"You can't win if you get infected with VD"
This poster was created for the Display Advertising Division of the United States Committee of Public Information.
By the end of World War I, more than 10,000 American soldiers were recovering, not from battlefield wounds, but from sexually transmitted infections. At that time, hospital stays for the treatment of venereal disease (VD) ranged from 50 to 60 days, which significantly undermined the combat capability of the units and wasted valuable time. The French military command was in a very difficult position. They had to cope with this problem without going beyond the bounds of decency.
The French government considered the solution to the problem by opening brothels where women were screened (although not always thoroughly) for the disease. The British Army Council expressed fears that by imposing a ban on visits to these institutions, the feelings of the French would be offended. The United States had no such remorse and banned the military from visiting brothels. British and American military leaders have imposed severe and severe penalties for sexual abuse of the rules. Towards the end of the war, they also produced posters reminding soldiers of the dangers of venereal disease.
Early posters appeal to soldiers' patriotism and compare venereal diseases to yellow fever and plague. In the years following World War I, syphilis and gonorrhea were an acute public health problem in the United States. Penicillin was not widely available in the army until 1943, and the civilian population did not gain the right to use it until 1945.
The Public Works Administration (WPA), through a federal art project, produced posters for local and state health departments, many of which encouraged men and women to get tested and portrayed sexually transmitted diseases as a threat to families and negatively impacting productivity.
With the outbreak of World War II, the military again had to worry about the problem of venereal diseases at the front. American posters have been produced by both the Army and Navy and the Public Health Service. Certain popular editions have been translated into French, Italian and Spanish. As in World War I, some posters from the 1940s equated being infected with a venereal disease to helping the enemy. Others portrayed women as deceitful, disgusting seductresses.
It is difficult to say what impact these pictorial warnings have on disease prevention. But they probably helped make the sensitive topic of sexually transmitted diseases more open to discussion in society.
In the Soviet period, the topic of the spread of venereal diseases among the front-line soldiers was hushed up in order to maintain the bright image of a soldier-liberator. And yet, already in 1951, a 35-volume work “The Experience of Soviet Medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Vol.27: Skin and venereal diseases (prevention and treatment).
The book does not indicate how often the Red Army soldiers became victims of "love" adventures. Only general data are named. The authors noted that, although these diseases were present in the Soviet troops, they were encountered at times less often than among the Germans or Americans.
The very fact that an entire volume of the publication was devoted to the problem suggests that the Red Army men were exposed to venereal diseases no less often than the Allies and the Germans.
The fact that the problem was significant is reflected in the document of the headquarters of the 3rd Shock Army dated 1945-27-03.
