Tough Guys in America, (Part 2) 8-31-2010

 [Continued from Tough Guys in America, (Part 1) 8-31-2010. sch 3/19/23.]

World War Two brought us gung-ho fortitude. We had John Wayne in his war movies, but there was also Cagney and Cooper and Bogart and Gable. They stood  up straight, donned the stiff upper lip, and went to fight the fascist enemy.

Gung-ho fortitude makes slyness look like a cheat. It has a knightly quality about it, denoting clean living, and high ideals, if not outright nobility. The fight for democracy became the job. Endurance more than brains brought accolades. It almost smacks of Christ's passion.

Christ trumps Odysseus every day of the week. Piety requires no shortcuts through the pain of the fight. Besides, there was always a hint of the immoral about many characters played by Gable and, even, Cooper. In wartime, pursuit of a girl or economic betterment was immoral, so long as it detracted against fighting The Enemy.

Maybe we ought not have taken ourselves so seriously. Yes, we beat Hitler - after doing nothing to prevent his rise. Then we got the piss scared out of us by the Communists. Well, they had the hydrogen bomb and we had a reason to fear. But did fear mean not using our brains instead of our brains?

It sure did. All prior policy about involving ourselves in an Asian land war went out the window. Call the Vietnamese Communists and welcome to Da Nang and Khe Sahn and Hanoi and Haiphong. America's power of virtue would succeed. John Wayne even made The Green Berets to show how we would prevail. But we forgot to use our heads. We stood there and took the punches.

I thought this long ago, back in the Seventies, that Americans were being run around in circles by the Soviets. Our one outstanding moment of slyness came with Nixon's trip to China. That Tricky Dick came up with the idea probably did not help improve the image of slyness. We still looked like a palooka with his feet flat on the canvas and standing only because he is too big to fall.

[Continued in Tough Guys in America, (Part 3) 8-31-2010. sch 3/19/23.]