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The meaning of Madingley: Anglo-American commemorative culture at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery

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Journal of Transatlantic Studies Aims and scope

A Correction to this article was published on 01 March 2022

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Abstract

On completion in 1956, the design of the Cambridge American Military Cemetery at Madingley intentionally downplayed individual sacrifice in favour of an emphasis on government-led collective endeavour to uphold national ideals. The design commemorated the defeat of the Axis but in the Cold War also reaffirmed these ideals to allies and ideological enemies alike. Yet from the beginning, the meaning of Madingley has been fluid, negotiated and transcendent of the original fixed design. This article explores the impact of major social and cultural change, the rhetorical activity of politicians, institutional imperatives and the desires of local host communities on the meaning of this major node of Anglo-American commemorative culture. In doing so, it traces the growth of an emphasis on individual service and sacrifice that has replaced the original focus on government-led national enterprise with a more portable meaning able to support the desires of different commemorative constituencies. American politicians have used this to garner support for their policies, institutions have used it as a survival strategy and the host nation has used it as a comforting mask to obscure awkward disparities in national power. Although the commemorative meaning of the site has changed radically, it remains a window on the wider conservative dynamics of Anglo-American commemorative culture.

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  1. Ron Robin, Enclaves of America: The Rhetoric of American Political Architecture Abroad, 1900–1965 Princeton, 1992 and also his ‘“A Foothold in Europe”: The Aesthetics and Politics of American War Cemeteries in Western Europe,’ Journal of American Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, Apr., 1995. Thomas H. Conner’s War and Remembrance: The Story of the American Battle Monuments Commission (Lexington, 2018) is similarly unable to devote much specific space to Madingley. Kate Clarke Lemay covers the American World War II memorials in France in depth in Triumph of the Dead – American World War II Cemeteries, Monuments, and Diplomacy in France (Tuscaloosa, 2018).

  2. Kenneth Rose, Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II London, 2007 and John Bodnar, The Good War in American Memory Baltimore, 2011.

  3. John Bodnar, ‘Saving Private Ryan and Post-war Memory in America’, American Historical Review, Vol. 106, No. 3 2001, pp. 805–817.

  4. Sam Edwards, Allies in Memory – World War II and the Politics of Transatlantic Commemoration c. 1941–2000 Cambridge, CUP, 2015. Ron Robins, Enclaves.

  5. Fiske Kimball ‘Worthy of Their High Mission,’ New York Times 12 November 1944.

  6. Conner, War and Remembrance, pp. 15–23.

  7. Robin, Enclaves, p. 110.

  8. Robin, Enclaves, p. 113 and ‘Paul Cret Obituary,’ New York Times 9 September 1945.

  9. Conner, War and Remembrance, p. 183.

  10. Brig Gen. Thomas North to Quartermaster General, Major General Thomas Larkin n. d. and Shenton ‘They Will Never Be Forgotten,’ New York Times 30 May 1945 quoted in Robin, Enclaves, p. 122 and 110.

  11. Ron Robin, Enclaves, p. 110–111. Robin argues for a concerted campaign by the ABMC to apply ‘moral pressure on the bereaved families’ to keep the bodies overseas he does not footnote his evidence for this assertion. Conner, War and Remembrance, p. 197 and footnote 50 argues that although the ABMC wished the dead to remain overseas, the evidence is lacking in ABMC files for any concerted campaign.

  12. Edward Steere and Thayer M. Boardman, Final Disposition of World War II Dead Department of the Army Historical Branch, 1957, 307–319. These were not necessarily all combat deaths, as many would arise from accidents or routine morbidity in a large service population.

  13. Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition, 310–319. The site of the former cemetery at Lisnabreeny has retained considerable meaning for the local community. See: https://gitrailni.com/gitrail/lisnabreeny-military-cemetary/ accessed 28 January 2019.

  14. Steere and Boardman, Final Disposition, 310.

  15. Robin, Enclaves, pp. 14–15.

  16. ABMC History https://www.abmc.gov/about-us/history accessed 1 August 2018.

  17. Richard Pells, Not Like Us – How Europeans Have Love, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II New York, 1997, pp. 78–79. Robin, Enclaves, p. 121.

