The Returning Veteran

This film from March of Time looks sympathetically at the problems facing the men who were being discharged from the American armed forces as the war neared its end. Physical and mental trauma could be treated - we see a veteran becoming adept with his new prosthetic arm and a young man undergoing psychotherapy to cope with the horrors he saw in the Pacific - but the film also considers more mundane, but no less significant problems, such as unemployment and marital breakdown.

This issue emphasises American society’s debt to the men who had fought in the war and the social, medical and political mechanisms that were being put in place to help them. From Army Separation Centres - where 90,000 men a month were demobilised - to legislation such as the G.I. Bill of Rights, and Veterans’ Service Centres, which offered medical help, employment advice, and general support, the film is at pains to emphasise how seriously the country was taking the problem. The only ominous note is the reference to demagogues such as Gerald L.K. Smith - founder of the America First Party - who attempted to capitalise on veterans’ discontent by recruiting them to their own organisations.