AA-2026-69FEC9
On the image
Sometime in the 1950s, the U.S. Army drove a column of half-tracks and a Sherman tank variant into what is plainly a public fairground and parked them next to the cotton-candy architecture as a recruiting and reassurance exercise. Two soldiers in fatigues stand beside the convoy looking mildly purposeful, which was the approved posture for a man whose job that afternoon was to let civilians touch a vehicle that had been obsolete since Normandy. The Army called this kind of display a 'Civilian Interest Program,' a name that assumed civilians were interested. The fairground pavilions and amusement towers carry on behind the armor with the cheerful indifference of things that have nothing to prove, while the half-tracks sit on the asphalt demonstrating, without meaning to, that the most powerful military in the world had decided its best argument was a field trip.
Visually related — by likeness
Army Hardware at the Fair, 1950s USA. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-69FEC9. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/army-hardware-at-the-fair-1950s-usa.
@misc{aaAA202669FEC9,
title = {Army Hardware at the Fair, 1950s USA},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-69FEC9},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/army-hardware-at-the-fair-1950s-usa}
}TY - ART TI - Army Hardware at the Fair, 1950s USA PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-69FEC9 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/army-hardware-at-the-fair-1950s-usa ER -
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