  18. Pells, Not Like Us, p. 79.

  19. Robin, Enclaves, p. 116.

  20. Robin, Enclaves, p. 126.

  21. Robin, Enclaves, pp. 116–117. Robin actually uses the term ‘scrapped classical’ following the public language of contemporary critics such as Aline Louchheim rather than ‘stripped’ as the professional architectural term.

  22. Conner, War and Remembrance, p. 192; Robin, Enclaves, p. 117.

  23. Aline B. Louchheim, ‘Memorials to Our War Dead Abroad,’ New York Times 15 January 1950.

  24. John Canaday, ‘Our National Pride: The World’s Worst Sculpture,’ New York Times 25 June 1965.

  25. Robin, Enclaves, pp. 121–122 and Jane De Hart Matthews, ‘Art and Politics in Cold War America,’ American Historical Review 81, October 1976.

  26. John Harbeson ‘Our Memorials Abroad,’ National Sculpture Review: American Battle Monuments Issues Winter, 1955 quoted in Robin, Enclaves, p. 120.

  27. ‘Elected to Presidency,’ New York Times 10 January 1951, ‘Re-elected to Presidency,’ New York Times 9 January 1952 and ‘Wheeler Williams Obituary,’ New York Times 13 August 1972.

  28. Robin, Enclaves, p.128.

  29. Canaday, ‘Our National Pride,’ New York Times 25 June 1965.

  30. Suzie Harrison, Cambridge American Cemetery ABMC email to G Cross, 1 August 2018. The cemetery staff are able to tell the African American burials from indications on the original interment cards rather than any physical records on the graves themselves.

  31. Robins, ‘A Foothold,’ p. 60.

  32. See After the Battle No 59 (1988), 30–50. J Robert Lilly and Michael Thomson, ‘Executing US Soldiers in England, World War II: Command Influence and Sexual Racism,’ British Journal of Criminology Vol. 37 No. 2 Spring, 1997, pp.262–288. Conner, War and Remembrance, p.213.

  33. Ron Robin, ‘A Foothold,’ p.55.

  34. John Harbeson, ‘A Collaborative Undertaking,’ A.I.A. Journal 36, August, 1961, p.34 quoted in Ron Robin, ‘A Foothold,’ p. 66.

  35. Cambridge American Military Cemetery and Memorial (American Battle Monuments Commission, undated), 7–8.

  36. Bodnar, Good War.

  37. This is the older sense of the term that stresses crusade against fascism Mark Stolar, ‘The Second World War in US History and Memory,’ Diplomatic History Vol. 25 Issue 3, July 2001 p. 386.

  38. Robin, ‘A Foothold,’ p. 64. See also John Bodnar, ‘Saving Private Ryan and Postwar Memory in America,’ The American Historical Review, Vol. 6, No. 3 June 2001, p. 801.

  39. Robins, ‘A Foothold,’ p.59. Conner, War and Remembrance p. 70 notes personal inscriptions were possible after World War I, but were not available to families after World War II.

  40. Robin, ‘A Foothold,’ p.60.

  41. American Battle Monuments Commission, Cambridge American Military Cemetery and Memorial, ABMC, undated, pp. 22–23, Edwards, Allies, p. 20.

  42. Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith – Religion in American War and Diplomacy (New York, 2012), pp.440–441.

  43. Preston, Sword, p.441.

  44. Preston, Sword, p.417 and 441.

  45. See Beacon Planning Heritage statement, p. 9. http://plan.scambs.gov.uk/swiftlg/MediaTemp/1122459-385962.pdf accessed 1 August 2018. Rosamund Harding, the owner, donated the land from the Madingley Hall Estate, but it became property of the University of Cambridge before construction of the cemetery. There was considerable local opposition to the cemetery in 1943 due to rural conservation concerns. See Edwards, Allies, pp. 67–68.

  46. American Battle Monuments Commission, Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial undated, p.1.

  47. Jonathan P. Herzog, The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America’s Religious Battle against Communism in the Early Cold War (New York, 2011).Preston, Sword, p. 434 notes Washington’s support for Christian democratic movements in France, Germany and Italy as an anti-communist measure at this time.

