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Pieces of War Correspondence From the Nation's First Conflict to its Present One
Aired April 01, 2003 - 15:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All too often, words fail to capture the horrors of war. And sometimes they reflect the heartbreak with gut-wrenching accuracy. Such is the case with war letters, as CNN's Jeanne Meserve shows.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW CARROLL, THE LEGACY PROJECT: I've called these letters pages out of our national autobiography.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventy-five thousand pieces of war correspondence from the nation's first conflict to its present one. Collected by The Legacy Project. Some of the letters tear the soul. Like the farewell written by a World War II POW on the back of photos of himself and his family.
CARROLL: "Mommy and dad, it's pretty hard to check out this way without a fighting chance, but we can't all live forever. Loving and waiting for you in the world beyond. Your son, Lieutenant Tommy Kennedy."
MESERVE: Andrew Carroll, the force behind this project, values the mundane accounts of everyday life and hardship on the battlefront and the home front. But there are important items, too. A letter from George Herbert Walker Bush, after he was shot down in World War II. Teddy Roosevelt reflects an the death of his son. Colin Powell's condolences on the death of someone else's son.
Then there was the letter penned on Hitler's stationery by a young staff sergeant, contrasting the opulence of the furor's apartment with the just liberated concentration camp. The common theme in letters from every war: I am OK, don't worry. The most common phrase: "I love you."
Then, v-mail (ph). Today, e-mail. Carroll says electronic communications tend not to be as thoughtful as letters.
But there are gems, like the letter written to 7-year-old Connor (ph) by his dad in Bosnia. "No toy stores here," he writes. So he sends a flag over his camp in honor of Connor's (ph) birthday. "This flag represents America and makes me proud each time I see it," he writes.
E-mails and letters from Iraq are just beginning to trickle in to The Legacy Project. One of Andrew Carroll's great regrets is that these will not be the last. That the letters will keep coming as long as the wars do. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Conflict to its Present One>
Aired April 1, 2003 - 15:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All too often, words fail to capture the horrors of war. And sometimes they reflect the heartbreak with gut-wrenching accuracy. Such is the case with war letters, as CNN's Jeanne Meserve shows.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW CARROLL, THE LEGACY PROJECT: I've called these letters pages out of our national autobiography.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventy-five thousand pieces of war correspondence from the nation's first conflict to its present one. Collected by The Legacy Project. Some of the letters tear the soul. Like the farewell written by a World War II POW on the back of photos of himself and his family.
CARROLL: "Mommy and dad, it's pretty hard to check out this way without a fighting chance, but we can't all live forever. Loving and waiting for you in the world beyond. Your son, Lieutenant Tommy Kennedy."
MESERVE: Andrew Carroll, the force behind this project, values the mundane accounts of everyday life and hardship on the battlefront and the home front. But there are important items, too. A letter from George Herbert Walker Bush, after he was shot down in World War II. Teddy Roosevelt reflects an the death of his son. Colin Powell's condolences on the death of someone else's son.
Then there was the letter penned on Hitler's stationery by a young staff sergeant, contrasting the opulence of the furor's apartment with the just liberated concentration camp. The common theme in letters from every war: I am OK, don't worry. The most common phrase: "I love you."
Then, v-mail (ph). Today, e-mail. Carroll says electronic communications tend not to be as thoughtful as letters.
But there are gems, like the letter written to 7-year-old Connor (ph) by his dad in Bosnia. "No toy stores here," he writes. So he sends a flag over his camp in honor of Connor's (ph) birthday. "This flag represents America and makes me proud each time I see it," he writes.
E-mails and letters from Iraq are just beginning to trickle in to The Legacy Project. One of Andrew Carroll's great regrets is that these will not be the last. That the letters will keep coming as long as the wars do. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Conflict to its Present One>
