the bare minimum. Stone even points out, probably out of desperation to get his point across that even Franco, the horrible dictator of Spain, opened his borders to refugees. Franco, whose own country could be consumed next by the horrible appetite of the ever expanding empire. Franco, who we look down on as a cruel military leader, shows compassion. Yet still we sit in our safe house across the ocean, content in our minimalist effort and ask others to open their borders as we turn refugees away. How can we even ask that of other countries when we ourselves refuse to take these people in, what ever happened to leading by example? What ever happened to , “Give me your tired, your poor”? We turned these people back to die. The sheer audacity of our president to not get more involved purely because it is too risky a move in an election year. What good is being elected going to do when you remain so passive to the plight of others whom you were put in that position to help?
” A plea for Jewish refugees” was by far the most persuasive piece of writing in the readings thus far. It was different than the others in that it didn’t make you feel sad for the situation the soldiers were in, but it mad you mad that our power was being so grossly under used. It makes you wonder, what would be of greater benefit to the predicament? We could send more soldiers over there to die in order to prevent to eradication of the Jewish race. Or keep some soldiers over here and not only keeping them alive and well but to help the Jewish refugees directly by giving them food and shelter, rather than the round about way of sending thousands off to die. Stone helped me see the war in a whole new light and hopefully his article did the same for the American public.