“The Best War Ever” by Michael C.C. Adams encapsulates World War II in a series of chapters discussing the reality of warfare. Very few things about the war are remembered accurately. People find it easier to hold on to the better parts of the war, than the true chaos and evil it was. Adams said it best with “Sometimes we conjure up the past in such ways that it appears better than it really was. We forget ugly things we did and magnify the good things.” “The Best War Ever” wasn’t everything it’s remembered for, rather, it was a time of despair for many, a time most would have preferred quick death instead of enduring the suffering that lasted for years. In the 1940’s, it was better for nations to keep up morale with a few embellishments, …show more content…
They did not have as many opportunities to express their “patriotism” for instance, often times they would pledge themselves to their country by sleeping with young soldiers. “Victory Girls” as they were commonly referred to, were known to sleep with soldiers free of charge and out of service to their country. Many girls walked away from their promiscuous lifestyle without many severe consequences. A few however, suffered from psychological damage, causing them to experience a long line of dysfunctional relationships and failed marriages. One Victory Girls said “she felt that the war had given her too much adult freedom too …show more content…
Unfortunately, everything did not fall perfectly back together. Coming to the term “The Best War Ever”, people obviously believed that this was the war that brought unison within the nation. However, this war saw more discrimination than that of the Vietnam War. Returning soldiers expected women to fawn over them at their decorated parades and ceremonies, but the sad reality was that most were greeted with nothing. Most were treated like “scum”, and many of the wounded soldiers “were treated as though diseased, and people rushed to wash their hands after greeting them.” While now, veterans are held to higher regards, shortly after returning home from war, there weren’t as many accepting and adorning civilians. Many civilians feared that the GI’s would ban together in some kind of fit and either wreak havoc on towns, or that they would come back with the expectation of better things. People were worried that soldiers would feel that the public was
Today’s veterans often come home to find that although they are willing to die for their country, they’re not sure how to live for it. It’s hard to know how to live for a country that regularity tears itself apart along every possible ethnic and demographic boundary… In combat, soldiers all but ignore differences of race, religion,and politics within their platoon. It’s no wonder they get so depressed when they come home. (Junger
Is it true Americans are rightfully notorious for creating inaccurate paradigms of what really happened in historical events Americans are tied to? Has America ever censored historical events in order to protect Americans innocent democratic reputation? After reading, “The Best War Ever” by Michael C.C Adams, I have found the answers to these questions to be yes. Some of the myths that Adams addresses in his book include: 1. America was innocent in world war two and was an ever acting protagonist in the war; 2. World war two or any war for that matter can be, or is a “good war” and bring prosperity to America; 3. War world two brought unity to Americans.
Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dispel the numerous misconceptions of the Second World War. As the title suggests, Americans came out of the war with a positive view of the preceding five turbulent years. This myth was born from several factors. Due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood's glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II. Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular illusion held that 'there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books.' (115)
As reported by the White House, women, on average, earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Writer and activist, Rebecca Solnit addresses such issues of gender inequality, as well as violence against women, in her 2014 essay, “The Longest War.” Solnit’s purpose is to shed a light onto the inequitable and detrimental treatment of women and to emphasize the need for change. She utilizes a compelling, matter-of-fact tone to optimize the effect her words will have on her readers, both male and female. “The Longest War” by Rebecca Solnit employs the rhetorical strategies of substance and delivery to highlight gender issues worldwide, evoke the audience’s rational and emotional sides, and inspire people to act toward equality.
During the Vietnam Conflict, many Americans held a poor view of the military and its political and military leadership. Protestors met returning soldiers at airports, train and bus stations, and in hometowns with open hostility. Following the conflict, and perhaps the maturing of the ‘60s generation, the view towards the military began to change somewhat. The hostility declined, but an appreciation for the military never really re-emerged during the ...
This is due to a stigma that presented itself during the Vietnam era – that is the time of the Vietnam War. Countless men were drafted into a war that no one wanted to fight. A study conducted in 1980 found that “Vietnam veterans who entered the military, served and fought in Vietnam, and were released into a hostile American society were severely handicapped” (Conflict). These men who were forced to give their lives, to become disabled in many cases, were released in this “hostile” society that hated them for doing what was not a choice on their end. They should have been honored like those who fought before them in World War II, but they were completely dismissed, despised, and left to fight for their own
Adams, Michael C. C. The "Best War Ever: America and World War II" Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 1994. Bailey, Ronald H. The Home Front, U.S.A. Time-Life Publishing, Chicago, IL. 1978 Bard, Mitchell G.
My interviewee went through a lot during World War II and sharing her amazing story left me evaluating her words for a long time, rethinking and still not willing to imagine the pain. She was one of the 150,000 American woman served in the Women’s Army Corps during the war years. They were one of the first ones to serve in the ranks of the United States Army. She recalls being teased a lot about being a young woman in a uniform but was very proud of it. Women finally were given the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national affair, especially a world war. It started with a meeting in1941 of Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers and General George Marshall, who was the Army’s Chief of Staff. Rogers asked General to introduce a bill to establish an Army women’s corps, where my interviewee, Elizabeth Plancher, was really hoping to get the benefits after the World War II along with other women. ( Since after World War I women came back from war and were not entitled to protection or any medical benefits. )
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
World War II was, quite simply, the most deadly and destructive conflict in human history. In fact, E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge, a renowned U.S. Marine who fought on the Pacific Front during the war, gave a first account of the atrocities he experienced in his 1981 memoir, “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.” He said, "It was so savage. We were savages. We had all become hardened. We were out there, human beings, the most highly developed form of life on earth, fighting each other like wild animals” (Sledge). Why, then, is World War II referred to as "The Good War" and why is it still significant today (Terkel 387)? Regardless of the pulverization, demise, and decimation, the war helped introduce a new world, one in which Hitler's Third Reich in Europe was nonexistent. Such a world was advocated by the peacemakers of the post World War II era. On June 5, 1947. The US Secretary, George Marshall, made public the United States government’s decision to aid in the political and economic restoration of Europe (Marshall).
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as
World War II has often viewed as the good war, which was fought for a clear purpose. The purpose to crush Nazism and fascism and all the horrible things for which they stood. But the consequences of World War II are much more complex than that. This has indicated that even a war, which has a good cause, can have bad consequences.