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In one way or another, all of these Government functions and payments on behalf of its veterans come under Bradley's Administration, which employs 106,000 doctors, lawyers, actuarial experts, clerks and investigators; operates the nation's biggest insurance business (15 million service personnel policyholders) and is the biggest socialized enterprise in the capitalist U.S. It is also a business which will expand for many years to come. Examples:
On its medical staff, which is run by Major General Paul Ramsey Hawley, formerly chief surgeon in the ETO, are 2,700 doctors. In the next 10-15 years, Hawley estimates, he will need 7,000. Only a small percentage of the patients will have service-incurred ailments; only 14.7% of the general medical and surgical cases in VA's care today are service-connected cases. But the VA, prodded chiefly by the American Legion, has undertaken to care for all veterans, no matter how, when or where they got hurt. If the country continues that policy, warns Hawley, "hold your hat."
What will it all cost? No one knows, but it is possible to get a rough idea from the continuing costs of previous wars. By the end of last November (latest available figures) the U.S. had paid out:
¶ $70,000,000 to the soldiers of the Revolution and their kin. (Account closed.)
¶ $46,218,330.57 to the pensioners of the War of 1812, the last of whom died only last month. (Account closed.)
¶ $61,646,168.97 to the pensioners of the Mexican War, of whom 50 survivors are still being paid.
¶ $96,587,799.25 for the Indian Wars, plus bounty land to most of those pensioners, who included Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant; 3,787 still survive.
¶ $8,123,938,565.93 to pensioners of the Civil War; still surviving: 22,880, who draw a monthly total of $903,614.65.
¶ $2,240,004,117.27 to pensioners of the Spanish-American War; almost $12 million a month is currently being paid out.
¶ $5,615,270,224.68 for World War I—so far.
¶ $538,177,299.85 for World War II pensions—in the first three postwar months.
These figures, representing pensions only, do not include the costs of hospitalization, administration, rehabilitation. To pension, care for and heal all the soldiers & sailors of all their wars so far, the U.S. people have paid out a total of $30 billion.
And the drain has only begun. The veterans of World War II may ultimately number 16,000,000. World War II's huge omnibus program made all former veterans legislation look like nickel jitney rides. Deeply aware of their obligations, nevertheless U.S. taxpayers had reason to feel misgivings, as the nation embarked on the most far-reaching veterans program in history. How long, it might well ask itself, does a war last?