The Spoils of War
- Content Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Foreign Affairs
- Volume
- 92
- Issue Number
- 6
- Publication Date
- November/December 2013
- Institution
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract
- For decades, World War II suffused the hearts and minds of the American generation that experienced it as “the good war,” in which Allied virtue eventually triumphed over fascist evil. Today, Western societies are mature enough to adopt a more nuanced perspective. There remains no doubt that “our side” deserved to win; terrible consequences would have befallen the world following an Axis victory. But the Allied cause was morally compromised by the need to enlist the services of Joseph Stalin's tyranny in order to defeat the forces of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo.
- Topic
- War
- Political Geography
- America