The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation

Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond

by Tom Engelhardt

In a substantial new afterword to his classic account of the collapse of American triumphalism in the wake of World War II, Tom Engelhardt carries that story into the twenty-first century. He explores how, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the younger George Bush headed for the Wild West (Osama bin Laden, "Wanted, Dead or Alive"); how his administration brought "victory culture" roaring back as part of its Global War on Terror and its rush to invade Saddam Husseins's Iraq; and how, from its "Mission Accomplished" moment on, its various stories of triumph crashed and burned in that land.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, 20th Century, Political Science, American History, War

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 1995

Reviews

[Kaufmak · Rating 1 out of 5]

What is the best way to sum up this book? A load of crap. The idea that the Vietnam era was the last to "play war" is so categorically untrue that it boarders on absurd. This book reads like yet another Baby Boomer insisting that his generation is the only one that matters. This book predates that other load of crap about the "Greatest Generation" written by another Boomer who finally realized that his parents weren't all that bad.

Anyway, Engelhardt goes through post-war culture, demonstrating how the earlier myth of the United States and its view of war as a just and noble cause was altered as the Cold War and more specifically the Vietnam War progressed; making Americans look like brutes, savage and quite less than noble. He tries to make the case that the opposition to the war and many of those fighting was some kind of significant shift in American culture. However, two big mistakes in that analysis. First, throughout many conflicts in US history, there was considerable opposition and commentary surrounding its injustice, see for example the Mexican War, The Spanish-American War and especially the post World War I cultural examination of war. Second, Engelhardt kind of negates his own thesis by demonstrating how the first Gulf War along with many conflicts since the 1980s are very much like the victory culture that he assured us was over. I would argue that, especially in the wake of 9/11, that victory culture is even more pervasive than in was in the 1950s, that terrorism make for such a convenient bogey man, it justifies in the eyes of many (depending on who the president is at the time) some of the greatest abuses of power the United States has every seen. Don't be fooled, victory culture is alive and well.

[Rebecca Crunden]

⤑ research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I’m going to be labelling the books I’m using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gave this one a serious read, but came away with mixed feelings. The book contains solid descriptions of American cultural schisms during the early Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Reagan era. The sense of militaristic exceptionalism that Engelhardt calls "victory culture" took a serious, and deserved, beating between 1945 and 1975. Some of Engelhardt's interpretations of major works of culture are flawed, omitting plot or formal details that would challenge his argument. Yes, "Star Wars" inspired a wave of violent fantasy media in which American stand-ins triumph over their enemies, but Engelhardt ignores the way in which "Star Wars" made post-Vietnam Americans sympathize with rebel guerillas. The book works against its own narrative of collapse in the last chapters. The resurgence of victory culture under Reagan and George W. Bush indicates that victory culture is not dead, but Engelhardt pitches these episodes as futile exercises. Conservatives and leftists alike cannot restore victory culture to its old status. I am not so sure. Trump ran for president by promising America would "win" again. Given the ways that Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes, and Trump all promised victory of some kind, plus Barack Obama's embrace of drone warfare, it seems that victory culture never "ended," but merely changed in form. The violence of recent history chips away at Engelhardt's thesis of collapse.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

