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"Before Korea, America never lost a war." Really? I feel like there's a decent case for the War of 1812 (the USA attempted to seize Canada and failed).
by matthewowen 12y ago
"Before Korea, America never lost a war."
Really? I feel like there's a decent case for the War of 1812 (the USA attempted to seize Canada and failed).
- ww520 12y agoEven the D.C. capital got captured and White House burned down in the 1812 war.
- AcerbicZero 12y agoThats a bit pedantic, as well as inaccurate. I wouldn't call any party in the War of 1812 a clear winner, as there were gains and losses of approximately equal value in the end. So depending on how you want to view the Civil War, the US was 6-0-1, or 5-0-2, until Vietnam.
- matthewowen 12y agoI agree: I was being pedantic, but I don't think inaccurate: there is surely some case: the USA declared war and didn't actually achieve their principal objectives. Does awarding "victory" depend upon who declares war? Surely there's some case to be made that for Britain, maintaining the status quo was a victory: unlike the USA they hadn't aimed for a change from the status quo.
- adventured 12y agoThe US did not attempt to invade and seize Canada and fail at it. The War of 1812 wasn't much more than a short-duration skirmish between Britain and the US, with both still bitter about the Revolutionary War and the various dealings and arrangements that came out of it.
- megaman22 12y agoWell, there were attempts, but they were extremely half-assed attempts. Often, the militia that made up the bulk of the U.S. army at that time would refuse to cross outside their state lines, which aborted several planned campaigns to attack into upper and lower Canada. The whole affair isn't much more than a weird side-show of the Napoleonic wars, although you'd never know that from the way it is presented in most U.S. history textbooks.