“I want the war to end as quickly as anybody wishes, but I don’t want the nucleus of another war left whole.” – David Webster (Ambrose, 1992).
When David Webster wrote the above statement, he was an airborne infantry soldier writing home to his parents from France in July 1944 and was referring to World War II. His point was, although his parents wanted an expeditious surrender from Adolf Hitler, Webster was accepting of an extended war effort with the condition that it completely removes the threat of another war. His fear was, should the war end too quickly, the possibility would exist that the Nazis could regroup and attempt to re-start the war.