  48. Dianne Kirby, ‘Divinely Sanctioned: The Anglo-American Cold War Alliance and the Defence of Western Civilization and Christianity, 1945–1948,’ Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 35, No. 3 July, 2000, pp. 389–391. See also Preston, Sword, p. 429.

  49. Kirby, ‘Divinely Sanctioned,’ p. 399 and 412. On British anti-Americanism see J. Lyons America in the British Imagination 1945 to the Present New York 2013, pp. 7–34.

  50. For further discussion of these social and generational changes see Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s Oxford, 2000, James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States,1945–1974 Oxford, 1997 and John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974 New York, 1991.

  51. Savage, Monument Wars, 261–284.

  52. See https://www.ushmm.org/ accessed 8 August 2018.

  53. Bodnar, ‘Saving,’ p. 807.

  54. Edwards, Allies, p.158.

  55. Bodnar, ‘Saving,’ p. 817.

  56. Mark Stolar, ‘The Second World War in US History and Memory,’ 2001 pp.391–392 and Bodnar, ‘Saving,’ p. 804.

  57. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation London, 2001. For a critique of the phenomenon, see the earlier Michael C. C. Adams, The Best War Ever: America and World War II Baltimore, 1993 and Bodnar, Good War.

  58. See https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/history-highlights/american-memorial-chapel-1958 accessed 22 November 2018.

  59. Fiske Kimball, ‘Worthy of Their High Mission,’ New York Times 12 November 1944.

  60. Edwards, Allies, pp.62–64.

  61. Lyndon B. Johnson ‘Remarks to Members of the Delegation to the D-Day Ceremonies,’ 3 June 1964 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26292 accessed 1 August 2018. See also Jimmy Carter ‘Normandy, France Remarks of the President and President Giscard d'Estaing on Visiting the Site of the D-Day Landings,’ 5 January 1978 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29994 accessed 1 August 2018.

  62. Edwards, Allies, p. 177.

  63. Jimmy Carter ‘Remarks,’ January 5, 1978 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29994 accessed 22 August 2018.

  64. Douglas Brinkley ed., The Reagan Diaries (New York, 2007), 245. On Reagan’s policy aims, see Edwards, Allies, p. 178.

  65. Ronald Reagan ‘Remarks at a Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-day,’ 6 June 1984 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40018 accessed 22 August 2018.

  66. Douglas Brinkley, The Boys of Point du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion New York, 2005 p.7. See also Edwards, Allies, pp.190–191.

  67. George Bush ‘Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Persian Gulf Crisis,’ 11 September 1990 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/264415 accessed 12 February 2019.

  68. George Bush ‘Address,’ 11 September 1990 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/264415 accessed 12 February 2019.

  69. ‘Gulf War Widow Wins Test of Wills,’ unattributed contemporary news article in ‘Capt. Caldwell Burial File’ held at Cambridge American Military Cemetery.

  70. Mrs T Wise to ABMC 19 June 1991 in ‘Major Dennis G. Wise Burial File’ Cambridge American Military Cemetery.

  71. John Major ‘Speech at United States Cemetery in Cambridge,’ 4 June 1994 http://www.johnmajorarchive.org.uk/1990-1997/mr-majors-joint-speech-with-bill-clinton-4-june-1994/ accessed 12 February 2019.

  72. Author interview with a Cemetery Associate at Madingley 20 April 2013. The cemetery does have interments from 1946. The ABMC now states that it has closed all its foreign cemeteries unless the deceased are from the conflict memorialised, but presumably, given the example of Caldwell and Wise, families may be able to circumvent this using the influence of politicians. See https://www.abmc.gov/about-us/faqs accessed 22 August 2018.

  73. William J. Clinton, My Life London, 2004, p. 522.

  74. William J. Clinton ‘Remarks at the United States Cemetery in Cambridge, UK,’ 4 June 1994 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50286 accessed 22 August 2018.

  75. William J. Clinton ‘Remarks,’ 4 June 1994 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50286 accessed 22 August 2018.

