“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

A rear admiral in the US Navy, Gene Larocque speaks about the attitudes among military leadership at the time of the Pearl Harbor bombings. He claims that the military underestimated the Japanese because “[w]e’d thought they were little brown men and we were the great big white men” (190). Admiral Larocque also explains how World War II radically changed American history because “[w]e’ve institutionalized militarism,” which led the military to dominate US foreign policy throughout the Cold War and the Vietnam War.

General William Buster discusses his experiences in the European front. He believes that the Vietnam War “was necessary” (197) but admits that the “dedication and patriotism of the American people that was evident in World War Two just wasn’t there in the others” (196).