Army & Navy - MORALE: My Son, John

"The army," said Lenin of the collapse of Russia's land forces in 1917, "decided the question of war and peace with its feet." Last week a nervous U.S. Government heard an impatient scraping of other feet—the G.I.s of a once-great U.S. Army. It had won a war with dashing gallantry but it still had a precarious political front to hold. G.I. Joe wanted to quit—and to hell with winning the peace.

There was little violence; it was more like a Union Square demonstration. But the noise spread around the world. Fueled on homesickness and low morale, the ruckus was touched off...