To the Journal editor:

My father served aboard the USS Janssen, a destroyer escort, in World War II, mostly in the North Atlantic. While serving on the Janssen, he participated in the capture and sinking of a U-Boat, the U546.

When I was a boy, he told me that the German prisoners they took on board were nearly ecstatic.

They knew the war was over for them, and that they would be treated well by the United States.

He guessed that the expectation of good treatment made them more willing to surrender, which overall probably saved American lives.

My wife has a similar tale to tell. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois. There was a prisoner of war camp near there, and when she was a young girl she heard the adults talk about it.

The prisoners were well treated, and when the war was over many of them chose to remain in the United States.

(The one wrinkle was that when they were fed corn they thought they were being tortured, because in Germany corn was for cattle.

The Red Cross had to explain to them that in the U.S. – especially in the Midwest – everyone ate corn.)

How different things are now. The expectation of good treatment was part and parcel of America’s moral leadership in the world — what some like to call American exceptionalism.

We were of the world but in some sense above it as well.

People looked to us to do the right thing. Not that Americans were saints. Churchill said you can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve exhausted all other possibilities.

Right now the Trump administration seems to be stuck in the “exhaust all other possibilities” phase. I hope we’ll get to the “do the right thing” part of the program soon.

Tom Gutowski

Elmwood Township

Leelanau County