Just remember, its the ones that win the war that write the history books.
Oh, here's my favorite account of this, and this was precisely how I was taught in school:
1492, CE, Columbus discovers the Americas (Which is hardly true, Amerigo Vespucci did)
1607, CE, 1st American colony established
1620, CE, Puritans establish Plymouth colony, first Thanksgiving held with (oddly) full support of the Indians
1733, CE, 13th American colony established
1776, CE, United States declares independance
1812-1815 CE, War of 1812
1861-1865, American Civil War
1917-1918, United States fights in World War I
1941-1945, United States fights in Pacific Theatre
1944-1945, United States fights in European Theatre
What happened during the 108 years between Columbus and the Puritans? What happened between 1607 and 1733 in the colonies? Firstly, there were the explorations of the Americas by other Europeans. Nextly, there was the complete and brutal domination, removal or oblideration of the Native American tribes- and don't give me and baloney about "manifest destiny" we had no right to that land.
Furthermore, the United States enjoyed a rather comfortable establishment with England, but economic mismanagent ended a rather strong bond between the two. Between the revolution and civil war, the government was far from idillic. Corruption was rampant, and George Washington was nearly talked into becoming a military dictator.
This trend continued until around the turn of the 20th century, as the government began to settle down. The US did not win World War I, rather, it delivered an even then paltry 250,000 troops to the front. Stranger still, even when the United States crushed Japan, students are only taught about either Midway or Pearl Harbor. Iwo Jima, Tarawa et al. are simply skipped. However, when the United States helped defeat the equally brutal Germany, teachers extoll the landings and bocage fighting as 'heroic' and 'brave'. The United States only entered the European Theatre for only 10 months, June 1944 to April 1945, and although the fighting was brutal, it was nothing compared to what the Soviet Union had to do. In analogy, we seemed "stronger" just as a sprinter is faster than an marathon runner, but the sprinter need only run a few hundred meters before collapsing.
In reality, we merely stole the coup de grace from the USSR, and claimed it as our own. Germany was already crumbling under the pressure from East and West, and needed but a few months to tumble down. The D-Day landings took less than a few days, the battle of the Kessel lasted months.
It's strange the way we teach the student body about history, it is far less US centric, and involved much nastier methods from all parties.
-Penguin
