World War II History

Introduction

World war II was not only the greatest military war in annals; it was also America's most significant twentieth-century war. It conveyed deep and permanent communal, governmental and heritage changes in the United States, and has had a large impact on how Americans consider themselves and their country's place in the world.

Americans like to believe that “good friends” win, and “bad friends” lose, and, in worldwide activities, that “good” nations win wars, and “bad” nations lose them. In holding with this view, Americans are boosted to believe that the US function in beating Germany and Japan demonstrated the righteousness of the “American Way,” and the superiority of our country's form of government and society (Todd, 2008, 32-300).

This international war with the joined States and the other “Allies” on one edge, and Nazi Germany, imperialist Japan and the other “Axis” nations on the other is regularly portrayed in the US as the “good war,” a ethically clear-cut confrontation between Good and Evil.

In the outlook of British scribe and historian Paul Addison, “the war served a generation of Britons and Americans as a myth which enshrined their essential purity, a parable of good and evil.” Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme wartime Commander of American forces in Europe, and later US leader for eight years, called the battle against Nazi Germany “the large Crusade.” And President Bill Clinton said that in World War II the United States “saved the world from tyranny.” Americans are also told that this was an unavoidable and necessary war, one that the US had to wage to keep from being enslaved by cruel and ruthless dictators (Wiesel, 2009, 52-120).

Whatever concerns or misgivings Americans may have had about their country's function in Iraq, Vietnam, or other overseas confrontations, most accept that the forfeitures made by the US in World war II, particularly in defeating Hitler's Germany, were solely justified and worthwhile.

For more than 60 years, this view has been reinforced in countless shift pictures, on TV, by educators, in textbooks, and by political leaders. The reverential way that the US function in the war has been portrayed moved Bruce Russett, professor of political science at Yale University, to write:

“Participation in the war against Hitler continues nearly wholly sacrosanct, nearly in the realm of theology … anything condemnations of twentieth-century American principle are put forward, joined States participation in World War II continues nearly solely immune. According to our national mythology, that was a `good war,' one of the few for which the benefits apparently outweighed the costs. Except for a few books released shortly after the war and quickly disregarded, this orthodoxy has been vitally unchallenged (Studs, 1997, 25-600).”

History of World conflict II

Many historians have traced the causes of World conflict II to difficulties left unsolved by World conflict I (1914-1918). World conflict I and the treaties that completed it also conceived new political and financial problems. Forceful managers in some nations took advantage of these problems to grab power. The desire of ...