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The War
The First Photo of America's WWII Dead
For 21 months after Pearl Harbor, American civilians saw no images of their own war dead. That changed on September 20, 1943, when LIFE published a photograph of three American servicemen killed on a New Guinea beach, with an editorial arguing that words alone could never convey what the war truly cost.
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1:28:19
President Johnson escalates the war while promising the public that victory is in sight.
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2:07:27
Germany and the Japanese surrender too and millions try to learn to live without war.
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1:59:26
By mid March, 1945, they are across the Rhine, while Russians are 50 miles from Berlin.
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2:19:15
On D-Day, 1.5 million Allied troops take part in the greatest invasion in history.
