More than forty-six million soldiers and civilians perished in World War II, not counting the more than five million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Whole cities were bombed for the express purpose of killing civilians by the hundreds of thousands. And yet this war is known as "the good war" on the grounds that the aim of the Allied nations of Great Britain, the United States, France, the Soviet Union and China, and the outcome of the war, was to save the world from being enslaved by the Axis (Fascist) nations of Germany, Italy and Japan, who intended to establish a "master race" tyranny worse than anything he world had ever seen. That is the official view of the war - the one we have all been taught - but presented here in THE PEOPLE AS ENEMY is a very different, very disturbing view. Spritzler argues that the aims of the national leaders were not democracy and self-determination, but were, as wars generally are, opportunities to suppress class rebellion - to intimidate working people everywhere from rising up against elite power. This analysis also offers insight into our current political climate as Spritzler furthers his argument by claiming that the myths of World War II are the same myths now being used in the "war against terrorism" to control people and pursue ends that have nothing to do with protecting people from terrorism, making this a bold, shockingly relevant work of history.