The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion by Peter Hitchens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Good War Psychosis

Appeasement is the magic word, the killer app, the compelling knell of imminent doom in military policy debate. Use it and armed conflict becomes far more likely. Everyone knows that it was appeasement that started the war of 1939; that appeasement is something the world cannot tolerate faced with a Saddam, or an Khomeini, or a Kim Jong Un; that democratic electorates respond negatively to politicians who are accused of appeasement. The appeasement card is trumps when it comes to national policy.

That the events of Munich in 1939 involving Chamberlain and Hitler should have such permanent mythical significance in so many countries is remarkable. Those events are symbolic of the need for what has come to be called The Good War; and have been used repeatedly to justify armed conflict by democratic leaders ever since.

Hitchens has two central threads in The Phoney Victory. The first is that the narrative of the Second World War, particularly with regard to appeasement of evil but also extending to the ‘moralising’ of the conduct of the conflict itself, is largely mythical. The use of this narrative to justify involvement in subsequent conflicts is reprehensible and no more than manipulative propaganda on the part of government.

Hitchens’s second thread is that the lack of both diplomatic and military skill by several generations of British governmental leadership has been disastrous for the country. At almost every juncture, exactly the wrong decision has been taken. The result has been the loss of many lives and much treasure with no gain whatsoever. To call this outcome ‘victory’ is, for Hitchens, obscene.

Hitchens refers to the attitudes contained in the evolved narrative of war as a theology. As he says, “The theology of the ‘Good War’ demands a great deal of evasion, suppression and forgetfulness.” I think he is right to do so. There is a metaphysical component of this narrative which is obvious once stated. It pervades discussion in debates about NATO, the European Union, national boundaries and the motivations of national leaders.

The Good War is that which has divine approval. Despite the secularisation of society, such approval is still implicitly required for the exertion of armed power. Once such approval is claimed - by George Bush, Tony Blair, or even Vladimir Putin - the mythology of the 1939-45 War is set in motion. Young men and women are sent away to improve the prospects for the world. That such improvement never happens, seems to elude the grasp of the true believers in charge.

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