To express anger over civilian deaths, Herblock refers to the ancient Greek statue Winged Victory of Samothrace (ca.190 BC). On the eve of World War II, it was clear that the airplane had changed the nature of war. Armies, no longer dependent on ground forces, had the potential to eliminate hundreds of thousands of civilians from above in the name of combat. On June 3, 1938, in Washington, Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State, denounced aerial atrocities in Spain and China that killed many civilians.