Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Reflection 2
The articles by Herr, Pyle, and Crawford were really eye-opening to the different responses and views of the different wars. Patriotism and Nationalism were main factors in the support for the war. Along with a common enemy and media coverage which highly altered the support of the war. I didn't realize there was such a significant difference of support of the wars within both the soldiers and the nation. The three articles demonstrate the immense difference in opinion of the war with respect to other wars. These writers addressed the wars from different perspectives, whether as a soldier in the war or as a report at home and at the war. The main things that effect the way the war was accepted at home was how the media portrayed it. Before wars were shown on television a sense of nationalism and patriotism seemed greater in this nation. I also believe that people were more pro-war than now because before people didn't have a way of truly knowing how horrible war is, only what they imagined. By showing people what war actually looks like really upset people and made them realize that war was worse than what people may have thought. Media being brought out during WWII greatly influenced why the public became so anti-war. Seeing actual footage from the war made everyone rethink whether war was really a good thing as Herr portrayed in his article. Crawford brought in the opposition from the soldiers perspective by retelling his fake war encounters. Many soldiers were in a similar position to the one he talks about where the soldiers don't actually support the war or want to be their fighting for their country. The way Crawford described the soldiers not wanting to be fighting the war, not being supportive of those in other regimes, and the all around negative feeling of those we are trying to protect was upsetting yet, true. It is unfortunate that so many soldiers were forced to fight in wars of the past yet, didn't want to be fighting for their country. What happened to the past sense of nationalism where it was seen as an honor to fight for your country?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also liked that Professor Hass decided to include the three war articles into our readings (Pyle, Herr, and Crawford). It helped me to see how our ideas of nationalism and patriotism changed over time and it also helped me to understand how different periods helped to shape different moments in our national history. For instance, the increased technological advancements during the Vietnam war helped people see the effects of war and this shaped how people responded to the war whereas people during World War II did not have the understanding of the war because they could not see it on the news every night.
ReplyDeleteI never read dispatches before, so those articles were eye-opening for me as well. I'm not into war at all, but these articles were fascinating.
ReplyDelete