k5083 wrote:
If anything, American attitudes lag a bit behind some of the rest of the world in terms of realistic appraisal of the war, and maybe this is the cause of some of the dissatisfaction among Americans that their cherished view of events is not always enthusiastically endorsed.
Yeah, and more than anything, they have what I call a "One mindset" view of that (and any other) time. Everyone was 100% behind the war, we all rolled up our sleeves, etc.
I was on a tour of Normandy with other Americans in May and
none of them but myself, my wife and the guide had any idea a lot of GIs were drafted. They also had no idea that the war wasn't very well received back home (especially by 1944 when the draft classifications were slackened and formerly-4F types were being called up as well as the rationing).
In no timeframe will you find a single mindset on anything.
This is the same thinking that today leads people to think the US Civil War was fought over
one single issue which dominated every thought, action and deed of those who fought in it.
Reality is molded by human behavior, which has almost limitless amounts of random activity.