The Good War?

"The Good War" is an oxymoron. Referring to death and destruction as a "good" thing sounds completely twisted, and in complete conflict with the values of freedom and liberty that America professes to espouse. The most basic freedom is the freedom to live and exist as a human being. Killing a person is the ultimate way to take a person's liberty.

The flip side to this is that dying for a cause is the most noble action a person can take. American deaths in WWII were not the most numerous compared to other wars, and were incredibly small in comparison to the losses of the other combatants. This was partially due to America's later entry into the war, and its preparedness. Military leadership was a great factor, and Patton's quote - "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - crystallized American outrage from Pearl Harbor and a determination to win. Until Gulf War I, it was also the last major war that the U.S. won.

WWII lives as "The Good War" in American memory, but the definition of "good" differs. The generation that lived it has a different meaning for "good" than those that followed, who see the events through a filter of history, which as we all know is written by the victors. As Ellen Goodman wrote:

The men I know who have a paid-up membership card in the greatest generation talk less of wartime heroism than of camaraderie and scared-to-the- bones hope of survival. They share a certainty that the war itself was right. By which they mean necessary.

My own research confirms this. I have learned that a longtime suspicion that Roosevelt knew Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked and allowed it to happen has been proven true. The US had broken the Japanese radio code sometime beforehand, and had received plenty of other warnings throughout 1941. I thought how terrible that was, and how many innocent men died. But I also thought about how Pearl Harbor was what got America off its duff in time to win the war. My grandfather, who was barely 30 at the time, said that before Pearl Harbor "we were in no condition to fight a war. The military was in no condition..." A lot of innocent men died. But we won the war.

Another gentleman I spoke to was a military supply truck driver in Burma during WWII, and his recollection was similar to Goodman's observation: "Everybody pulled together. It was quite a time, then." No mention of "We nuked those Japs good! Or "We kicked Hitler's @$$!." This is in direct contrast to how we learned about war in middle school history class, where we learned that America never lost a war and we cheered out loud for American victories (real or perceived) of the past.

Wheatcroft's statement:

Was it ‘‘a noble crusade’’? For the liberation of western Europe, maybe so. Was it a just war? That tricky theological concept has to be weighed against very many injustices. Was it a good war? The phrase itself is dubious. No, there are no good wars, but there are necessary wars, and this was surely one.

is certainly confirmed by recollections of those who lived then and fought in that war. The war was necessary in that it was one, from our side, of self defense, and this was proven to be true. It is known that in war the aggressor sets the rules. Our actions then were just to the extent that we matched the aggressor's brutality with our own. War is hell, and this is why. Winning after being attacked requires that the attacked emulate the attacker, taking on some of the very characteristics and values they are fighting against.

The glorification of the U.S. victory in WWII does distract from the real, more troubling issues that Americans need to deal with at home. Our troops are sent to the other side of the planet to "fight for our freedom", while more is being done to destroy our freedom through economic stresses and curbing of civil liberties in clear violation of the Constitution. A nebulous, faceless group of Arab terrorists don't hate our freedoms, they hate our government. If they hate the American people it is due to our complicity in allowing our government to do what it does in our name. This is why Fascistic governments require an enemy. As a highly qualified fascist, Hermann Goering said at Nuremberg:

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Works Cited

Goodman, Ellen. "Memories of the "Good War"." San Francisco Chronicle 21 May 2004. 06 Jul 2005 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/21/EDGD56OL3S1.DTL

Wheatcroft, Geoffery. "How Good was the Good War." The Boston Globe 08 May 2005. 06 Jul 2005 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/05/08/how_good_was_the_good_war?pg=full