The post war era

With the allied victory in WW2, there was a large divide of power and influence between the two leading rival powers, the United states on one hand, and the USSR on the other.  With the US's advance via nuclear weapon stymied by the Soviets development of it, an arms race was started in order to maintain supremacy of each nation.  Eisenhower saw this as a necessary evil, one that may disappear in a later time.  The rise of the red scare, fueled by right wing xenophobes, gave rise to a great conservative movement.  Barry Goldwater and McCarthy both took advantage to this, and gained power with fear as a base.

On world war two

World War two is labelled as perhaps the classic view of good versus evil, the complete evil that was Hitler against the sparkling wonder of the allies, the United States especially.  This is not true, in fact many on all sides viewed Hitler as a great leader, even with admiration, before the war broke out.  Antisemitism ran rampant while governments across the west flirted with fascism.  When the Nazis conquered France they set up a puppet state that was supported by a small part of the population.  Meaning, that even after being conquered, portions of the French people thought that the Nazis still had it right.  This combined with the native Gestapo in each country shows the inherent issue with the Allies begin knights in shining armor.  This glamor was placed on it by post war PR spins by political and media moguls.  While we were complacent to the destruction of several peoples, the Jews in particular, we acted in hindsight to save face.  Such is the way of our great nation, we weren't the shining knight who saved Europe from Hitler, in fact we didn't care enough to act sooner.