Five Years Later wrote:
As the the stereotypical kids say during algebra, "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" Everyone on this site enjoys history or we wouldn't be here. For someone who doesn't know anything about WWII what would be the one key thing you'd hope they'd know? What lesson from WWII does your standard 20 year old need to know and why?
Good question! I would have to say--for an AMERICAN 20 yr old -- he/she should understand that WWII was the event that transformed the United States form a largely isolationist nation into a world super-power. While the US suffered the least in damages and causalities of all the major combatants in WWII, the US gained the most from the conflict. The only other nation to come out of WWII better than it went in would be the USSR. Preserving the Western democracies from fascism and communism during the actual fighting and then rebuilding them with the Marshall Plan reinvigorated the US economy and led to a position of global dominance rivaled only by the USSR.