1939-1948 War: The Last Good War

Many Americans who lived through what was the most destructive war in history still refer to it as “the last good war.” Not that any war is good and not that there weren’t terrible sacrifices, but World War II, as TIME dubbed it, was a war that had to be fought and won. This was an unambiguous struggle between good and evil. It was not just about national interests but also about values. Hitler and Tojo had to be defeated; there was no doubt about it. The U.S. was the “home front”; the “war effort” was priority No. 1; and complaints were met with a standard reply: “Don’t you know there’s a war on?” The country felt extraordinarily close to its far-off troops–sons, nephews, the kids who lived down the street. They were always “our boys.” The unity of belief, purpose and effort felt surprisingly good.

At the center of the war’s vast changes was the military–transformed by the nation into a colossus and, in turn, transforming the nation into a superpower. From an Army of 1.7 million and a Navy of 160,000 on the eve of Pearl Harbor, America’s armed forces grew to 12.3 million men and women by May 1945.

The parades and the generous G.I. Bill of Rights that welcomed these veterans home was a new experience for a country that had never gone willingly into foreign entanglements. Only late in World War I was Woodrow Wilson finally forced to send a New World expeditionary force to rescue the Old. Even then American opinion was not fully convinced it was necessary to fight Kaiser Bill. When the victorious doughboys sailed home, they were almost ignored, and when they marched to Washington to demand a promised veterans’ bonus, the U.S. Army drove them out of town.

No war since 1945 has been as popular. Korea was a strung-out, bitter bloodletting that ended in a stalemate. What ever happened to unconditional surrender? That had been the victory slogan for World War II, and the U.S. now seemed to expect nothing less every time. If Korea was not a good war, Vietnam was a distinctly bad one. The 15-year struggle in Indochina was even bloodier, more costly and harder to understand than Korea, and its support ebbed away. As the war wore on, it filled U.S. streets with demonstrators, tore up university campuses, split society and families, dragged down a President and came close to destroying the Army. While the G.I.s of World War II were loved, the grunts of Vietnam, no longer “our boys” in the same way, were reviled and sometimes spit on.

Grenada and Panama, mere incidents, were over too soon to be judged. The U.S. military’s redemption had to wait until the Gulf War in 1991–at last, another good war. National interests–oil and gas–were at stake, and so were values. Again, the enemy was a mustache-wearing dictator who had invaded his neighbor. A fair number of Americans were hesitant, but the morale-boosting triumph came quickly, with few casualties among the troops–all of whom were tough, highly trained professionals.

So the war against Iraq joined World War II as a standard for a good war, one that the American people could support fully and feel was just. It is a very high standard, requiring an evil enemy, a vital stake in the struggle, an overwhelming victory and–now–low casualties. In the future, very few conflicts will meet it.