Cal Whipple Has Passed

His is not a name many of us know, but his work during World War II in ending military censorship changed the way we understand wars. David W. Dunlop at The New York Times wrote the story about how Cal Whipple went up the chain of command to get George Strock’s photo of three dead Americans published.

Mr. Whipple and his colleagues at Life believed that Mr. Strock’s photograph would provide a badly needed dose of reality for those on the home front who were growing complacent about the war effort. “I went from Army captain to major to colonel to general,” he recalled in a memoir written for his family, “until I wound up in the office of an assistant secretary of the Air Corps, who decided, ‘This has to go to the White House.’”

(Thanks to colleague Dr. Janice Hume for the link.)