Summary of Elizabeth D. Samet's Looking for the Good War

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The most enduring and tenacious iteration of America’s World War II myth is the decription that the United States went to war to liberate the world from fascism and tyranny.

#2 The first tenet of American exceptionalism, which claims that the consequences of our intervention are equivalent to the causes we fight for, ignores the timing and proximate catalyst of our entry into the war.

#3 The sixth and final tenet of the American dissent process is amnesia, similar to what Martha Gellhorn called in describing the revisionist history of the Vietnam War crafted by the Reagan administration.

#4 The books by Steven Ambrose that fueled the national fascination with the World War II generation were based on his association with Eisenhower, and his adoration of the GIs who fought in the war. They largely ignore any contradictions or complexities that might be disruptive to a sentimental account of American decency and goodness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669354840

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Elizabeth D. Samet's Looking for the Good War

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The most enduring and tenacious iteration of America’s World War II myth is the decription that the United States went to war to liberate the world from fascism and tyranny.

#2

The first tenet of American exceptionalism, which claims that the consequences of our intervention are equivalent to the causes we fight for, ignores the timing and proximate catalyst of our entry into the war.

#3

The sixth and final tenet of the American dissent process is amnesia, similar to what Martha Gellhorn called in describing the revisionist history of the Vietnam War crafted by the Reagan administration.

#4

The books by Steven Ambrose that fueled the national fascination with the World War II generation were based on his association with Eisenhower, and his adoration of the GIs who fought in the war. They largely ignore any contradictions or complexities that might be disruptive to a sentimental account of American decency and goodness.

#5

The paratroopers in Ambrose’s book are motivated by a combination of patriotism and fraternity. They are not necessarily motivated by ideology, but by a sense of duty to their country and their comrades.

#6

The American military was made up of volunteers, who were generally patriotic, but also self-selecting. The laconism of GIs was interpreted as a sign of their purity of motive, despite the fact that they were also embarrassed by patriotic bombast.

#7

The Rambo franchise, which began with First Blood in 1982, marked a significant turning point in pop-culture representations of Vietnam and American violence abroad. It was alarmingly simplistic and materialistic, and it lacked any ideological zeal.

#8

The American soldier in World War II was not motivated by ideology, but rather by survival. While soldiers had a general aversion to overt ideological symbols and patriotic appeals, they still had underlying value commitments and a belief in the worthwhileness of American society.

#9

The idea of eager volunteerism rather than conscription also supports the narrative of D-Day, which closes with Eisenhower’s observation that free men will fight rather than be slaves.

#10

The American sociologist S. L. A. Marshall wrote the book Men Against Fire in 1947, which concluded that only about one in four American infantry soldiers fired their weapons at