Four common ways of denying the ‘Myth of the Good War.’

Those who deny the Myth of the Good War—the belief, described in my previous essay in this series, that World War II is a distinctively, perhaps uniquely, good war—fall, I think, into four broad categories.

One: A Plague on Both Your Houses. The serious writers who say explicitly that there is no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis are few and far between.

","freeContentEncoded","textContent","published","strategy","curl-ready","locked","deletedAt","isSyncedFromOwnBlog","original","duplicatesCount","duplicateVersion","originalArticleId","errorsCount","appearance","color","backgroundColor","shortSummary","Some people dispute the idea that WWII was a uniquely good war, falling into four main categories of denial. One group argues there was no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis.","summary","The belief that World War II was a distinctly good war is challenged by various perspectives. One category of denial posits that there is no moral distinction between the Allied and Axis powers. This viewpoint, though held by few serious writers, suggests a moral equivalence between the warring sides.","bullets",[279,280,281],"The concept of World War II as a 'Good War' is being questioned.","Individuals who deny this myth can be categorized into four main groups.","One group, though small, argues for no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis.","persons",[],"places",[],"words",91,"sentiment","subject","politics","meta",{"_293":294,"_295":296,"_330":305},"type","bee:get-index-of-articles","schedule",{"_27":297,"_51":-5,"_298":299,"_80":-5,"_300":301,"_302":303,"_304":305,"_306":86,"_83":84,"_289":39,"_307":-5,"_308":-5,"_309":-5,"_310":84,"_260":261,"_311":312,"_53":312,"_313":314,"_315":86,"_316":317,"_55":318,"_319":-5,"_320":84,"_82":118,"_321":322,"_323":-5,"_324":325,"_326":-5,"_327":303,"_328":-5,"_329":-5},"c32a8ed6-d5e3-4f42-9d28-4fec19f02a32","npub","npub1fpeutvxxvhz7jwz9d36tq98g7cv2uddszzaz82dluzy8r0awv0kqn94fz3","jobId","4834032c-cf40-4544-8cc4-75d491656603","order",1,"rssUrl","https://thedispatch.com/","system","userRef","xHandle","xUserId","autosign","syncedAt","2025-12-15T19:39:28.724Z","frequency","daily","isOwnBlog","nextRunAt","2026-08-11T06:35:03.569Z","2026-08-10T06:35:04.106Z","xUserName","autopublish","sourceVariant","rss","systemVariant","scheduleVariant","scraping-bee-classic-proxy","retryArticlesIds","frequencyMultiplier","xUserProfilePicture","ownershipConfirmedAt","dataSourceUrl","eventId","28302eff16e02e5559c9a161427ce61b02a1861ae10a23720fe4c016bf1f0e15","nostrRootEvent","event",{"_27":332,"_336":337,"_134":303,"_80":338,"_349":348,"_253":350,"_351":352},"sig","16ea6e8ac8902fe3ced20dac04237b4e49ea360ee10b99e9d56ef807458a505fafad2826231eaa9836c06beec43e9be9cf2028744f1999064ead12d36b7e0a24",[339,340,341,345,347],[289,239],[44,246],[342,343,39,344],"a","30023:4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec:640280fd-9ef7-48da-bf9f-280bf83e7f95","mention",[346,39],"client",[137,348,39],"4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec","pubkey","Four Ways To Deny That World War II Was the ‘Good War’\nTurn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening.\n\n\nnostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqjrnckcvvew9ayuy2mr5kq2w3asc4c6mqy96yw5mlcygwxl6uclvqqjrvdpsxgurqeny95uk2e3h956rserp943xvwtx95ersvrzvcurxefhvcun2w43dkf ","created_at",1786430163,"authorNPub","markdown","Four common ways of denying the ‘Myth of the Good War.’\n\nThose who deny the Myth of the Good War—the belief, described in [my previous essay in this series](https://thedispatch.com/article/world-war-ii-history-elizabeth-samet/), that World War II is a distinctively, perhaps uniquely, good war—fall, I think, into four broad categories.\n\n**One: A Plague on Both Your Houses**. The serious writers who say explicitly that there is no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis are few and far between.","freeMarkdown","kind1EventId","kind30023EventId","79ddb7d1b8a0d19d9afbf31d26b206814d3d2e42732e516f43e33f88f3d480a1","kind30023",{"_27":359,"_336":362,"_134":363,"_80":364,"_349":348,"_253":378,"_351":379},"af3e15849e4dbc114cd303d1039b70d56d966fa43fdacce57b7435d11ea3fb93b7a86b66f5b70775bd42c9e1e942089af7319b4ed465694b968161aef14c515d",30023,[365,368,369,372,373,375,376,377],[366,367],"r","https://news.layer3.press/articles/640280fd-9ef7-48da-bf9f-280bf83e7f95",[40,239],[370,371],"published_at","1786424400",[44,246],[374,234],"d",[275,240],[346,39],[137,348,39],"The belief that World War II was a distinctly good war is challenged by various perspectives. One category of denial posits that there is no moral distinction between the Allied and Axis powers. This viewpoint, though held by few serious writers, suggests a moral equivalence between the warring sides.\n - The concept of World War II as a 'Good War' is being questioned.\n - Individuals who deny this myth can be categorized into four main groups.\n - One group, though small, argues for no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis.\n",1786424400,"publishedToNostr","htmlContentKind30023","

Four common ways of denying the ‘Myth of the Good War.’

One: A Plague on Both Your Houses. The serious writers who say explicitly that there is no moral difference between the Allies and the Axis are few and far between.

","pubDate","2026-08-11T05:00:00.000Z","modifiedAt","2026-08-11T06:36:03.751Z","2026-08-11T06:41:15.480Z","storyId","likes","zaps","reposts","comments","tweets",[],"relatedArticles",[],"actionData","errors"]