July 29, 1945

Len darling,

Another Sunday, the loveliest day of the week. It’s later afternoon and I just finished writing a few letters. Wrote a V-mail to Uncle Joe and letters to Jack + the folks- that represent about the extent of my activities for today. It’s nice out + Irv + I took a little walk earlier in the afternoon. Last night Irv + I had an interesting + stimulating discussion on world politics and before we knew it, the hour was afte 1 A. M. I speculated what kind of a world this would have been or would be if U.S.A. should ever become aggressive and this led to some interesting topics ofdiscussion – We agreed in principle. After seeing other countries + history bears out the fact that their form of government has been unsuccessful, we can say unequivocally + without prejudice, that we have the greatest country + government in the history of mankind. The principles of democracy ensure peace and are the nearest thing to a utopia on earth ever presented to a people. What would this world be like if it were entirely democratic – After World War I when we stood alone as the most powerful nation in the world, what would have happened if after Germany was dfeated, we kept our conquered land, took over the government + taught our language, English- What would happen if we took over South America + Canada + consolidated the entire western hemisphere into a democracy- In this war Russia has assumed undue prominence which we feel is only a prelude to her future aims – Europe is ripe for communism now and I for one fear it but can see the handwriting on the wall. Continuing with our democratic world- can you picture a world democracy with an international government and a common tongue- It was interesting to speculate about the possibilities + we felt that our theory would be the solution to world peace for generations to come. The Col. came over a little while ago + sat around for a while. He told me that Major Gautsch + Dick Schley received sudden orders last night to report to II Corps in Salzburg + left early this morning – You could have knocked me over with a feather. I don’t know the details yet but shall find out tomorrow if I can. They are plucking them left + right – At present Julien is on leave so I’m the only surgeon remaining in the whole regiment. I expect orders any day now. Time to eat supper- I’ll be back later- love you.

Hello again, my sweets. back again. A couple of officers who were formerly with this outfit _ since transferred to the 9th Inf Div. dropped in today. They gave me a note from Bob de Redon – he wrote a very nice letter telling me about his new setup – he’s about 30 miles from Munich and says that the man + officers are nice but he misses Irv, Rick + I. He asked for a few things he left behind + I sent them to him with these officers. Oh yes, when Bob left here he took my movie camera projector ’cause he was told that they are allowed to mail things home – He wrote that he mailed it home so I hope that it reaches home O.K.- Just happened to think that there will be nobody home when the package arrives – Bob is going to try to get down here one of these weekends- Incidentally the reason these 2 officers came back here, believe it or not, was to pick up the “frauleins” they left behind- the “shacking material” is not too good in the 9th Inf; they complained, so they drove more than 100 miles to get their personal stock of women- Oh yes, both of these officers are married men- Shocking, eh, but far from an uncommon practice.

My new MAC officers, Frank Smiles, received orders today to go to the 103rd Inf. Div. Aug. 1st. Apparently the 103rd Inf. Div. is going back to the states next month and it’s a break for him as he’ll be home sooner than he expected. He’s not a bad fellow- sort of negativistic- if you say white he’ll say black- He’s one of these ”dese” + ”dose” guys from Staten Island, N.Y. He’s engaged to an English nurse whom he met while in a hospital in England. As soon as they permit civilian travel she’s going to Canada + they’ll be married there and then go to America to live.

There are so many new faces around here that you have to look twice to see an old familiar face – Everything is so mixed up- nobody seems to know what the score is. No mail today, being Sunday, but maybe tomorrow I’ll have some goodie goodie mail from you- I hope my letter to the folks today soother over the hurt I gave them accursing them of wanting to sell the pistol- I wonder if you’ll get to see Jack while you’re in Florida. He should be able to get a flight over to Boca Raton.

How’s our darling Pat today? Is she excited over her prospective flight to Florida? I’ll bet when they “rev” up the motors it will fighten her but once in the air she’ll be an inquisitive little thing (like Nana + mommy) and want to see everything? Give her a big hug + squish for me and for you too. Nothing more to write about, darling, so I’ll say “goodnight,” my adorable sweethearts. I love you + adore you with all my heart + soul. How I miss you.

Love to Jim, Helene + It.

All my love to my two young ladies-

Hal

P.S. Enclosed is an article from Stars + Stripes on joy riding- I like the one about the general.