George G wrote:
Then why is it after over 60 years is the Red Cross apologizing for
their actions. They wouldn't even mention it because they figured we
would all be dead by now. But some of us are still here and it is
coming back to haunt their organization. So easy to blame the
government for their actions. George

To make a gesture to heal old wounds -- but while real, this is one not
of their direct responsibility of causing.

While I don't have a link to an online copy of it, there was, in fact, a
directive from Henry Stinson, FDR's Secretary of War, to the Red Cross
requesting they establish facilities overseas open to _all_ Allied
forces, not just American. Since the Brits and Aussies were being
charged by _their_ supported organizations, for overall morale within
the Allied forces it was considered mandatory to make things even for
the GIs.

As I noted previously, there was discussion all the way to between FDR
and WC on the problems of morale owing to the discrepancies between the
Yanks and the Brits/Aussies/Candians/etc. that were imperative to try to
minimize between them. The Churchill history includes copies of every
telegram/letter/memo he wrote during the war years either as embedded in
the narrative or in the appendices. It gets to be pretty heavy
slogging, but I worked my way through every one before I quit. I
remember the issue being raised on more than one occasion. If the
action in this case taken by the US inadvertently created ill will
against the Red Cross, that was an unintended consequence. (Btw, the
sheer amount of seemingly insignificant detail that came to Churchill's
attention that one became aware of by reading those supplementary
directives is simply mind-boggling that any one person could be so
detail oriented while at the same time directing overall attention to
the largest scale operations of the war and current and present
diplomatic efforts simultaneously.)

Note I'm not saying the RC has no warts -- no organization of that size
can avoid the occasional misstep. Nor am I saying the concept of free
buns/coffee to the troops during wartime wouldn't have been a good one.
It was, however, not within the means of the Brits to provide and so
the US went along as best they knew how.

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