The argument that there are just wars often rests on the social system of the nation engaging in war. It is supposed that if a liberal state is at war with a totalitarian state, then the war is justified. The beneficent nature of a government was assumed to give rightness to the wars it wages. ...Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were liberals, which gave credence to their words exalting the two world wars, just as the liberalism of Truman made going into Korea more acceptable and the idealism of Kennedys New Frontier and Johnsons Great Society gave an early glow of righteousness to the war in Vietnam. What the experience of Athens suggests is that a nation may be relatively liberal at home and yet totally ruthless abroad. Indeed, it may more easily enlist its population in cruelty to others by pointing to the advantages at home. An entire nation is made into mercenaries, being paid with a bit of democracy at home for participating in the destruction of life abroad.
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About Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was a 20th-century American historian and socialist philosopher. Howard Zinn was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- War — Reflections on conflict, peace, and the human cost of war