Worst war for USA?

[HerbS]

After being on vacation for nearly 2 weeks[On an Island in The 1000 Islands].I became friends with a Korean Conflict POW.We had great discussions[after a few beverages].Then he asked me,What I thought was the worst war the USA got into.The Civil War being among the top five.He of course put the Korean Conflict first.Then I told him that I would ask this forum to rank-order the top 5 wars the USA was in!The challenge is your's.Please rank your top 5!Then I will tell you who was the the most near choices!

[Gene C]

Depends on what you mean as "worst". Lives lost, not meeting objectives, money spent...all of them?

1. Civil War
2. WW II
3. Vietnam
4. WW 1
5. Iraq/Afganistan War against Terrorism

[LincolnMan]

I agree with Gene -depends on how "worst" is defined. Gene also has a list that would be the same as mine.

[HerbS]

I agree with Gene and all his reasoning!How about most harsh for battle conditions?

[Laurie Verge]

My list was identical to Gene's, except I put the Middle East conflicts ahead of WWI. As for harsh battle conditions, I go a little askew on this and vote for WWI.

I will admit to not knowing that much history about that war; but from what I have gathered in bits and pieces, I gather that our battle tactics had not kept up with the technology - men stumbling into barbed-wire and facing machine guns, for example. It had also been almost fifty years since the U.S. had been into battle (I don't count the short-lived Spanish American War), so our troops were rusty. And finally, the issue of chemical warfare with mustard gas introduced.

[Laurie Verge]

OK, Herbert - you're in trouble. I posed your question to three of my staff this afternoon, and they spent the next hour debating with each other. No Surratt work was accomplished!

It was fun to hear them, and it was a great history exercise -- especially since two of them are under thirty. They also wanted to know why the American Revolution shouldn't be included based on our lack of any trained military, no substantial fortifications, lousy outdoor accommodations, and the destruction of the countryside and crops.

[HerbS]

Laurie--Fun-Fun-Fun

[BettyO]

I would have to say:

1) The War between the States

2) Vietnam War

3) WWII

4) WWI

5) War on Terror

The reason I put War on Terror last is it is more or less (terrorism and bombs aside) what I have heard commonly referred to as a "push button war." Although I don't mean this in any derogatory way whatsoever and I really can't speak about the conditions in Afghanistan, ( I would imagine that it is hot and particularly spooky inasmuch like Vietnam) you don't really know sometimes who is your friend and who is your enemy....

The Civil War pitted family against family; great national division etc. While Vietnam was especially bad as well - many never felt the war proved anything - many lives were lost in horrible circumstances inasmuch as it was hard to prove who was the enemy sometimes and there was a lot of killing of civilians; WWII was horrid with it's Nazi oppression, killing of innocents, terrible bombing; and WWI with it's gas, barbed wire, mud filled trenches.....ANY war can be a horror. I don't know much about the Korean war at all. My father, a twice wounded WWII veteran in the 82nd Airbourne, never spoke much about his experiences. He witnessed one atrocity which he never got over to his dying day - the out and out murder of a 16 year old boy.

[Rsmyth]

As Gene said, "you have to define worst." almost all the wars had a reason to be fought, like ridding the world of Hitler. But, Vietnam is a different animal. Stopping the spread of communism was a poor excuse for all those young soldiers to die. I believe we were assisting the French in perpetuating their hold on colonialism. As Country Joe said "what are we fighting for?"

[Craig Hipkins]

Here is my take on this. Although American involvement in WWI was short, it was probably the nastiest war that we have ever been in. Mustard gas, trench warfare, and whatnot.

1. WWI
2. Civil War
3. WW II
4. Vietnam
5. Korean War

[LincolnMan]

As Laurie mentioned, its interesting that none of us have listed our own American Revolution.

[Gene C]

Bill, I would not consider the American Revolution one of the "worst".
That would be because: we won, we met a clear objective, in terms of live's lost it was comparatively low, and looking back we can measure the worthiness of it's purpose.

In reflection on Vietnam, we had the resources to win, our politicians did want to commit those resources to win. (and we are still arguing whether they should have or not, to this day) which makes it one of the "worst" wars.

A war is more than just success on the battlefield. You also have to win (or defeat) the minds and hearts of the people you are fighting with. That war takes at least a gereration to win.

[HerbS]

All of you are doing what I hoped would have happened-Thinking!Of course there is no right or wrong answer! But,try telling that to a Korean war[POW] vet.

[LincolnMan]

I agree with you Gene-and that's why I didn't include the American Revolution on my list. It did surprise me a little that no one listed it.

[Hess1865]

I'm no anti war type, and I've never been in the service, but from stories friends tell [who were there] I think any and all war must be the ultimate horror anyone can face