This book examines war veterans' history after 1945 from a global perspective. In the Cold War era, in most countries of the world there was a sizeable portion of population with direct war experience. This edited volume gathers contributions which show the veterans' involvement in all the major historical processes shaping the world after World War II. Cold War politics, racial conflict, decolonization, state-building, and the reshaping of war memory were phenomena in which former soldiers and ex-combatants were directly involved. By examining how different veterans' groups, movements and organizations challenged or sustained the Cold War, strived to prevent or to foster decolonization, and transcended or supported official memories of war, the volume characterizes veterans as largely independent and autonomous actors which interacted with societies and states in the making of our times. Spanning historical cases from the United States to Hong-Kong, from Europe to Southern Africa, from Algeria to Iran, the volume situates veterans within the turbulent international context since World War II.

As a consequence of World War II, there were more than 100 million war veterans living in different regions of the world in 1945 while in subsequent decades, the number of people with war experience further increased with new armed conflicts in Asia and Africa. However, veterans have been largely neglected in global historical accounts of the post-1945 era. Spanning historical cases from the United States to South Africa, from Algeria to Iran, this book offers a global perspective into veterans' history since World War II. Cold War struggles, racial conflict, decolonization, development, and contested memories marked the experiences of veterans in the making of our times.