“ World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, made it hard for Americans to continue their optimism. ”
War creates many strange juxtapositions, perhaps none stranger than this: men who are doing their utmost to kill other men can transform in a split second into lifesavers. Soldiers who encounter a wounded man (often an enemy) become tender, caring angels of mercy. The urge to kill and the urge to save sometimes run together simultaneously.
~ Stephen Ambrose
Winning the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history, the sine qua non of our forward progress.
It would not be possible to praises nurses too highly.