Victory? In Modern Wars That’s an Increasingly Elusive Goal
The limited aims the US settled for in the Korean War are a good model for what can be achieved in aiding Ukraine.
Enthusiasm for the Korean War faded.
Source: Three Lions/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Once upon a time, it was deemed a mark of virility to insist that a war must end with a victory. In 146 BC, Cato the Censor repeatedly told the Roman Senate “Carthaginem esse delendam” — Carthage, Rome’s great enemy, must be obliterated, as indeed it was.
In World War II, US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau called for the “pastoralization” of Germany following allied victory. In 2003, President George W. Bush proclaimed, “The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq. So the United States of America will not leave until victory is achieved.”