The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has apologized for trying to cancel one of the most famous antiwar images of the century.
The iconic LIFE magazine image shows a soldier in Times Square kissing a woman in celebration of the end of World War II. A Veterans Health Administration’s top operations official recently sent a memo instructing employees to “promptly” remove any use of the photo because it “depicts a non-consensual act” and “is inconsistent with the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and assault.”
As the Military Times points out, “the identities of the individuals in the photo have been disputed over the years.” CBS News claims to have reunited the kissee and the kisser in 2012 and they certainly did not seem traumatized by it.
After backlash about canceling this photo, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough reversed course and said that“This image is not banned from VA facilities – and we will keep it in VA facilities.”
