Although Crane never served in theUnited States military, as a journalist he covered a number of conflicts for various newspapers and news services during the mid-to-late 1890s, including the Greco-Turkish War and the Spanish-American War. On page 91 of his study of Crane's life and work, Stephen Cady discusses Crane's compassion and empathy for the everyday suffering of war victims and quotes from an article Crane wrote about refugees: "There is more of this sort of thing in war than glory and heroic death, flags, banners, shouting, and victory." Crane's compassion transcended national identity, as he saw suffering resulting from war as a universal human problem rather than a primarily political one. Thus the flag in "War is Kind," though associated with a particular country, actually stands for all countries.

The Spanish-American War, which Crane covered for the New York World, lasted less than a year from...