"War has united Americans more closely than any other activity"?

Question

"War has united Americans more closely than any other activity" Discuss this stament and test its validity by references to American History during the years 1812-1824 and 1912-1924.
Anwer in assay from at least 4 paragraph. ( is you so do I will pick your answer as #1) Thank you

Answer 1

I must take issue with that statement, because the wars I've observed in my lifetime, with one exception, have been anything but uniting.

Now, in the period of 1812-1824, the only conflict was the War of 1812. Sectional interests--mostly north vs. south--didn't lead to a whole lot of undivided support for this war. Basically the southern states were largely agricultural and not so involved in the business of shipping as their northern neighbors, although large planters probably felt the pinch of being unable to export their cotton.

In the period of 1912-1924, again there was only one major conflict, World War I, and we didn't get into that until 1917 (an armistice was declared in 1918). It was not a popular war, either. Many Americans were isolationists, who felt that
European wars were European business and that we had no real reason to intrude into their matters.

Now, coming up to my memories, we have the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and now the war in Iraq. The only one that seemed to have a cohesive effect was the one in the middle, and that was over in a matter of less than three months (interestingly, the Spanish-American War of the 1890's was also over in very short order--it was a popular war, too).

Vietnam was especially devisive, and the troops coming back suffered a great deal because of its unpopularity. For one thing, men were sent there not in units, as is being done now, but individually, and they came back singly as well, on commercial transport, and often to jeering demonstrators who would oftentimes spit on them and categorize these men as
"baby-killers," as if they had any real choice in the matter of being sent there or not. At least the demonstrators of today are more civil--and it certainly helps that the soldiers leave as groups and come back as groups (it's also not a bad thing that these men and women are usually coming into military air fields and bases where they're being welcomed home by family and friends!).

In conclusion, I must say that the statement "War has united Americans more closely than any other activity" is unfounded.

Don't just copy and paste this--it's meant merely to stimulate your own researches.