Book contents
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume III
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume III
- Part I American Power in the Modern Era
- Part II Competing Perspectives
- Part III The Perils of Interdependence
- 21 Borders and Migrants
- 22 Economic Catastrophes
- 23 Corporate Imperialism and the World of Goods
- 24 The Body Politics of US Imperial Power
- 25 Agriculture and Biodiversity
- 26 Worlds of International Development
- 27 Preserving Peace and Neutrality
- 28 The American Way in World War II
- 29 The Republic of Science and the Atomic Bomb
- 30 Visions of One World
- Index
28 - The American Way in World War II
from Part III - The Perils of Interdependence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume III
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume III
- Part I American Power in the Modern Era
- Part II Competing Perspectives
- Part III The Perils of Interdependence
- 21 Borders and Migrants
- 22 Economic Catastrophes
- 23 Corporate Imperialism and the World of Goods
- 24 The Body Politics of US Imperial Power
- 25 Agriculture and Biodiversity
- 26 Worlds of International Development
- 27 Preserving Peace and Neutrality
- 28 The American Way in World War II
- 29 The Republic of Science and the Atomic Bomb
- 30 Visions of One World
- Index
Summary
Like other belligerents in World War II, the United States planned to annihilate the enemy, civilians as well as soldiers. Especially in the Pacific theater but in Europe as well, Americans drew on the experience of their own horrible Civil War. Victory would be accomplished through the utter destruction of evil, often going beyond moral boundaries and evoking moral qualms. Americans would defend the soldiers fighting a supposedly “good war,” as commentators later called it, against murderous ideologies. But in decades of reflection afterward, the American way defied notions of goodness. Surely, there were no panaceas, noted author Paul Fussell, to win a war but through killing.1 The war was a necessary fight against genocide and aggression. Yet tens of millions needlessly perished, and the United States shared responsibility for this outcome.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of America and the World , pp. 659 - 683Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022