22. Patton Chews Out and Threatens The Military’s Favorite Cartoonist (Part 2)
Patton ordered Mauldin to report to his headquarters, where he berated the cartoonist. He accused him of trying to incite a mutiny, described him as an “unpatriotic anarchist”. He even threatened him with jail. However, the GIs loved Willie and Joe. Patton’s boss, Eisenhower, correctly judged that the cartoons gave soldiers an outlet for frustrations that might otherwise bubble over and get expressed in more mutinous ways. So Ike ordered Patton to back off and leave Mauldin alone. The War Office also supported the cartoons, and helped Mauldin get them syndicated in the US. His work was deemed an asset to the war effort, precisely because they depicted the dark side of war. It showed the civilians back home that victory would not come easy, but would require considerable effort and sacrifice.
The cartoons were a hit with civilians back home, earning Mauldin a Pulitzer Prize in 1945. As Band of Brothers author, Stephen Ambrose described Willie and Joe: “[Mauldin] caught the trials and travails of the GI. For anyone who wants to know what it was like to be an infantryman in World War II, this is the place to start – and finish.” After the war, Mauldin published collections of his wartime cartoons and freelanced, before joining the St. Louis Post Dispatch. He won another Pulitzer Prize in 1959. This one is for a cartoon depicting the absence of freedom in the USSR. In 1962, by which point Mauldin’s cartoons were widely syndicated, he switched to the Chicago Sun-Times. His work also appeared in numerous magazines, such as Sports Illustrated and Life. Bill Mauldin died in 2003, aged 81, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
