America’s Favorite War
Over at Whatever, Mr. Scalzi refers to WWII as “America’s favorite war”. Yes, indeed.
The flood of WWII films, novels, and video games tells us as much. And why not? In that conflict, the bad guys were clearly bad - aggressive genocidal expansionists! - and the good guys clearly good. It’s basically the story of America saving the world from the forces of evil (with a little help from the Brits, Russians, and even the Canucks). Our wars since have been much messier. The Korean War (or police action) is still an open conflict, and the Vietnam War - well! You know. Not to speak of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, unwinnable morasses with unclear motivations, against dogged and vague foes. When we play Call of Duty, we remember a time when warfare was simple, legalized killing. Us versus them, with Western Civilization at stake. Simpler times.
WWII makes a good story. And all it took was sixty million dead!
(Don’t let that little sarcasm make you think I’m demeaning the enormity of the event. When I finished the last Call of Duty, planted the Soviet flag in the Reichstag, and the credits told me, “World War II claimed over sixty million human lives,” I got chills. I understand the obsession that made Jeff Mangum record “In the Aeroplane over the Sea” [an elegy to Anne Frank]. The war is an open wound in our history, and anyone with sufficient historical sensitivity - historical empathy - can be quickly whelmed by the magnitude of the thing. Well done, men and women of D-Day; we value your sacrifices, and hope like hell that such sacrifices are never needed again.)
June 7th, 2009 at 2:32 am
WWII paints an interesting contrast compared to WWI. After WWI, the idea of heroism, nationalism and the entire concept of was became a albatross around the lives and states of many of the great nations. They were glad the conflict was over, but they looked upon it was a needless waste wherein millions of lives were lost and brutal, inhumane nature of the killing was more than any nation could handle. The Germans after WWI even felt they had been robbed of a proper defeat. Their since of national pride would eventually give rise to WWII.
But after WII, the feeling was much more jubilant. It was a period of tense, sacrificial build-up which finally exploded in an orgasm of consumer spending and American sense of invincibility and moral righteousness. We came out of the conflict feeling better than ever, a renewed sense of vigor. And suddenly we felt the justness and moral black and white of war, a feeling that would lead most certainly to later wars and “police actions” from then on out.
Another way to view it is that WWI almost destroyed western civilizations desire for war and bloodshed, but WWII taught us to love killing again.