At the start of WW11, It would be impossible to convey to today's Americans the strong dislike between the northerners and southerners, the Catholics and Protestants, blacks and whites, and between ethnic groups.
About the only thing these groups had in common was a dislike for Jews.
WW11 changed that a lot, and interaction with other groups ironed out a lot of these animosities.
Intermarriage mongrelized this country, and made us realize one thing we all had in common was being an American.
That is under attack now from our American hating president, Obama. -tom
Yes it would, because we don't teach our children anything of value anymore. I started grade school in 1943 and the school was located near an airfield where we were training British pilots. Those old Stearman biplanes flew right over the school. We all were aware of what was going on even at that tender age.
When those old planes flew over we had an opportunity to sneak a word to our friends, otherwise we were silent.