The mythology of World War II in western Europe and the USA is increasingly
like a blend of two Steven Spielberg films, Schindler's List and Saving
Private Ryan. In short, "Heroic US soldiers rescue Holocaust victims and bring
democracy". The idea that the US Army 'liberated Auschwitz' is mythology - in
the sense of being 100% false. But not all the historical references are
incorrect. The wider version of the World War II mythology serves as a
foundational mythology for liberal market democracy. And liberal-democratic
states did fight in World War II, with political and geopolitical goals.
But, to accept their foundational mythology is to accept the purposes for
which it is used. To sacralise their war effort, their war dead, is equivalent
to sacralising their ideology. And that is almost a definition of the goal of
a foundational mythology.
The comparison with Kosovo is the best analogy for judging World War II. The
'mythology' of Kosovo was created within weeks, while the war was still under
way. Tony Blair declared it to be "a war for values", a selfless moral crusade
of good against evil. (The expression "first war for values" apparently comes
from Vaclav Havel, in The New York Review of Books, 10 June 1999).
And here is the moral crusade, as an explicit NATO strategy - from a 1998
Report by the Atlantic Assembly, on the future of NATO
http://www.senate.gov/~roth/press/nato.html
"A vision for NATO: NATO in the 21st century should be an enduring
political/military alliance among sovereign states whose purpose is to apply
power and diplomacy to the collective defense and promotion of Allied
security, democratic values, the rule of law, and peace.
NATO's purpose is to defend values and interests, not just territory: The
Allies at the Washington Summit in April 1999 must strongly reaffirm that the
North Atlantic Treaty provides an unequivocal mandate for the collective
defense of common values and interests as well as the defense of territory."
So in this vision there is no moral responsibility for NATO pilots to
consider, as they bomb Belgrade. They would be simply the force of good,
applied against evil.
"...the west did not intervene in Kosovo for selfish reasons – though peace in
the Balkans is tremendously valuable to us - or to deliver independence for
Kosovo. We intervened in support of absolute moral and humanitarian standards
which we saw being flagrantly breached."
British Secretary of State for Defence, to the Royal United Services
Institute, 14 March 2000.
http://www.mod.uk/news/speeches/sofs/00-03-14.htm
That sense of moral immunity and absolute rightness characterises the
mythology of World War II also. This is why there was so much outrage at the
desecration of the Cenotaph war memorial. The soldiers of the Western allies
are the unquestioned Good Guys of history, in the foundational mythology. But
in reality, World War II was no different from the Kosovo air war of 1999: a
geopolitical war fought by nation states. It was certainly not a crusade to
rescue the Jews of Europe. The Holocaust played no role in the geostrategy of
World War II: its impact was not realised, until western and Soviet troops
were already in Germany, in the last year of the war.
So what are the elements of the foundational myth of liberalism? Like all such
myths, it was formulated 'after the event'. Liberalism, democracy and the free
market, all existed before World War II. The core elements are these:
1. "The supporters of liberal market democracy form a selfless crusade, to
bring a gift to the world - their political and social system. The military
actions of the democracies are part of this crusade for values. No selfish
interest is involved."
2. "Their actions are unquestionably good. They can not logically be rejected,
since they are not an imposition, and not a harm."
US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott told NATO foreign ministers, in
December 1999:
http://www.nato.int/usa/state/s991215a.htm
"Democracy, by definition, can never be imposed. In any country under any
circumstances, it's dictatorship that is, by definition, an imposition, while
democracy is, and can only be, a choice."
3. "Freedom means living in a free-market liberal democracy. Those who
participate in the crusade for liberal market democracy fight for freedom."
The London Cenotaph incident was highly symbolic. During a May Day
demonstration, described as anti-capitalist and eco-radical, the national war
monument was desecrated. Conservative leader William Hague linked it to
previous 'anti-capitalist' rioting in The City (the financial district).
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/politics/story/0,3604,216975,00.html
"Mr Hague said that perpetrators were the same groups which wrecked the City
on June 18 last year. 'On Monday the same groups defaced the Cenotaph and
dishonoured our war dead.'"
British interior minister Jack Straw commented:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk%5Fpolitics/newsid%5F733000/733601.stm
"Without the sacrifice of millions who gave their lives to defend our
freedoms, no one yesterday would have been enjoying any right to protest at all."
This neatly integrates ideas of collective national sacrifice and national
memory (represented by the national war monument) with the idea of a crusade
for liberal democracy. The soldiers of the western democratic allies fought
for the political system of their own nation states: this at least is
accurate. There was no NATO in 1939, but there was a perception of the unity
of the democracies, against the dictatorships. Even before World War II there
were proposals for a Union of Democracies, proposals which influenced the
post-war formation of NATO. The western allies did not simply form an ad-hoc
coalition in World War II, but had pre-existing 'common values': liberal
democracy and the free market.
4. "Liberal market democracy forms the historical and moral negation of the
Holocaust. At the very least, it is the only possible Holocaust-preventing
strategy on a global scale and in the long term. The Holocaust has generated a
moral obligation on all societies to become liberal market democracies, even
if only as a preventative measure."
5. "A free-market liberal democracy is self-evidently better than the Holocaust."
This last element is the most obviously false in the mythology. The free
market has killed far more people than were murdered by the Nazi regime. One
private enterprise alone, the Belgian Congo Company, probably killed more
people than the Holocaust total. But... a foundational mythology seeks to
create a version of history which simultaneously glorifies and justifies a
nation, or a political system or ideology. Its purpose is not to bring truth
or show guilt.
--
Paul Treanor
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/
reserve: http://www.diagonal.demon.nl
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