"From the Battlefields of France"
by General J. J. Pershing
Record courtesy of Clarence Johnson |
The distance between over here and "Over There" is even exhibited by American leaders when they can be found on recording. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, in a Nation's Forum disc, tells the nation "everything you hold worthwhile is at stake" in the battles to come and asks that nation for its "unflinching support to the end that the high ideals for which American stands may endure upon the Earth." Besides mimicking the language and "invoking the spirits of our forefathers," especially of Lincoln at Gettysburg, a brilliant ploy for a nation still spiritually fresh in the civil War, Pershing mentions the "3000 miles from home" that the armies are fighting. Rather than impressing the listeners with the immediacy of the event, it is likely that it reminded them of the remoteness of the war and that they were not there. Even the songs that reminded them of the ugly side of war were imbued with the sense of removal and detachment.
Listen: Streaming Real Audio | Windows Media Audio | mp3
