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

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

Sample Book Insights:

#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.