Military

DATE=December 20, 2001

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-35709

TITLE=Christmas in a Time of War

BYLINE=Anna Zalewski

TELEPHONE=619-1287

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

HOST: This holiday season, the United States finds itself at war. Throughout our past, the most powerful images and the feeling of war have come not from front-line dispatches, but from war letters sent home by soldiers. And the most powerful of these are the letters that came home from the battle lines during the holidays. Neal Lavon takes a look at Christmas in a Time of War in this edition of Dateline.

TAPE: CHRISTMAS SONG, ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER

".I'll be missing.and I'll be reminiscing about Christmas Eve in my home town."

NL: There is probably no better way to understand the horrors of war and the sacrifices of soldiers than to read their words written so far away from home during Christmas. The messages are both intimate and universal. Many such letters were collected and published by Andrew Carroll in "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars."

TAPE: CUT#1, CARROLL,

"I think even in light of September 11th, war for many of us, because it often happens so far away, is a very abstract concept, it's not real. And in this case you see the thoughts of a young man, I think he was only 22 at the time, away from his loved ones, away from home and just the weight of war is starting to effect him very profoundly."

NL: In the fall and winter of 1942, the third year of the Second World War, American forces were battling in French North Africa. A soldier known only as "Bernie," wrote to his sweetheart, Margaret on December 24, 1942.

TAPE: AIRPORT GOODBYES, ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER AND HOLD:

NL: "My Dearest Margaret, Here it is, Christmas Eve, and what a night! I'll tell you about it when I see you. I can say, there is no peace to men of good will. I'm trying to write a letter of hope and faith and to express my love for you, Dear, but I find it so hard to do because I'm so blue that it is almost impossible to write. If I could just put my thoughts on paper, everything would be solved, but I can't. It's now 9:00 p.m. here, and 3:00 p.m. in Chicago, and I'm living every minute of this Yuletide without you, and I hope, my Dear, that you don't have as bad a time as I'm having. to keep from crying. I love you Margaret, so please be thinking of me on Christmas. Good-bye for now, Dear Bernie."

TAPE: AIRPORT GOODBYES, FADE UP BRIEFLY AND LOSE:

NL: Around Christmas of 1943, allied armies were slugging it out with the Germans in the mountainous Italian Peninsula. Again, "Bernie" wrote to Margaret about Christmas at the front.

TAPE: SILENT NIGHT INSTRUMENTAL, 2:46, ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER AND HOLD

NL: "My Dearest Margaret, Silent night, Holy Night, whoever wrote that song must have had more in mind than the birth of Christ, because that day, 1943 years ago, was, I am sure, a day of joy and gladness. Yet at the dinner table tonight, and at the Officers Club, I saw no joy. Instead, I saw men sitting and thinking with a faraway look, and I know that they, just like me, had one thought only in their mind's corner.to abandon himself to thoughts and recollections of previous years, home and the folks. (.) I started this day by going to church, (.) not a church as you know them. Oh, no, Margaret, that wasn't my church today. (.)The choir was furnished by the sound of airplane motors singing their hymn of hate as they droned overhead to present Hitler with his present and the people were in uniform - all the same, and there were no children. After that, I went to that quiet corner I mentioned before, and so eight o'clock finds me choked up and lonely, and just thinking - Silent Night, Holy Night."

TAPE: BRING UP SILENT NIGHT, FADE UNDER AND OUT

NL: The soldiers who fought in World War II on all fronts were very young. Many left their sweethearts at home, and to a large extent their wives' and girlfriends' letters sustained them, kept them positive and, most of all, hopeful. This veritable army at home missed them too, and kept dreaming about the safe return of 'their guys'.

TAPE: SNEAK "HE'S MY GUY," DINAH SHORE, ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER AND LOSE"

NL: Estelle Spero, had a fiancé, Second Lieutenant Sidney Diamond, who was stationed somewhere in the South Pacific. She was lamenting in a letter to him: "Dearest, the emptiness of everything without you is appalling. The simplest things depend on you . a walk, a conversation, a whim . everything needs you for completion and enjoyment."

TAPE: SNEAK "I'LL BE SEEING YOU" - UP AND UNDER

NL: "December 25, 1944, Darling, Christmas occasions thoughts of warmth, of friendship of giving - It says in all the papers!! - The spirit of the holiday, whether it be Chanukah, Christmas, or what have you, is a noble and satisfying one. You and I agree that to give and love but once a year is close to the ridiculous - We, at least know the happiness of Christmas all year 'round.

TAPE: SNEAK UNDER: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM AND KEEP UNDER

NL: ".The pleasure of giving is ever present with us. It is not so much with the material creations that we reward each other but each day we give a little of ourselves to each other. Don't mind the overdose of sentimentalism - Maybe it's the night - the radio which moans "Little Town of Bethlehem" - Perhaps the carols the men sing - or the quiet tropical night with the cool breeze and twinkling stars - or the remoteness of home - the loneliness of the moment Yes, today we had a community of thought. All the men - together - in a community of homesickness - Do not think harshly - or scoff at our childishness - We have so little - so little else but dreams - Enough of this - I love you 'extensively' Your Sid."

TAPE: LOSE O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM UP FOR "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS", THEN LOSE UNDER:

NL: Second Lieutenant Sid Diamond had proposed to Estelle back home while on a temporary pass in 1943, a year after he'd volunteered for the Army. One week after writing this note in the Phillipines in January of 1945, Second Lieutenant Sid Diamond was shot in the stomach. Ten days later, he died. He was 22. Like 407,316 other Americans who served in the Second World War, Second Lieutenant Sid Diamond never made it home for Christmas.

TAPE: SNEAK "WE'LL MEET AGAIN" IN FULL, ESTAB., FADE UNDER AND HOLD:

NL: Since 1945, Americans have fought in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Somalia, the Gulf. This Christmas season, American soldiers are on duty in Afghanistan, spending the holiday far from home, far from loved ones. But the bonds that draw one person to another, one countryman to another, can survive the distance and separation; and the spirit of the holiday season never dies, even if it is celebrated, not at a time of peace, but in a time of war. This edition of Dateline was written by Anna Zalewski. I'm Neal Lavon in Washington.

TAPE: "WE'LL MEET AGAIN" IN FULL, ESTAB., FADE UNDER AND HOLD MUSIC UP, PLAY AS MUCH AS NEEDED