Veterans Affairs Quickly Reverses Ban of Iconic WWII “Kiss” Photo at VA Facilities After Twitter Exposé
After VA plan to erase WWII history from VA facilities causes massive public backlash, VA almost instantly reverses course without any explanation
Late last week the VA ordered all facilities to take down the iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” “Kiss” photo that adorned the walls of many VA facilities, a story broken by Twitter/X user @EndWokeness:
EXCLUSIVE:
The Department Of Veterans Affairs just BANNED the V-J Day kiss photo from all department facilities.
"To promote a culture of inclusivity and awareness… your cooperation is vital." pic.twitter.com/MZfNHbpV76
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 5, 2024
But less than two hours after @EndWokeness broke the story Tuesday morning, the VA Secretary, Denis McDonough, reversed the order:
Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities – and we will keep it in VA facilities. pic.twitter.com/dYSikLxHAJ
— Secretary Denis McDonough (@SecVetAffairs) March 5, 2024
Notice that Secretary McDonough doesn’t mention the memo.
Militarytimes.com has the story: VA reverses plan to ban iconic WWII kiss photo from medical sites:
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough is overruling plans to ban the famous Times Square kiss photo marking the end of World War II from all department health care facilities, a move criticized as political correctness run amok.
The ban was announced internally at VA medical facilities late last month in a memo from RimaAnn Nelson, the Veterans Health Administration’s top operations official. Employees were instructed to “promptly” remove any depictions of the famous photo and replace it with imagery deemed more appropriate.
“The photograph, which depicts a non-consensual act, is inconsistent with the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and assault,” the memo stated.
“To foster a more trauma-informed environment that promotes the psychological safety of our employees and the veterans we serve, photographs depicting the ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ should be removed from all Veterans Health Administration facilities.”
The memo garnered public scrutiny after it was posted online by the X account EndWokeness on Tuesday.
“Garnered public scrutiny” — now there’s an understatement. Take a look:
V-J Day in Times Square Photo:
Banned by “Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Operation’s” RimaAnn O. Nelson To Promote “Inclusivity” https://t.co/N8qdcdh8D8 pic.twitter.com/uoL98NNHRa
— Liberty Times & Politics (@dmills3710) March 5, 2024
It's worth noting that RimaAnn O. Nelson is the former director of the St. Louis VA, where 1,800 vets were exposed to HIV.
She's unfireable, it seems. https://t.co/A1CsXdZncf— 👣ℙ𝕖𝕕𝕣𝕠'𝕤 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕖🇺🇲 (@OfAthenry) March 5, 2024
This is what the STUPIDEST person at the Department of Veterans Affairs, @DeptVetAffairs, looks like!
RimaAnn O. Nelson is a Communist that hates America 🇺🇸 https://t.co/9v6V63whFi pic.twitter.com/9g1hbDnSzP
— Peter McConeghy (@petersthoughts) March 5, 2024
I’ve left out some posts that even offended me, and nothing offends me. Military Times continues:
Officials said the memo should not have been sent out and was formally rescinded on Tuesday. They did not provide details of whether senior leaders were consulted on the matter ahead of Nelson’s memo.
The photograph was taken by journalist Alfred Eisenstaedt in New York City on Aug. 14, 1945, as Americans celebrated Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. Other journalists, including military reporters, also captured the moment.
The shot shows a U.S. sailor grabbing and kissing a woman he did not know amid a joyous, party atmosphere in Times Square. The identities of the individuals in the photo have been disputed over the years.
In her memo, Nelson noted that use of the photo in VA facilities “was initially intended to celebrate and commemorate the end of World War II and the triumphant return of American soldiers. However, perspectives on historical events and their representations evolve.”
Nelson wrote that the non-consensual nature of the kiss and “debates on consent and the appropriateness of celebrating such images” led to the decision. Senior leaders did not provide an explanation for the reversal.
A little research has revealed that Under Secretary Nelson, whose VA bio is available here, was indeed implicated in the VA scandal where numerous vets were exposed to HIV. From a late 2016 Daily Caller article:
To turn around the most troubled Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in the nation, officials have selected a woman who left her last hospital in disgrace after it ranked dead-last in patient satisfaction among the agency’s 126 hospitals nationwide.
