How the U. S. Military taught Americans to Smoke

Zocalo Public Square ^ | August 5, 2019 | Joel R. Bius

[re_tail20]

Subtitle

A 1918 Policy Devised to Calm Soldiers’ Nerves Sparked a Bad Habit That Was Difficult to Stop .

[Perseverando]

Yep. I remember the old Vietnam or Korean War C-rats with a little 4 or 5 pack of cigarettes in every meal.

Semper Fi!

[100American]

Smoking go way back before we were even a country and the US Military is not the nexus of it...

Silliness

[DoodleBob]

Interesting article. I'm not suggesting that smoking isn't harmful, but the fact of the matter is that there ARE trade-offs in life. Maybe the smokes helped the soldiers, and given the increasing incidence of PTSD and the ensuing carnage maybe we'd have been better off keeping the choice to smoke with the soldiers.

Relatedly, on the trade-offs of the smoking abstinence movement, I'm just sayin'...

[RightGeek]

[antidemoncrat]

“U.S. soldiers used to smoke often in historical footage, so why don’t they anymore?”

Because they are not lying in a foxhole wondering if they will be alive come sunup? In that respect, given the rise of atheism in recent years, the old saying went “There are no atheists in foxholes”.

[laplata]

In Nam we’d get cartons and cartons of cigs dropped off in the field. We’d take what we wanted and bury the rest.

[Perseverando]

More examples Here:

[dfwgator]

On the other hand, wouldn’t soldiers smoking give away their position to the enemy? I always wondered about that.

[fproy2222]

One of the first things I learned in the suevice went something like this,.

Take five!

You and you aren’t smoking, come with me.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Bingo. As someone who is doing some serious research of the American Indian Wars right now, I can guarantee that smoking wasn’t started by the “military industrial complex” during WWI.

[Drew68]

Soldiers used to smoke often in historical footage, so why don’t they anymore?

Today's military is very fitness-oriented. Unhealthy vices such as smoking and drinking excessively are frowned upon, especially among leadership.

[Perseverando]

The smoking lamp is lit!

[DIRTYSECRET]

They taught me how to drink. I’m pretty good at it.

[Perseverando]

On the other hand, wouldn’t soldiers smoking give away their position to the enemy? I always wondered about that.

At night aim for the glow of the enemy's cigarette.

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh right....In Colonial Times....tobacco was used as currency.

[unixfox]

My Grandfather started smoking when he was in the Army during WWII. He never stopped until he died of emphysema at the age of 77.

[forgotten man]

I like to watch old war movies. In the scenes where a soldier is wounded the first thing that his buddies and the medic do to help him is to fire up a cigarette and put it between his lips.

[fidelis]

“Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!” was what I heard in my time in.