After the War

It is interesting to hear the veteran’s reflections on the results of the war. It is evident, in watching their testimonials that the passion that had initially convinced them to enlist is still there.
These veterans returned to the United States to see Franco’s victory splashed across the New York Times and news reels. As one volunteer describes, they were heartbroken. They were especially sad, argues one veteran, because they knew, “some of the consequences for [their] friends in Spain.” They felt guilty because they had had the luxury of going home. Others, those still in Spain, ran the risk of being, “dragged out onto the streets, and shot in cold blood,” as others had.
These veterans, today, still harbor a lot of the anger they undoubtedly felt when Franco won. Anger at Franco, anger at the American government. One veteran happily recalls his trip back to Spain. He explains that soldiers, when mad at each other, would threaten to ‘piss on each other’s graves.’ That is exactly what he did. He poured a vile of his urine in Franco’s Cathedral. Another talks, angrily, of how the government, “should have done more to help with the war, they could have done more.”
The war, he argues, “wasn’t history, [it] was a tragedy.”