John Steinbeck – War Correspondent – England, 1943

Perceptions.

And John Steinbeck is good at pricking away at perceptions…

” The second phase of getting along is carried on in innumerable attempts to describe each other. The British are so and so. The Americans are so and so. The British are just like other people only more so. The Americans are boasters who love money. This love of money is, of course, unique with Americans. Every other people detests money. The Americans are fine, sturdy people. The British are fine, sturdy people. This is obviously a lie. There are good ones and stinkers on both sides. Setting them up doesn’t do any good…”

His pieces home must have brought his readership up a bit sharp sometimes when he suggests that the American soldier is not wholly welcome. Yet, by the same token, it was the beginning of a new relationship where, by the early 1950s, youngsters in Lancashire, or Devon, were drinking Coca Cola themselves and going to the movies, movies that were invariably American. It had been an invasion of sorts.

At the end of that June 19th piece Steinbeck writes:

” We get along very well as individuals, but just the moment we become the Americans and they become the British trouble is not far behind.”

Steinbeck was right. It was not an easy relationship, but, in the end, it worked.

You can read Steinbeck’s collection of war correspondence in Once There Was A War.