History

Posted: July 31st, 2013

What factors can make an individual or a nation decide to go to war? What psychological factors come into play for the occupiers as well as the occupied people and nations, whether that occupation comes from war or from totalitarian or dictatorial oppression? What differences can there be to soldiers and society between fighting a war that soldiers are told to win and one that becomes a holding action—such as with Korea and Vietnam, where some say they were not allowed to win? Finally, how do you bring all of that together given the current US military involvement in the Mid-East from the standpoint of the local population, the soldiers, and American society?