Rima Ann Nelson has been named the next leader of the Phoenix VA, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
In St. Louis, Nelson oversaw a hospital that potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV and whose operating rooms were closed twice for serious medical safety issues. Patients and employees both gave it the worst possible marks for trustworthiness. The Democratic congressman who represented the area around the facility said mediocrity “thrives” under Nelson and he was astounded that she was still employed by the VA….
Among a complex string of horrible metrics for St. Louis during Nelson’s tenure there, a 2012 review of 27 nurses’ personnel files in St. Louis found only half had required documentation of their competency. Auditors found “a lack of effective nursing leadership.” Nelson is a nurse. Employees told a local TV station that veterans were left sitting in feces for days.
“If [the St. Louis VA] were a ship or a military unit, the commander would have already been relieved,” then-Rep. Todd Akin, a Republican, wrote in 2011.
Apparently at the VA they kick you upstairs instead of firing you.
Importantly, Military Times verified that Nelson’s memo is legit, and @EndWokness isn’t shy about taking credit for the VA’s reversal:
BREAKING: Military Times authenticates the memo banning the V-J kiss at the VA.
The memo was sent on Thursday.
It was rescinded today after we leaked it.https://t.co/Sue8dvCNsk— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 5, 2024
Of course, the bigger story might be that this reversal would never have happened without Twitter/X, and Elon Musk:
If not for X, these images would have been banned from all VA facilities by the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/6keUxeqGIP
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 5, 2024
As a 70% service-connected disabled veteran who has spent more than my share of time at the VA, all I can say is that this whole episode just makes me sad. There are some good people on the front lines at the VA trying to do their best, but the leadership is questionable.
Just leave WWII alone.
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“Did I call it or what?” -George Orwell
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” -George Orwell
Apparently at the VA they kick you upstairs instead of firing you.
I seem to recall (dimly) back in the day there was this thing called the Peter Principle.
Ty James… great article..
It’s alive and well.
This is what the Peter Principle was about, promoting them to their level of incompetency, in some cases, that includes hiring them.
Good! Now finish the job and fire Nelson !
Rather than fire her (with her big pension) keep her on the payroll but send her somewhere like Gaza, Yemen, Haiti, Cuba etc. Where they will certainly listen to her complaints–and then act accordingly.
Nobody would ever lay a spontaneous smooch on this porker, RimaAnn O Nelson. It’s always the ugliest chicks screaming about sexual assault and old post-menopausal women screaming about abortion rights. They are sick fantasists.
If you hadn’t said, I would have. And you said it better than I had planned.
Looks like Petunia knew she would never have caught the sailor’s eye.
Of all the crippling institutional problems that are negatively impacting the VA (and consequentially, our VETERANS), some imbecile thought the thing to do this week was ban one of the most iconic photos in history?
This level of stupid is not fixable.
Fire this bovine buffoon.
Feminists offended by poster art from the greatest generation, but support military base drag queen shows and rachel levine trannys? smh
Hot on the heels of finding out the VA is prioritizing care for illegal aliens over my fellow Vets we have this classic example of an incompetent civil servant who is not just incompetent at her job but is more interested in pushing wokeness. She should be terminated but won’t be. I mean, what does the healthcare of our Veterans matter when there is an agenda to push
Biden giving illegal aliens access to veterans hospitals?
Not directly. What’s going on is the ‘community care’ option that allows Veterans to choose a local Physician/provider instead of traveling to a distant VA facility. The Biden admin is having the VA process the treatment/claims of illegal aliens using the same VA personnel who are supposed to review/approve requests/claims for service of Veterans DESPITE the massive backlog in approval of Veteran claims.
So as a practical matter a Veteran seeking VA approval to use community care or other claim for support takes a backseat to illegal aliens. That is on top of the burden put on local Physicians, providers and hospitals by illegal aliens in many areas. After all there is a limit to the # of patients that a local community can provide for and every illegal alien taking one of those slots means a Citizen including Veterans can not receive care in that slot.
No. Directly. The illegals are being put in front of our men and women.
No it is indirectly in that the claims of Veterans are being held up by use of the personnel who would otherwise be processing those claims being redirected to work on illegal aliens health care claims from the hospitals.
