Not just lack of damage; both World Wars were hugely profitable for the USA. The “arsenal of democracy” didn’t work for free.
Paying the WWI French debt to the Americans was the final blow that killed the British Empire.
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For some – the people already in power. The Beats, visible minorities, and other groups had a different picture. It was also a much more conformist society, with those in power leveraging the Allied victory as proof the post-war status quo was the right thing to do – never mind things hadn’t actually been that way during the war.
Susan Faludi pointed out in Backlash that during the 1950s, there was actually an increase in the number of women with out-of-the-home jobs, contrary to the pop culture references of the time, which means they were constantly being told contributing to the household income was wrong. Add to that homophobia and its co-opting by McCarthyism, generally increasing toxic masculinity, and that’s a whole lot of people not getting to share in that strength and confidence.
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Not his, his speechwriters’. Yes, after reading David Halberstam’s “The Fifties”, that’s been made more than clear to me, as well as the old copies of “YANK” that I’ve found (incredibly racist when it comes to speaking of the Japanese, too). And the slicing up of Europe…I just keep learning more and more about that. Dad didn’t speak of his experiences in the Pacific in WWII very deeply, but he was fascinated by the whole war. I suppose being more talkative about the European Theater was a way of dealing with what he went through.
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The speechwriter puts it in but the President gets to decide whether to say it.
(My father despite being British loathed Montgomery and Churchill and is a great fan of Eisenhower, so don’t disillusion me too much.)
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Montgomery was a vicious twit and Churchill was the canonical example of the stopped clock. So he’s at least 2/3rds right.
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I’m just writing some moderately random thoughts on someone else’s blog, not an academic work in which I try seriously to unpick the threads of history. And the only things on which I ever offer advice are my technical specialisations, and fewer and fewer of those as I get older.
However, I note your disappointment in my posts, and will take what I consider to be appropriate action.
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Read David Halberstam’s “The Fifties”; I’ll let that disillusion you instead.
Generals shouldn’t be POTUS. There was only one who did a decent job of it, and he was an anomaly, George Washington. Ike dragged his heels on desegregation in schools because he didn’t want to offend any of his rich, Southern friends. He could’ve halted Gary Powers’ last flight, but didn’t.
Ooops, sorry! But he simply wasn’t a good POTUS. As military organizer, sure! But…again, sorry, he didn’t stop Joe McCarthy from bad-mouthing General George C. Marshall (THE greatest US military man of the 20th century, IMNSHO). Ike wouldn’t’ve been anything in the military without Gen. Marshall.
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Can we agree that thank the Fates MacArthur just faded away?
My dad’s favorite modern General was Stilwell. As for Marshall, I never knew of such things until you just informed him. What I’ve read has him being an coming back as SecState after retired as SecDef. I thought it was Mac whom everyone hated.
Anyhow, things seem to be pretty fucking bad everywhere in the world.
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Yes. But Marshall had overall direction; he must have known MacArthur was obsessed with his own prestige, and it was Marshall’s replacement system that caused a lot of the problems in the Pacific.
However, on reflection I was unfair to him, and I’ve edited the post accordingly.
Your father seems to have excellent taste in generals.
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He didn’t like CKS. Or Patton. Bradley he was okay with. Dad and Mom were FDR/Truman Democrats till the day they died. Does that explain a lot of my views, I wonder, LOLOLOL?
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“You think you’ve gotta go on TV to talk to me? You treat me like a baby!” Trump added, according to Green’s account of the meeting.
“Am I like a baby to you? I sit there like a little baby and watch TV and you talk to me? Am I a fucking baby, Paul?”
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Holy shit he actually said that.
Half of everything that comes out of that expired cheese’s mouth sounds like it’s from the world’s worst mob movie parody.
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Earning your profile name one day at a time!
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But…but George Carlin said we should pray to Joe Pesci instead of God…
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- Hillary Clinton
- Donald Trump
- Joe Pesci
- God
0 voters
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Did you know he started off as a musician?
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I knew he was a DJ in TX of all places…
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With the guy whom I think went on to “The Andy Griffith Show”…and we share a birthdate, only…um, 31 years apart, lol:
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