Which war?

[ErikViking]

Throughout the short time of the US conflicts and war has been ever present.

War is something painful, sure. But progress in technology and science, medicine and society in general is driven by war in an almost obscene way.

So which war has put US society where it is right now?

I’ll open with a suggestion:
Korea. For the first time east vs west in an open conflict with communist China engaging US forces. This forced US to raise a huge standing army and thus expand government and empower the government in a more permanent way. Since then anything in the scope of national security is acceptable. Taxes, surveillance, secret operations and shadow policies.

 

[harmonica]

...WW2 started it all...it ended the European colonialism/empires and started many civil wars those areas and others
--Korean War and Vietnam War were offspring of WW2
the Iron Curtain--Cold War was offspring of WW2--which gave us the Cuban Missile Crisis/Bay of Pigs/Berlin Airlift/etc etc
..WW2 started the nuclear arms race--which we still see the effects just this week in the Iran Nuclear deal ''problem''
etc
....we are still feeling the effects of WW2

 

[Wyatt earp]

Throughout the short time of the US conflicts and war has been ever present.

War is something painful, sure. But progress in technology and science, medicine and society in general is driven by war in an almost obscene way.

So which war has put US society where it is right now?

I’ll open with a suggestion:
Korea. For the first time east vs west in an open conflict with communist China engaging US forces. This forced US to raise a huge standing army and thus expand government and empower the government in a more permanent way. Since then anything in the scope of national security is acceptable. Taxes, surveillance, secret operations and shadow policies.

World war II it created the middle class

 

[ErikViking]

WWII is the #1 conflict ever. No doubt. And maybe wars are “stacked” in a sense. If not “this” then not “that”.

But WWII was a global conflict where US took many parts in the Pacific and Europe. (Due thanks should always be given).

I suppose you are right, but I still figure it was always meant to “go back” to pre-war conditions. Then came the Cold War and Korea as a first indication of how hard the US had to commit and how involved it’s citizens had to be.

After the Korean War all conflicts have the same pattern, dispatching of force (Vietnam, Bosnia, Kuwait and so on). Society remains the same.

 

[whitehall]

There was no bigger "standing army" than during WW2. We initially fought Korea with tired old WW2 Vets and draftees. There was no national plan to engage the Chinese Communists until an old WW1 veteran decided to force exhausted ill equipped Troops, who had already beaten the North Korean hoard, to an expedition to the Yalu river in the winter in an area known for some of the harshest winters on the planet. The Chinese warned MacArthur that they would enter the conflict if U.N forces approached the N.K. border with China but the old General didn't believe them and president Truman seemed too timid or too ignorant of the situation to act.