Where the Greatest Generation took the post-World War II "never again" to mean that we should actively take steps to prevent the atrocities of the past, the Boomers believed that it meant it will never again because humanity is too enlightened for it to happen.
Thats the interesting part to be honest. Never again didn't mean 'no wars', but they saw the devastation caused by the world wars, a generation of young men maimed and killed overseas on a scale we hadn't seen,
and they did their utmost not to reach the point of
total war again. People should note that this didn't exclude wars, but their logic was at least 'we need to nip this in the butt now, before it gets worse'. I guess in some sense, you get domino theory from that;
but if you read Pappy Bush's biography, when the Soviets, Brits/Germans, and Americans greenlit the gulf war- it was precisely because they saw Saddam invading half the Middle East and didn't want a second run of Hitler, where he
actually becomes a problem later. Even the Soviets agreed to the invasion at the time because of leadership's memory of the interwar period. I think Bush Sr actually had to sense to realize that 'state building', staying in Iraq, regime change, or bringing democracy to the middle east were scope creep, and so got out immediately after.
His boomer son, I don't think got that message, and somehow the 'we can enlighten humanity and the middle east' crowd took precedence.
I still wonder what we will be like, but we're also a lost generation, so who knows.