Veteran’s Day is upon us again, and the slow passing of the generation of the Second World War occasions thought on their contributions.  I will let others dwell on their considerable wartime achievements.  I am an economist not a historian and so will confine myself to the tasks of my profession.  

Our 16 million World War Two veterans emerged from conflict in the late summer of 1945 to a much fractured world.  The production of goods – where it had survived bombs and artillery – was almost wholly focused on the demands of war.  A worldwide recession was imminent. All told, perhaps 85 million souls worldwide had perished, with almost half a million Americans among them.  Another million were wounded.    

The USA escaped much of the damage of war, but perhaps 10 million American servicemen (and a half million service women) had close proximity to battle.  Literally every American family was affected, and the ripples of sorrow were felt on every street.   

Emerging from this war, so close on the back of the Great Depression, would seem to have entitled returning veterans to rest and relaxation.  Instead, they turned their hands to a greater task and largely rebuilt the world.    

The World War Two generation paid for the Marshall Plan, unleashed untold private investment dollars into Europe and East Asia – bringing these utterly devastated foes back to prosperity.  Some recent scholarship has questioned the magnitude of the Marshall Plan’s economic effect; but there’s no doubt that by unleashing the gentler angel of our nature we saved Democracy in Europe.   

I saw the lasting influence of our World War two G.I.s first hand as a young infantry captain in Germany the week the Berlin Wall collapsed.  I witnessed several elderly German women pass through the ranks of my brigade with baskets of flowers. They tucked them carefully into the buttonholes of American soldiers -- the grandsons of their former enemies.   

At home, the G.I. Bill transformed American higher education, making it the unquestioned world leader.  Our veterans even ushered in such innovations from military service as the small group lectures of the MBA program (appropriated from the Infantry School curriculum).   The G.I. Bill continues to be an important benefit of military service; and I am proud to be a second generation Ph.D. financed by the G.I. Bill.   

In the factory, returning veterans contributed to the most remarkable period of economic growth in over 100 years.  The quantity and quality of American manufactured goods set the world standard for production organization and technology.  In the body politic, veterans of the Second World War contributed seven of the succeeding eight post war presidents (and were parents of two out of the remaining three).    

To be sure, the war generation produced its share of miscreants, but as a group they just won’t be thought of in that way.  There’s too much achievement for even the most cynical observer to argue otherwise.   

In the end what amazes me most about the generation that fought World War Two is their robustness. The transformation of the American economy depended on the quiet work of a generation of veteran’s who returned from the most challenging of human experiences, picked up their tools and went to work.    

On this Veteran’s day, let us remember to thank them for the world we have inherited.