An analysis of Cold War America and the American "war story." Engelhardt digests an enormous amount of US political history and pop culture with not only great insight but also well-crafted prose. A great antidote to the political rhetoric of our current era.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once knew someone on the left who used to say "Superman was shot down over the skies of Viet Nam". That is a superb summary of THE END OF VICTORY CULTURE; a precise and at times funny look at how America emerged from World War II as both the predominant military and cultural power in the world and how Americans came to question the values that underpinned that power. Tom examines films, novels, and even comic books for an explanation. Were we the good guys after all? The dropping of two atom bombs on Japan toward the end of the Pacific War raised the question how what role race and racism had played in America's "good war" against Japan. That monumental, flag-waving film tribute to the ex-American soldier, THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, took note of "dead Japs carrying pictures of their families inside their uniforms" and how the A-bomb could now destroy the entire world. Pictures like HOME OF THE BRAVE showed how African-Americans had been fighting for democracy abroad while being denied civil rights at home. That hawkish superpatriot John Ford made SERGEANT ROUTLEDGE, set in the 19th century West, to illustrate how Black men in and out of uniform had often been tried and at times lynched for alleged rape. The Native Americans underwent a makeover too. American Indians on film and television were now portrayed as collaborators, not enemies of the Whies. (The Indian as a victim of genocide would have to await the Sixties, e/g. Thomas Berger's novel LITTLE BIG MAN.) The frustration of fighting in Korea made American wonder if there was such a thing as a winnable war against the Communists. Wasn't the U.S. fighting for more frontier miles on behalf of an anti-Comunist dictator? That was nothing, of course, compared to the impact of DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), where there is no moral difference between the Reds and the Yankees; both are malevolent buffoons. American superheroes weren't spared either. I recall as a kid reading of Superman fighting the Viet Cong. By 1970 all comic book designers had turned against the Viet Nam War. Tom's book is incisive, lugubrious, and humourous all at once. You'll find more meaning in a DC comic than in a history book from the Fifties and Sixties. Must reading by those who wish to understand how America won World War II, then the Cold War but the American elite lost the culture war at home.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting social take on the failure of American culture (based on winning everything) and a condemnation of why Vietnam and the rest of American history to the modern day is built on militarially destroying a sneaky other. His early chapters on the founding of America and the westerns and even his early modern stuff about Communism is thought provoking, but once he enters the TV era and starts comparing I Love Lucy and other shows and movies of a similar type to "hidden" victory culture stuff he begins to come across as bitter and forcing his arguement.

[Greg Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out with a strong thesis—examining how American culture coped with the string of failures, murky successes, and moral confusion during the Cold War compared to the clear and definitive victory of World War 2.

But, man, he goes down some rabbit holes and the book itself comes off as very messy and unclear as a result. It lends itself to interesting readings of everything from toys to television, but if you just stack them one after the other like a train, it quickly becomes monotonous. Maybe I just found it boring because pathologize the American national identity already.

[Megan Mackay · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband recommended I read this book after he suffered through many an over-analysis on my part of the TV show "Lost", which (among other things) depict a post-atomic-bomb view of America. This book argues that the jig was up on us as a nation after Vietnam in particular to think of ourselves as the good guys, winners, i.e., a victory culture. He cites a litany of historical examples and also films to drive home this notion of the dissonance between the reality and the accepted truth that we were always going to win any fight we took to, because the bad guys were always so clear. The book is relevant still for all the reasons you could think of without my belaboring. It was an interesting dissection of how many parts of mainstream, white America became disillusioned by the myth vs. the reality of our identity as a nation over the past 30-40 years.

[KJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good overview of America's war history as it has effected youth culture. Eerie in what this book (which ends at 1995) predicted for the next 15 years. Maybe more frustrating than eerie though... Anyway, the Vietnam chapters were the hardest to get through without wanting to break something. That era is always difficult for me to fathom and process whenever I am forced to read about it. It scares me to think of the person I would have become had I had to live through it. Glad I will never know.

[abbie ⁎⁺˳✧༚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m sure from a technical standpoint this has its issues but, this is such a great overview of the era for academic purposes. Easy to follow, well outlined, succinct, covers the important basis, with enough narrative and speculation to pull it apart in a way that adds to your own writing, but not too much that it becomes hard to follow or ventures into overly misrepresenting anything. I’ve cited this in five essays and counting now, and if my grades are anything to go by, it has served me very, very well. Highly recommend for arts and humanities students interested in this period.

[Jesse Toldness · Rating 5 out of 5]

America is a made up place. A story made of stories. This is the story of those stories. Tom Engelhardt has put into words and examples and provided examples for things I've always felt in my gut. My only real complaint is that since it ends in 1993 (published 1995) it ends just as the story was starting to get really interesting....

[Sarita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally mind-boggling in its critque of Western myths's effects on foreign policy. Also, totally and unrepeatably dense.

[Katrina Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing look at the seemingly innocent hype of war in postwar America and the slow realization of America's less than honorable military ventures--particularly Vietnam.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but sometimes I feel like he says things just to say them. However, it certainly assuaged my thirst for non-fiction.

[Dara Potvin]

Was supposed to read this for an American literature course I took in university but never got around to reading it.