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“The Best War Ever” and the Second World War
Introduction
“The Best War Ever” book by Michael C. C. Adams tries to dismiss the various misconceptions which surrounded the Second World War. Adams who is the author of the book suggests that the United States applied the promulgation of the myth that the Second World War was going to be “the best war ever” and thus it was able to influence its citizens that this war was certainly a noble war. Whereas post-war America was going through, “prosperity and a burgeoning middle class” (Adams, p.46) as stated by Adam, the government exploited towards the “best war ever” myth over the duplicitous demonizing of radical ideologies; particularly those of communism who exhibited diverse ideologies to their own. The myth that was used was intuitive from various factors. The external setting of both fields of the warfare, the extreme propaganda by the government, glamorization of Hollywood as well as the tremendous economic affluence. Therefore from this paper, it is evident that the Second World War was not good as individuals may be made to think as it had several challenges. Misconceptions, propaganda, economic crisis and the media industrialized the Second World War into a decently defensible experience in the United States.
Misconceptions and Propaganda
Majority of Second World War occasions have been mythologized by both Hollywood as well as the government propaganda, and therefore throughout the years, the individuals who lived during the war have maintained this mythology. Adams thus has pursued to uncover these narratives for being fabricated and oversimplified, and he sought to afford the fundamental facts which enable a more accurate comprehension of the World War II besides the widespread cultural vicissitudes surrounding it, and that is before and after the war. According to Adams( page 58), the war was not as good as the government made the citizens believe but it applied several tricks, for instance, the media exploitation use of misconceptions plus propaganda.
In “The Best War Ever” the myths which are predominantly elaborated by Adams majors around the conciliation of Germany, the splendid combat, inhibiting discrimination of the troops as well as how the second world war ended this kind of depression. Under each sub-myth Adam seems to be frequently arguing and while he seems to be exaggerating the right things, he is raising disputed aspects. Some of these controversial aspects comprise of the bombing of sixty-one Japanese towns with napalm which resulted into six hundred and seventy-two casualties. Consequently, the American Gls also did some activities like mistreating the prisoners and soldiers, precisely when combatting in the Pacific.
The Media
Michael Adams scrutinizes the part that the media played in creating of the myth that the Second World War was a noble war. In his discussions, he seems not to doubt that the war was essential and however he contends that it was made to appear a good and a civil battle by the broadcasting media. The government together with them included censored all systems of media. Adams further stresses that the reporters were unable to provide the American individuals a vivid picture of what was happening in the war. It is indeed that if the individuals were able to find out what was going on, they could have engaged in this war as according to Adams viewpoint, every battle is brutal as well as bloody. The attractive all-American mama’s lads who were regularly publicized on posters all over the nation were the similar men being murdered and murdering others across the ocean (Adams, p. 89). According to the media and the government, the individuals were not prepared to get the news regarding the American boys being killed or mutilated.
Economic Crisis
Moreover, Adams expands his argument on the myth of the war of fixing an economic crisis. According to him, in the Second World War, the unemployment crisis changed when sixteen million workers joined the military and thus leaving the other individuals at home to take advantage of the economic opportunities. By comparison, the Gulf War was fought by professionals who had already joined the forces, to make sure there existed no preoccupation of the worker pool. Adams discussions of the American war machine highpoints the most crucial in the United States strategic initiative. He describes the home front’s ignorance of the war reality, some distress in the army from interfering generals to ethnic as well as gender discrimination in national plants, and mounting alienation amid the civilians and the soldiers. Therefore there were prevalent social problems at that time while it was considered a great era of America’s prosperity and thus the country was not unified as it appeared. There was rampant discrimination against the minority, the traditional custom behaviors were broken as women plus children took the wartime roles, and the individuals experienced a deterioration in the family ethics.
In defending his arguments, Adams collected his material from poems, magazines, advertisements, journals, movies, drawings besides other various monographs. From Adam’s cases, readers can undoubtedly observe Adams striking back at some prolific historians like Stephen Ambrose who in 1992, propagated the good war myth of the Second World War in his book “Band of Brothers” which was afterward turned into a prevalent HBO ministries going by the same name (Adams, p.93). Adams defended his statements with that evidence which he says that they propagated and also amplified the same myth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident from the above discussion that the Second World War was characterized by many issues like misconceptions and propaganda which activated this war. Therefore as depicted, the Second World War was not free of flaws as it may be thought for example from the Adams book title “The Best War Ever” which can be regarded to be ironically established. The book expresses the manner in which Americans tend to reflect on the war. Adams performs this by tearing down the misconceptions about the termed “good war” by revealing an open history of war (ex. Word Count: 972).
Works cited
Adams, Michael CC. Living hell: The dark side of the Civil War. JHU Press, 2014.
Adams, Michael CC. The best war ever: America and World War II. JHU Press, 1994.
