The term first appeared in The New York Times on Sept. 10, 1944, just over three months after the Allies took the beaches at Normandy and began their march inland. Nine days later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered government agencies to begin making plans for the demobilization of the roughly three million civilians supporting the war effort. “The transition from war to peace should be carried forward rapidly,” Roosevelt said. “This is the time to do the planning, although the war — even in Europe — is not over.”
Over the next six months, the Allied forces squeezed the German army along two fronts back to its prewar borders, and by spring, the end of the war felt close at hand. On May 7, 1945, the news of Germany’s surrender spread quickly around the world. » | Friday, May 8, 2020