Over There by David M. Kennedy, Oxford University Press, New York, 1980, P. 186.

The Army also undertook a campain against sexual vice that had substantial influence on postwar life. The American Hygiene Association had urged as early as 1914 that the public be educated about venereal disease, though the Association cautioned that the effort should go forward "conservatively and gradually...without impairing modesty and becoming inticence in either young or old."

Despite wide-spread concern about the debilitating effects of the "social disease," little had happened by 1917 to advance the Association's cause. Then the Army, determined to get the maximum number of "effectives" [Note: "effectives" was a term coined and used to mean active soldiers-- combat-ready personnel by today's terms.] from the mass of inductees, and not troubled by questions of modesty, launched a great anti-VD campaign. It assigned the task to the Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA), a consortium of civilian service organizations, like the YMCA, Knights of Columbus, and Jewish Welfare Board, that worked under the official Army auspice. Wanting results, the Army and the Commission cared little for reticence, and they minced no works about sexual matter. Speaking frankly of "balls" and "whores," one CTCA pamphlet carefully explained that wet dreams were normal and that masturbation, common folk wisdom notwithstanding, would not lead to insanity. The clear implication was that natural emissions, or even masturbation, was greatly preferable to potentially infectious liason.

In the same vein, the Commission placarded the camps with posters proclaiming: "A German Bullet is Cleaner than a Whore." Pamphlets (and posters) urged sexual purity in the name of patriotism. "A Soldier who gets a dose", warned a poster, "is a Traitor!"

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