  76. See William J. Clinton ‘Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France,’ 6 June 1994 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50297, ‘Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day at Utah Beach in Normandy,’ 6 June 1994 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50299 and ‘Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day at the United States Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1994 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=50300 accessed 22 August 2018.

  77. ‘Remarks by Vice President Al Gore at VE Day Commemoration, May 6 1995 Cambridge American Military Cemetery, Madingley, England’, in Second Air Division Journal Vol. 34 No. 3 Fall 1995, pp.15–16 http://www.heritageleague.org/files/1995-09-small.pdf accessed 22 August 2018.

  78. George W. Bush ‘Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony in Colleville-sur-Mer, France,’ 27 May 2002 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73018 accessed 23 August 2018.

  79. George W. Bush ‘Remarks,’ 27 May 2002 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73018 accessed 23 August 2018.

  80. George W. Bush ‘Remarks at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the Netherlands,’ 8 May 2005 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73635 accessed 24 August 2018.

  81. Barack Obama ‘Remarks on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France,’ 6 June 2009 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=86253 accessed 24 August 2018.

  82. On Obama’s plans for the 70th anniversary of D-Day see http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/02/11/obama-will-travel-to-normandy-for-70th-anniversary-of-d-day/ accessed 31 October 2018.

  83. Margaret Thatcher, ‘Interview for Woman’s Own,’ 23 September 1987 https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689 accessed 15 March 2019.

  84. Margaret Thatcher Toast to Ronald Reagan 8 June 1982 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/research/speeches/60882b accessed 15 March 2019.

  85. Alex Danchev, ‘Tony Blair’s Vietnam: The Iraq War and the ‘Special Relationship’ in Historical Perspective,’ Review of International Studies Vol. 33 Issue 2 April, 2007, pp. 189–203 and P. Porter, ‘Last Charge of the Knights? Iraq, Afghanistan and the Special Relationship,’ International Affairs, Vol. 86 No. 2 2010, pp. 355–375.

  86. Gordon Brown Speech to Congress https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/04/gordon-brown-speech-to-congress accessed 14 March 2019.

  87. Tony Blair ‘Doctrine of the International Community,’ 24 April 1999 http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/speech-archive.htm?speech=279 accessed 15 March 2019.

  88. Tony Blair speech to Congress 17 July 2003 https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/2000-/An-address-by-Prime-Minister-Tony-Blair-of-the-United-Kingdom-to-a-Joint-Meeting-of-Congress/ accessed 14 March 2019.

  89. Dianne Kirby, ‘Anglo-American Relations and the Religious Cold War,’ Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Vol. 10, 2012, pp.167–181.

  90. John Dumbrell, ‘David Cameron, Barack Obama and the US-UK ‘Special Relationship,’ British Politics and Policy 14 March 2012 eprints.lse.ac.uk/43780/ accessed 15 March 2019.

  91. David Cameron Conservative Party Conference Speech 1 October 2014 http://press.conservatives.com/post/98882674910/david-cameron-speech-to-conservative-party accessed 14 March 2019.

  92. David Cameron, ‘Speech at Imperial War Museum on First World War Centenary Plans,’ 11 October 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/speech-at-imperial-war-museum-on-first-world-war-centenary-plans accessed 14 March 2019.

  93. Michael Gove, ‘Why does the British Left insist on belittling true British Heroes?’ Daily Mail 2 January 2014 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2532930/MICHAEL-GOVE-Why-does-Left-insist-belittling-true-British-heroes.html accessed 14 March 2019.

  94. ‘David Cameron Announces £50 m Fund,’ The Guardian 11 October 2012 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/11/david-cameron-fund-world-war-one-commemorations accessed 14 March 2019.

  95. ‘Theresa May to mark Armistice Centenary,’ The Independent 9 November 2018 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/remembrance-day-2018-theresa-may-macron-france-belgium-charles-michel-wwi-armistice-centenary-a8625421.html accessed 14 March 2019.

  96. George W. Bush ‘Remarks,’ 27 May 2002 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73018 accessed 24 August 2018.

