Rockwell Files: Gathering Intelligence

The armchair general, shown here on the April 29, 1944, cover, has three good reasons to stay informed.

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During the Second World War, Americans were hungry for information about the strange locales they heard about in the news: Kursk, Anzio, Attu, Truk, Yap. The need to know was even greater when a family member was in one of those distant lands. The armchair general, shown here on the April 29, 1944, cover, has three good reasons to stay informed. The three blue stars on his banner and the three photos next to it tell the viewer he has three sons in the fight. The map on the wall shows an American flag in southern England, indicating that the Allies had not yet crossed the channel into Normandy.

Rockwell has cleverly placed Dad’s face in line with Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower. This could be a humorous cover showing an older civilian thinking he’s tracking the progress along with the other military leaders. Or it could be viewed sympathetically: a worried father desperate for news of his sons, worrying about the dangers they’re in, and trying, with every evening newscast, to chart the course of
the war and his sons’ return home.

This article is featured in the January/February 2025 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.

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