I don’t like this shit either but lets always be truthful about the facts. The VA is not bumping any Veteran out of an appointment slot with a VA provider and replacing the Veteran with an illegal alien. That would be direct but that’s not what’s happening.
Yup. You miss that story? Some have been pushed out over 6 months to receive the treatment they earned. I’m not surprised, though. The Corporate Press buried it.
Any veteran (8 yrs RegF, 16 yrs AirNG) has seen worse. Does this incompetent woman think this photo is more stressful than combat?
.
Most of them believe that words can be violence.
Asked and answered.
Thank you for your service.
your speech is violence, their violence is speech.
Don’t shoot the messenger, but Snopes weighed in and answered:
“Did Biden’s VA Ban Iconic ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ Photo?”
They said the idea was FALSE.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/times-square-kiss-ban/
The reasoning is grossly tortured saying the memo banning the photo was only a suggestion and never intended to be distributed and therefore any insinuation that the photo was going to be banned as not true.
They even quote the tweet by VA Secretary Denis McDonough as “proof” the ban wasn’t real. The problem with that is that it seems that the tweet by McDonough is one of a strict “NO. We aren’t doing that. Period.” with a rebuke behind the scenes rather than a public slap across the face of Nelson.
So even though there is a memo directing the removal of the picture that was sent out, and even though the Secretary of the VA had to step in and say “no,” in the eyes of snopes. the whole incident was “false.”
Never happened.
You’re mistaken.
Nothing to see here. Move on.
It’s another case of the so called “fact checkers” denying the facts.
The problem was the immediate and deafening backlash.
If it were 2 men kissing it would be front and center in all the VA’s
I seem to vaguely recall that several decades after that picture was taken, the two people in it were tracked down and interviewed. The woman said she was surprised but not offended and certainly not traumatized.
This is typical of leftist activists, acting more offended than the people involved in the alleged offense.
More importantly, of course, it is unrelated to getting our veterans the care they need. This is also typical: A failed leader paying attention to extraneous trivia rather than to the objective.
But this kind of massive incompetence is exactly what gets rewarded in the US today.
This iconic image was not the only image of people kissing that day. Multiple people, multiple photos taken by multiple photographers:
https://time.com/3983663/v-j-day-kiss-times-square/
Here’s what Alfred Eisenstaed, the photographer of the picture, wrote about the photo:
As for the people in the photo:
This is a case where a sheltered, incompetent, ignorant, person cannot imagine the overwhelming joy at the end of a 6 year global war, was now over. Moreover, after the causalities suffered on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, there was a great relief in the idea that “more of our fathers, sons, brothers, mothers, daughters, sisters are not going to have to die invading Japan.
If that is not a cause for exaltation – and wanting to share that joy with everyone – nothing is.
In the book “Churchill’s Toyshop” there’s an account from the commander of that unit — he was officer of the day on V-E day, and was kept busy handling celebrations that got out of hand. They included his wife and another officer attempting to drive a Sherman tank into a church. Yes, alcohol was involved.
We cannot understand the relief of total war coming to an end, and should take that photo as an expression of the universal joy at the war ending.
You know its almost as if the people who are all on board banning ANYTHING fun actually need to be sent off to war so they can actually appreciate what it means to be free…but like proper war, one where they are up the sharp end and not stuck in some safe little command centre behind a computer screen doing the cross word.
Never forget that when these morons talk about “diversity” and “inclusion,” it is strictly one-way: THEIR way, or the highway.
That is why whenever you see stock photos depicting DEI, it’s always brown-skinned people and rainbow warriors. Because such are the only ones who count.
“A diverse and inclusive group of people.”
The swamp wants no reminders of how great America was before they destroyed its collective natural libido.
I love how the whale determined that the kiss was “non-consensual”.
Did she ASK miss Friedman if she objected to it?
Or was this just another drive-by opportunity to do some damage to our culture?
Guess
Now do memos that never happened, directing spying on churches.
Not hard to see why she hates to see others kissing.
I’ve worked at the VA for over 20 years, many of those at a high management level, and can affirm that there are a lot of great staff there that are dismally served by a senior leadership who are utterly clueless about what Veterans truly need. This failure is baked into the promotion system and can never be overcome.