\n\n"}America would\u2019ve won a total nuclear war in 1951 and MacArthur shoulda forced *Truman* to resign
the trick is realizing it woulda been a close fight \u2018cause between war weariness and communist sympathy, there\u2019d be rebellion on the American home front
like there was hella backlash after WWI which was already resisted by a big international pacifist movement
(in America we repressed but also invented the idea of the \u201cconscientious objector\u201d to accommodate them; in the German Empire they were hanged as traitors)
and WWII seemed to be leading to reward
(tho there was a HUGE urban affordable housing issue in the late 40s, LOL)
but Korea was kind of a weird draw, first we (= the UN, which we managed to align as \u2018The First World\u2019 here, which is why we keep the UN around and what Bush the Elder thought he was following through on with Desert Storm)
okay what was I saying? First we were \u201cra ra, we\u2019re so modern and advanced, check out how far we can project power, a front-line army in SE Asia!\u201d
and then Russia/China were like \u201cbitch we live here and we\u2019re huge and you\u2019re getting too close, deal with these huge waves of infantry and tanks\u201d
And we got the shit beat out of us but we did this cool leapfrogging combined arms transport with ships and helicopters and it was like \u201cha ok still kinda modern tho\u201d
And we called it a tie and forgot about it
But point being going into Vietnam it wasn\u2019t just feckless kids not wanting to die who shunned it but but their \u201cGreatest Generation\u201d (or \u201cSilent\u201d) parents who knew that war could pay off, but weren\u2019t sure this one would
They hadn\u2019t seen Saving Private Ryan yet, so
(also along the way we bombed the everloving shit out of Korea, like, the peninsula, it was the real test case for \u201cback to the Stone Age\u201dand we really did kill a lot of people and bring hell to a lot more in the name of securing a foothold for a vicious right-authoritarian regime, so)