America's War Icons

On the subject of the Alamo today let's remember what I refer to as "America's War Icons".

Has anyone ever noticed a pattern in the wars that America has been involved in? An American victory seems to depend, as much as anything, on the presence of an "icon" that is suitable as a rallying point. I find this really amazing.

This icon pattern began with it's first war, The Revolutionary War, with the shootings of colonists at Lexington and Concord. They rallied around these shootings as they went to war for independence.

In the War of 1812, however, such an icon to rally around was missing and the war ended in a stalemate.

In the Mexican War, the rallying icon was "Remember the Alamo". This referred to the earlier massacre of Texans, and the heroism of the defenders, at that missionary complex by the Mexican Army in Texas' war of independence against Mexico. However Texans were at war to be an independent republic and the siege of the Alamo wasn't actually about America. The famous names of those who died in the Alamo were Americans who had settled in Mexican Texas but it would be years before it was actually part of America.

In America's Civil War, it was Fort Sumter that served as the icon. This was a fort on an island just off Charleston, South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the garrison of Fort Sumter refused to lower it's Union flag and Confederate troops on the shore opened fire upon it, thus initiating the war.

In the Spanish-American War, it was "Remember the Maine". This was an American warship that had been sent into the harbor of Havava to protect American interests during Cuba's uprising against Spanish rule. The ship mysteriously exploded, and the explosion was blamed on Spanish forces. Whether this was true or not, and there is considerable doubt to this day, it served as the icon as America went to war.

In the First World War, it looked as if America would not get involved. But an icon came along to change that. There were many Americans among the dead when the British passenger liner, the Lusitania, was torpedoed by a German submarine.

All we need to say about America's entry into the Second World War is "Remember Pearl Harbor".

The Korean War, like the War of 1812, lacked such an icon and so, like the War of 1812, did not end in a clear American victory. There was the ship, USS Pueblo, that was captured by the North Koreans, but that did not happen until much later.

The Vietnam War is another one that lacked such an icon as a rallying point and so did not end in a clear victory. There was an attack on the destroyer, USS Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. But damage to the ship was minimal, and it did not merit war icon status.

For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, of course, the icon is "Remember 9/11". This attack on the U.S. played into the historical pattern of war icons with perfection. Nothing that Al Qaeda could have done would have provided the United States with a better war icon. This was a superior icon even to Pearl Harbor, since it targeted civilians.

The war in Afghanistan was ultimately inconclusive but the Taliban was not directly involved in 9/11, even though they had allowed Al Qaeda to set up camp there and refused to turn them over afterward. I doubt that the Taliban leadership knew that Al Qaeda was planning the 9/11 attack, although they were likely planning some kind of attack.

I find that further discussion is merited in the case of Desert Storm in 1991. It was a clear victory, but "Remember Kuwait" was hardly the rallying point. It is true that this was an international effort, and less than half of the participating combat troops were American.

But there is a now-forgotten incident that I have long believed served the U.S. Government as the effective war icon for Desert Storm. In 1987, there were warships patrolling the Persian Gulf to ensure that oil tankers could get through, as the Iran-Iraq War was still being fought.

An Iraqi pilot seems to have mistook the USS Stark for an Iranian vessel. The pilot fired an anti-ship missile into the Stark, killing 37 U.S. sailors. Even though the incident appears to have been a mistake, I believed that this served the U.S. Government three years later as a war icon in expelling Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.

Isn't it interesting that the War of 1812, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Afghanistan War are America's four wars that did not end in clear victory? Those are also the four that did not have a significant war icon, as did the ones that did end in victory.