The Best War Ever
Quick, what is your favorite war? If you are anything like the American masses, you are likely to say World War II. During wartime America was considered to be at its prime. America industry was booming, American soldiers were the strongest on the planet, and the nation was united as a well-integrated family. These images, which were also glamorized by Hollywood and the media, provoked people to develop a positive view of the war for decades to come. Contrary to these beliefs, World War II actually was not such a great war. To grant World War II the elusive title of the "best war ever", we must forget about the bombings and the gruesome fighting battles while exaggerating only the good things. In his book "The Best War Ever", Michael C.C. Adams challenges the reader to question their thoughts and experiences pertaining to America and World War II. Most people do not have first hand experience and go only by what they have seen and heard from the media, which makes "the result a cleaned up, cosmetically enhanced version of reality"(Adams 9). Adams attempts to debunk the myths pertaining to the misconception of glamorous battle conditions, the best fighting weapons, and a perfect home front in order to d
Lacking also were submarine and torpedo designs, which used gasoline engines instead of diesel that were easily susceptible to flames (Adams 72). Because Americans could not experience first hand the horrors of war, they "vouchsafed an ignorance of war's reality that allowed them to cherish an innocent belief in the clean and bracing atmosphere of battle" (Adams 73). As time progresses, only the good of the World War II comes out and what is forgotten is thought to never have existed. Most Americans were unaware of just how gruesome conditions really were as they were cognizant only to the glamour of fighting depicted for them through Hollywood and the media. After all there was nothing tasteful about watching someone be blown up or being killed by a flying human head. Americans had the advantage of being spared the knowledge of the bloodshed because they never saw the battlefront or left the safety of the states. Without the familiar faces of their wife and children, soldiers became lonely and unhappy. Due to their lack of intensity, Americans often needed air and artillery support when attacking so they would not be easy targets for enemies. As a result our views of World War II have been reinvented. Because, with the exception of Pearl Harbor, there were no battles fought on American land, Americans were not given the opportunity to see the terrible conditions that soldiers endured on the front. In reality the war altered American way of life. Thus, American weapons were not the most technologically advanced and fell short of being the best in the war.
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