  97. The ABMC Annual reports between 2004 and 2018 are available at https://www.abmc.gov/about-us/annual-reports accessed 24 August 2018. For the ‘new’ goal, see the 2005 Annual Report, p. 11.

  98. See https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/normandy-american-cemetery#.W6uHHyXwapo accessed 26 September 2018.

  99. Figures are an estimate provided by local ABMC staff at Madingley. Suzie Harrison, Interpretive Guide Email to G Cross 1 August 2018. The ABMC plans to install turnstile counters to accurately record visitor numbers.

  100. Projections document of uncertain origin provided by former cemetery guide Arthur Brookes to G Cross in 2013 detailed annual visits of 75,000 (including 15,000 US visitors). The ‘expectations’ detailed were 80,000 for 2014, 85,000 for 2015 and 90,000 for 2016. The current visitor estimates indicate this was somewhat ambitious.

  101. For example, the displays contain panels on Eighth Air Force fighter pilots Don Gentile and William Cullerton, both of whom survived the war. The centre also currently (as of September 2018) a substantial display board provided by the veterans organisation, the Eighth Air Force Historical Society.

  102. ‘Program for the Ground breaking Ceremony for the Normandy American Visitors and Interpretive Center’ 28 August 2004 quoted in Conner, War and Remembrance p. 231.

  103. The ABMC has a statutory duty to take guidance from Fine Arts Commission. The British listing system put in place by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 applies at Madingley designating aspects of the site as of ‘exceptional interest’ (Grade I) and ‘particularly important’ (Grade II). As such, permission must be given by local planning authorities for any demolition, extension or alteration. See Heritage statement, p.15 http://plan.scambs.gov.uk/swiftlg/MediaTemp/1122527-386021.pdf. accessed 2 February 2019.

  104. See https://www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/new-visitor-center-be-built-netherlands-american-cemetery#.W6uWqE2oupo accessed 26 September 2018.

  105. Robin, Enclaves, p.132.

  106. https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/visitor-centres accessed 14 March 2019.

  107. See http://www.thenma.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/ accessed 14 March 2019.

  108. See http://www.thenma.org.uk/whats-here/the-remembrance-centre/ and http://www.thenma.org.uk/about-us/news-stories/national-memorial-arboretum-sets-date-for-157m-transformation-as-fundraising-reaches-milestone/ accessed 14 March 2014.

  109. George W. Bush ‘Remarks at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the Netherlands,’ 8 May 2005 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73635 accessed 24 August 2018.

  110. See https://www.adoptiegraven-margraten.nl/en/general-information/our-history/ accessed 24 August 2018. Another example is Epinal, see https://www.usmgef.org/l-association-the-organization/ accessed 24 August 2018.

  111. George W. Bush ‘Remarks,’ 8 May 2005 http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=73635 accessed 24 August 2018.

  112. See https://www.degezichtenvanmargraten.nl/index.php/en-US/about-the-project/foundation accessed 24 August 2018.

  113. See the ‘Faces of Cambridge’ Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1558897781081169/ accessed 31 October 2018.

  114. See ‘The Faces of People Buried in Cambridge American Cemetery are Being Brought to Life,’ That's Cambridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z338CkAwHko and https://2ndair.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/faces-of-cambridge/ accessed 28 September 2018. See also ‘Moving Project Scheduled for Cambridge Cemetery,’ Cambridge Independent 18 May 2017 http://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge/moving-project-scheduled-for-cambridge-cemetery-over-bank-holiday-1-5022101 accessed 24 September 2018.

  115. ‘CWGC Joins Forces With Shrouds of the Somme.’ https://www.cwgc.org/learn/news-and-events/news/2017/11/09/18/50/cwgc-joins-forces-with-shrouds-of-the-somme-to-launch-first-world-war-legacy-project accessed 14 March 2019.

  116. ABMC Appropriation Requests 2005–2019 are available here: https://www.abmc.gov/budget-and-performance accessed 26 September 2018.

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    Graham Cross

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Cross, G. The meaning of Madingley: Anglo-American commemorative culture at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery. J Transatl Stud 20, 129–159 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s42738-022-00086-5

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