Vietnam and the Re-Opening of the Good War (1965–1985)

The moral certainty that surrounded World War II started to disappear during the Vietnam era. Public trust in the military began to collapse. The so called justified conflict caused scrutiny in the U.S. People like journalist and filmmakers started to ask more questions since they were previously muted. Things like the bombing being seen as terrorism or was the bombings necessary or just a way to scare off the Soviets. Physical memorials also reflected the shift. Things. Like the USS Arizona memorial ended up being delayed for years after the war. Which finally opened in 1962 as a quiet structure floating above the sunken battleship. Then two years later the Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened but it had a majorly different look to it. The older victory arches began to appear bombastic by comparison. Newer World War II memorials often took on a more restrained tone – simple plaques, etched names, and requests for reflection rather than applause, paid for by aging veterans themselves. Television evolved the change. Things like Documentary series brought uncensored footage into American’s living rooms. Oral histories and revisionist scholarship pointed out segregated units, battlefield trauma, and moral ambiguity. By the mid-1980s the phrase “Good War” was frequently placed in ironic quotation marks, signaling that public memory had become far more complicated than the victory culture of the immediate postwar years.