I think what your site is about is great and I'm glad there are people out there like you to provide such insights on a topic a lot people don't really understand. People like me for example. I don't really know what really happened, what the out come was for U.S. and the world. I would like to understand. I know that I can read a history book and find out, but I would like to hear from you what you think. My questions are: why is World War II a major turning point in American history? In what ways did thi ideological warfare influence American society? What influences did it have on the enconomy, the American society and the American role in the world? These are some the questions I don't quite understand. I would really appreciate your oppinion. Thanks.

Why is World War II a major turning point in American history? What influences did it have on the enconomy, the American society and the American role in the world?

I see World War II as a major turning point in American History for three main reasons.

First, it helped to pull America out of the Great Depression by the bootstraps, and began an economic boom that would take until the late 1970's to end. For an economy to flourish it needs a market for its goods. During the Depression no one had any money, preventing any goods from being bought. This lead to businesses not making money, which lead to people not having jobs, which lead to people not having money. It was a vicious cycle that was taking a long, long time to get out of. By the start of World War II, the US had almost entirely emerged from the Depression. World War II helped to create a huge market for goods made in the country (the military) which slingshot us into superpower status by its end.

Second, World War II took the economic and military powerhouses of the West and turned them into piles of rubble. After the War Britain was on its last fumbling steps as an empire. Germany and Japan were wastelands. France had been occupied for nearly five years. Other than the US and the Soviet Union, the entire world was worse off after the war than before. New leadership was needed, and the US and the Soviet Union filled the vacuum.

Third, it took an isolationist United States and turned it into a policeman looking for a fight. Previous to World War I the United States refused to get involved with European politics. As long as the free trade kept flowing, we were happy. Near the end of World War I we finally decided to step in to finish things, but we were reluctant to do so. After World War I we went back into the isolationist shell. World War II brought us back out, and we were never to return. We have been involved in world policing and politics ever since. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, none of these wars/police actions would have interested us previous to World War II.

In what ways did ideological warfare influence American society?

Ideological warfare convinced the US citizens that World War II was the "good fight". Even today we look back on this war with a romantic view, and every man who died in it was a hero. Korea was a non-event. Hardly anyone under the age of 50 knows anything about it. Vietnam was a depressing debacle that we want to forget. But World War II! Now there was a man's war!

The use of propaganda also helped the US to produce war bonds for military funding, helped to get volunteer enlistment, helped prevent demonstrations and work strikes, and helped to paint a picture of an evil Nazi and Japanese enemy. In short, it helped American citizens to feel like the war was a good thing, and that we should do everything in our power to help the war effort.