...because I can usually back up such assertions with references, articles and history.
Sure, during and after WWII the propaganda mills worked overtime to glamorize and romance the war movement as a necessity. But the truth of the matter is most average Joes didn't want to go to war with Germany or return to fight a war when 20 years ago they fought and won a war with Germany in the "war to end all wars" which was the selling point back in 1917.
You know how easily history can be rewritten. Reagan was beloved by the masses and now he is depicted as the cousin of the antichrist. I could dredge up Fortune polls, articles and timely news of the day to punctuate my point, but it shouldn't be necessary. Most were not happy with what was going on in Europe, but polls revealed that until it reached our shores, most Americans didn't want to participate in another one of "Europe's wars". Surprise! We have lend lease enacted and we're sending ships and materials and then Pearl Harbor "sneak" attacked. Suddenly we're at war. FDR was a blackmailing, socialist, piece of work who used the Constitution as so much toilet paper. Churchill's tours of America, finally received a payoff.
The GOP really was the party of business and the rich back in the first part of the century, they wanted nothing to do with wars. Pacifism had nothing to do with it. Self-interest did.
The reds in the labor union were trying to rally support of entering the war when Russia was threatened. Carl Barks, the "good" Disney Duck animator/cartoonist gave an interview in which he revealed as much - and his ideas about entering a nother war:
Helnwein:
You just showed me an old sketch, which you made during a union meeting.
There are different caricatures of people, who are pointing at a figure of Hitler; what does that mean?
Barks:
That was after work in one of the buildings in Hollywood. After the Disney strike we founded a union, and this was supposed to be a union meeting. But instead of talking about salaries and working conditions there were a bunch of war agitators, who advocated that America should declare war on Germany and who wanted to send our boys into battle. Most of us didn't like it at all that America entered the war. Why for heaven's sake? We had already been over there once and had fought the Germans in 1916-1917, and supposedly this was to bring about peace for the whole world and for all time. And now we were at it again, sending our boys to death. For most of us at the Studio it looked like the repetition of a senseless tragedy. Besides we were disturbed by the fact that Melvin Douglas, a notorious communist, told us this. He said we had to go to war in order to save Russia from the Nazis who were standing at the gates of Stalingrad. But we didn't give a damn which side won as long as we could stay out of it.
Helnwein:
Was Disney present at these meetings?
Barks:
No, none of the leading Disney employees were there. It was a labor union, after all.
Source: helnwein-archive.com
Not ironically, these are the same guys who ended up making the anti-Hitler war cartoons for Disney. Basically the reds, British & French got us into WWII - not because of an overwhelming sense to fight again for "freedom".
America fights generally for self-interest and gives money to support freedom. We will fight for freedom when we must, and in Iraq the WMD program of Saddam, and the fact that he was taking potshots at the US planes daily, invited the toppling of his regime. Had he kept his nose clean and his anti-aircraft launchers silent, had he never tried to assassinate Bush Sr., he just might still be in power.
How popular was our Yugoslavian escapade? Sure the propaganda departments worked overtime to justify our interference - but we had not one iota of vested interest in the region whatsoever.
No, America isn't hung up on pacifism - it's hung up on freedom, self-interest and profit. Only when those are threatened do we get testy.