In every American war from the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War, American military men and women have captured the horror, pathos and intensity of warfare by writing letters home. Tens of thousands of these letters have been handed down from generation to generation. Using the most compelling and enlightening of these missives, War Letters tells the story of American wars from the viewpoint of the men and women in the front lines.
Websites
Film Clip from War Letters
robertkennerfilms.com/films/files/detail.php?id=6
See a video clip from War Letters on filmmaker Robert Kenner's Web site.
The Legacy Project
www.warletters.com/index.html
This site includes information on submitting letters to the Legacy Project, as well as preservation information and a calendar of events.
Military Postal History Society
www.militaryphs.org/home.html
Members of this organization study the postal aspects of wars, publish articles and books, and collect materials related to military mail. The society also publishes a quarterly journal.
Stars and Stripes Digital
www.stripes.com/news/cartoonist-bill-mauldin-friend-of-gis-as-creator-of-willie-and-joe-dies-at-81-1.1473
Read an article and obituary of cartoonist Bill Mauldin, "loved by soldiers and loathed by many in command, including Gen. George S. Patton."
P.O.V.: Letters from the Heart
www.pbs.org/regrettoinform/
This online memorial is a companion Web site to the PBS program Regret to Inform, about a war widow's trip to Vietnam two decades after her husband's death there. On the site, visitors can write letters to lost loved ones, read letters composed by other viewers, and express their feelings about war.
Powers of Persuasion
www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_intro.html
This National Archives online exhibit features propaganda posters from World War II.
American Institute for Conservation
www.conservation-us.org/
Locate information on how to preserve old family letters, photographs, and other objects.
Conservation/Preservation Information for the General Public
palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/
This information from the Stanford University Libraries is intended to help everyone, not just archive professionals. It includes a list of suppliers of archival storage materials.
U.S. Army Center of Military History
www.history.army.mil/
This U.S. Army site provides online features, pictures, reading lists, and links to other sites.
Naval Historical Center
www.history.navy.mil/
This U.S. Navy site includes a variety of historical features, and a particularly handy list of 173 frequently asked questions about topics in naval history. The site even provides information on how to create a memoir of your own naval service.
Air Force Historical Research Agency
www.afhra.af.mil/
This agency's holdings consist of over 70,000,000 pages devoted to the history of the United States Air Force.
U.S. Marine Corps Historical Division
www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Home_Page.htm
Visit this site for information on the Marine Corps Museum and oral history collection, as well as historical research and reference services.
U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
www.history.usmc.mil
Find out about the history of the U.S. Coast Guard, and read several first-hand accounts of the Coast Guard at war.
Department of Veterans' Affairs
www.va.gov/
The web site of the government agency for veterans and their families provides a variety of resources.
Books
Letters
Carroll, Andrew, ed. War Letters. New York: Scribner, 2001.
Curtiss, Mina, ed. Letters Home. Boston: Little, Brown Company, 1944.
Edelman, Bernard. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. New York: Pocket Books, 1985.
Tapert, Annette, ed. Lines of Battle: Letters from American Servicemen 1941-1945. New York: Times Books, 1987.
U.S. Postal Service. A Wartime History of the Post Office Department. The Printer Stone Limited, 1951.
Songs
Dolph, Edward Arthur. Sound Off! Soldier Songs from Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929.
Schmidt, Elaine. I'll Be Seeing You: 50 Songs of World War II. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 1995.
Censorship
Boyden, James. Collecting Military Postal History. Cypress, Texas: Military Postal History Society, 1999.
Carter, Russ. "Condemned APO Mail in the Southwest Pacific in WW II." Military Postal History Bulletin Vol. 39, Number 2, Spring, 2000.
Helbock, Richard W. "Censor Markings of the U.S. Army in 1942." La Posta magazine, July 1992-May 1996.
Jersey, Stanley. New Hebrides Islands Military Postal History of the United States Forces 1942-46. Chicago, IL: Collector's Club Of Chicago, 1994.
Jersey, Stanley. Postal History of the United States Forces in British Solomon Islands Protectorate During World War II. State College, PA: American Philatelic Society, 1968.
Koop, Theodore E. Weapon of Silence. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1946.
Roth, Steven M. The Censorship of International Civilian Mail During World War II. Lake Oswego, OR: La Posta Publications, 1991.
On June 6, 1944, Allied troops invaded Normandy, fighting to free Europe from Nazi occupation and end World War II.
Franklin Roosevelt restored hope after the Great Depression and led the nation during World War II. Part of the award-winning Presidents collection.
Winner, 2010 Peabody Award --- The 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the soldiers who broke ranks to bring the atrocity to light.
Robert E. Lee, the leading Confederate general of the American Civil War, remains a source of fascination and, for some, veneration.
A minute-by-minute account, on both sides of the Pacific, leading up to the surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.
America's Robin Hood who robbed not only the rich but the poor and defenseless as well, always saving the treasure for himself. Part of the Wild West collection.
The U.S. and the Soviet Union race to build the hydrogen bomb during the Cold War, thus beginning the nuclear arms race.
During World War II, more than a thousand women signed up to fly with the U.S. military as WASPS.
