Overview

Several great military conflicts occurred during the first half of the twentieth century. With improved weapons came great destruction and mayhem. However, in the backdrop of arenas of war, physicians and scientists learned valuable medical lessons, later applied to civilian care, from the agony of the battlefields and the horrors of war crimes.

World War I (1914-18), including American involvement in 1917-18, took place in the trenches of Western Europe. World War II (1941-45) was a worldwide conflict with many casualties. It has been said that the only benefit from these conflicts was surgery. This statement can well be extended to medicine in general.

Throughout the world, many changes in postwar civilian medicine were a direct result of war medicine. For example, the idea of centralized medical administration and a system of free health care for all emerged, especially in Great...