American history is adorned with the greatest controversy ever fought by civilization and ideology. This was not the case during World War II, sometimes called the Great War. As is often the case, it was not the war that America wanted to be part of. Often, it is when the perpetrators bring war to America that they are forced to respond. But in every situation where America responds, there is a rage that its enemies will never forget.
When you think about it, the very idea of a world war is frightening. And by all means, World War II was a global war because it took almost all the countries and continents into a world war that lasted for years. The American enemy and its allies were well-armed, intelligent, determined, and powerful. But America was facing a challenge and it would be a challenge again if the guys like Hitler could threaten civilization again in this way.
World War II was also the subject of a flawless record of cooperation with our allies. Working with them is almost like one country with one army sending our troops to many battlefields from Europe to Asia to Russia and around the world. We had to fight more than one enemy. Hitler's Germany alone was a formidable enemy as it spread its evil influence throughout Europe by capturing the international community and threatening to overthrow the entire continent and continue to dominate the countries of Central Asia and even America.
But we also had powerful enemies in the German allies, especially Japan. When this fearsome enemy attacked our troops at Pearle Harbor, it was a dramatic blow to America. In Japan, they hoped to paralyze American troops and remove all hope from the American heart in order to retreat or take part in hostilities. They found exactly the opposite as every man, woman and child in America came together to build the kind of military machine that would bring Axis power to the end of the crash, no matter what the cost.
But the most important thing America said to the world when it took over Hitler's troops was that dictatorships would not be tolerated. Hitler dreamed of ruling the world as the great emperors of ancient Rome in the first Germanic empires. But the United States had rejected the dictatorship when it was founded, and we declared that we would not be militant or dictatorial. That hard-fought freedom we could not turn away from the madness of war in this country.
It was not an easy or expensive war. Thousands of young Americans sacrificed their lives to preserve the freedom that our ancestors had gained. Our leaders had to show their determination and unity to stand firm in the face of adversity and not to embarrass the brave American soldier or the civilians who followed them until Hitler and his allies were defeated.
The world saw that America was built on that great war. He saw that the country that was given the greatest wealth and prosperity was also willing to transform those resources in order to protect its borders and protect its allies. It was a difficult lesson for our enemies to learn that the United States is not a war-torn country. However, we showed that we were not a country of revenge when, even after our defeat, we arrived in Japan, Germany, and other conquered peoples and helped them to reverse that terrible war. This is also a testament to the American spirit and the American sense of humor. Let us hope that the enemy will not rise again to test that because they will find out as Hitler did, that America will not fail to respond to a call to war or a call to honor its heritage.
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