MESSAGING, MISSIONS, AND MINDSETS: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF NATIONAL MESSAGING AND POLICY WHEN TRANSLATED INTO OPERATIONS AND SOLDIER ACTIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The US entered WWII with the declared intention of adhering to the Laws of War and the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Operations which apparently devalued civilian life, coupled with harsh strategic messaging led to an erosion of those values, leading to actions by individual soldiers and units, at times with the approval or even at the direction of their officers, which violated American values and the laws of war. This monograph does not judge the Soldiers of 1945 through the lens of 2013, but concludes that Americans did commit war crimes, by the standards of their own day.
Finally, this paper takes lessons from the experiences of the war’s soldiers and leaders which are applicable to the current era, suggesting ways to better prepare today’s leaders and soldiers for ambiguous moral environments in the future.