The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort During World War II, 1941-1945" (2012)

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The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort During World War II, 1941-1945 East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2012 The nI visible Enemy: The ffecE ts of Polio on the American War Effort during World War II, 1941-1945 Jacob Owen Bryant East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Bryant, Jacob Owen, "The nI visible Enemy: The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort during World War II, 1941-1945" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1404. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1404 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Invisible Enemy: The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort during World War II, 1941-1945 _____________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of History East Tennessee State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in History _____________________ by Jacob Owen Bryant May 2012 _____________________ Dr. Stephen Fritz, Chair Dr. Emmett Essin Dr. Henry Antkiewicz Keywords: Poliomyelitis, World War II, National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Military Medicine, Infectious Disease ABSTRACT The Invisible Enemy: The Effects of Polio on the American War Effort during World War II, 1941-1945 by Jacob Owen Bryant This thesis looks at the social, political, and military effects of epidemic polio on America’s war effort during World War II. The primary sources consulted include newspapers, military medical reports, photographs, memoirs, speeches, and archival collections. It looks at the effects of polio on the home front, more specifically how epidemics and the rising rates of polio were a detriment to the civilian war effort. It also focuses on the American military’s preparation for and response to polio outbreaks among troops both at home and abroad. Finally, it discusses the experiences of the servicemen who contracted polio during the war. This work fills a major hole in the historiography of the disease and highlights the overlapping interests of the public, the medical community, and the military during a time of war. 2 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to both of my grandfathers, William Allen Bryant Jr. and John Ambrose Cox. Both of these men put their lives on hold to fight for the United States during World War II, one as a member of an anti-aircraft battery in Europe, the other as a ball-turret gunner in the Pacific. The war changed both of their lives and while my thesis only tells the story of one, they were both major influences in the choice of my career as well as my area of interest. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance of a number of individuals who offered me support, gave me input, and helped edit each draft. In particular, several members of the faculty and staff of the History Department at East Tennessee State University played key roles in the conception, formulation, and ultimately creation of this project. Dr. Dorothy Drinkard-Hawkshawe was the first individual to give me the courage to pursue the theme of polio in the military when I was unsure that I would be able to find enough sources in the short time allotted. Dr. Melvin Page took over from there, teaching me about the initial steps that are required to get such a project off the ground. Dr. Page also reviewed, commented upon, and edited the first drafts of my bibliography and what would become my introduction. Finally, Dr. Page went out of his way to ensure that I was considering specific aspects of the disease poliomyelitis such as Post-Polio Syndrome. Certainly I would not have been able to complete this project without the help of my thesis committee. The chair of this committee, Dr. Stephen Fritz worked with me every step of the way to build this finished process. He offered guidance when I was unsure of how to proceed; helped build the framework that guided my research and ultimately the finished project; and edited each chapter thoroughly and returned them so quickly that I was never completely sure where he found the time. Dr. Fritz also allowed me to focus one of my seminar research projects on a comparative study of the American and German medical corps during World War II, which allowed me to build a foundation of knowledge on the medicine of this period that proved vital to this project. 4 Dr. Emmett Essin also played a major role in this project. During my first year here at ETSU, Dr. Essin allowed me to explore Franklin Roosevelt, polio, and other related topics in both his seminar on FDR and his seminar on the 1950s. Dr. Essin also facilitated the presentation of a portion of my research at the Biennial National Convention of Phi Alpha Theta in Orlando, Florida, where he was on hand to provide me with guidance and support. Finally, Dr. Essin reviewed the final copy of this thesis. The final member of my thesis committee, Dr. Henry Antkiewicz, allowed me to write a seminar paper on the China-Burma-India Theater which helped build the foundation of several aspects of this thesis. He also edited the final product, providing me with valuable criticism. Conducting the research for my thesis would certainly have been more difficult had it not been for the generosity of the History Department here at ETSU and its Chair Dale Schmitt. The department provided me with a generous research travel grant that allowed me to conduct a week’s worth of research at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Southwest Regional Archive in Fort Worth, Texas, an opportunity that would have never been possible otherwise. Furthermore, the Department was generous enough to provide me with another travel grant to attend the Phi Alpha Theta Conference in Orlando, where I was able to get valuable feedback on an aspect of my research. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of the History Department’s Executive Aide Sharon Chandler, who does so much for us Graduate Students. From completing the paperwork for and processing grants, to countless other tasks, Ms. Chandler certainly improves the lives of the History Department’s graduate students. 5 I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Kristen L. Lawson of Pittsburg State University who reviewed my conference paper for the Phi Alpha Theta Conference in Orlando and offered me valuable feedback and vital context for my topic. I am not sure that I would have been able to survive this process without my fellow graduate students. While this is certainly a competitive environment, we have worked hard to stick together. Through much needed distractions and empathizing with what each one of us was going through I believe we have collectively made ourselves stronger. This project required a significant amount of primary research, and this process has been made easier by a number of individuals. First, the staff of the Legislative section at the National Archives in Washington, DC was extremely helpful in guiding me to valuable congressional records that related to my topic. The staff at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland was also helpful in allowing me to look at several of their military records collections. Finally, the staff at the NARA Southwest branch in Fort Worth was extremely friendly and helpful in finding the records of the Army and Navy General Hospital. I would also have been unable to complete this project without the help and support of my family. My aunt and uncle, Lisa and Greg Bryant, allowed me to access my grandfather’s military records. Likewise, my uncle, Richard Bryant, provided me with my grandfather’s scrapbook, which made much of this project possible. My parents, Allen and Vicki Bryant, also played a major role in this project. Not only did they support me, both morally and financially (when needed) throughout the entire process, but they also allowed me to bounce ideas off of them. Furthermore, since I was too young for my memory to be completely reliable, my father also served as my fact-checker on the story of my grandfather. 6 I could not have accomplished this without the support of my brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Courtney Bryant, or my sister and her fiancé, Jenny Bryant and Jordan Sangid. Through their support and our intellectual sibling rivalry I have been pushed to get the most out of my academic opportunities in Graduate School. Finally, none of this would have been possible without my fiancée Eliza Shelton. She has been unparalleled in her support and encouragement. Furthermore, I believe she should be given an award for putting up with me throughout this entire process. She has had to endure my unflinching focus on this project, our lack of any real summer vacation, long days devoted to nothing but research and writing, and finally my inability to converse about any other topic. She has heard every sentence in this thesis verbalized in some form or another too many times to count. Eliza is also my editor, especially when it comes to punctuation and specifically my penchant for the overuse of semi-colons. She has been my librarian; often acquiring books for me that she thought might be of some use. She has also been my research assistant, helping me scour collections at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
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