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Won the War, Lost the Peace: Difference between revisions

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* The Navy of [[One Piece]] experience this after winning the Paramount War against Whitebeard;
{{quote| ''The Navy's victory did not necessarily bring peace. The death of Whitebeard caused a power vacuum that threw the oceans into further turmoil.''}}
* [[Played for Laughs]] in [[Maken Ki-ki!]]. In episode 9, the boys declare that the swimming pool should be coed, while the girls want segregated pools at the previously all girls school. So they decide it by having a water calvary battle. In the end, the boys do win, but then the girls make one of the boys [[It Makes Sense in Context|turn them invisible]], so while they can hear the girls playing in the water, the guys can't see any of them.
 
 
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== Film ==
* In the movie ''[[Black Rain]]'', [[By the -The-Book Cop|Japanese detective]] Masahiro Matsumoto tells American [[Cowboy Cop]] Nick Conklin that this happened to the US after [[World War II]].
{{quote| I grew up with your soldiers; you were wise then. Now - music and movies are all America is good for. We make the machines, we build the future, we won the peace.}}
* ''[[Charlie WilsonsWilson's War]]'' suggests that this is what happened in Afghanistan (see below):
{{quote| '''Charlie Wilson''': These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame.}}
* This is what The Clone Wars turned out to be for the Republic and Jedi in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''. In spite of many victories, it was all Palpatine's [[Xanatos Gambit|plan]] to kill off as many Jedi as possible and corrupt Anakin, it also allowed Palpatine more popularity, allowing him to begin [[The Purge]] and become Emperor.
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== Literature ==
 
* ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]'': In the second duology, based heavily on the [[Wars of the Roses]], Alexander ([[RichardofRichard of Gloucester]]'s [[Expy]]) wins the war against Ifrana (France) for his royal older brother Philip (Edward IV), but Philip then signs a strategically poor peace treaty (Treaty of Picquigny) with King Joseph (Louis XI) that gives large momentary gains to Arcia and more than enough time to prepare for retaliation to Infrana. What's more, it does a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|great job estranging Alexander from Philip]].
* ''[[Lord of Light]]'' has an inversion. The protagonist loses the battle of Keenset, but as an eventual result of it his "Accelerationist" viewpoint that technology should be shared wins the day over his opponents' "Deicrat" viewpoint that this is dangerous, as the battle weakens them enough that they can't maintain the same level of strict technological control as they were accustomed to.
* [[John Christopher]]'s ''[[The Tripods]]'' trilogy ends with the group defeating the Tripods, and then having to try to tame humanity itself.
* Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy is based on this. In the first book, they defeat the [[Evil Overlord]]. In the second and third books, they deal with the consequences.
* In ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'', the ceasefire between the Star Kingdom of Manticore, led by [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|High Ridge government]] and The People's Republic of Haven, led by [[State Sec|Oscar Saint-Just]], is an example for Manticorans. Despite being on the brink of total military victory, the new government following an assassination accepts Saint-Just's proposed ceasefire, then drags on the "negotiations" for several years, in the process screwing up their own military, and giving the next Havenite government plenty of time to build up their military, catch up some technologically, and get good and pissed off that Manticore is stringing them along. When the war inevitably restarts, it starts with Haven at a ''huge'' advantage.
* ''[[The Witcher]]'': The Elves are against the Northern Kingdoms who oppressed them and broke their forces in a war centuries ago with [[The Empire|Nilfgaard]], first [http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Scoia%27tael as guerillas], then openly. When the Emperor finished his conquest, he gave them a little independent state as promised, but naturally this enclave was a weak partner of an overlord whom they couldn't oppose in any way, humans in all affected lands switched from occasional prejudice to deep hatred and... the peace was marked by delivering [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|the most aggressive ones]] to the offended sides -- who [[Cold -Blooded Torture|didn't just immediately execute them]].
* This ends up biting Robb Stark in the ass ''hard'' in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. He wins every battle he leads against the Lannisters, but dealing with his own bannermen is a hell of a lot harder, {{spoiler|especially after his mom lets their most important hostage go in an attempt to secure release for her own captive daughters}}. This eventually results in him {{spoiler|getting stabbed in the back by treacherous bannermen after he breaks a promise to marry a lord's daughter}}.
** Daenerys Targaryen also deals with this after leading her own crusade through the slaving cities. Once she settles in Mereen, she hears stories of atrocities carried out in Astrapor, the first city she liberated, and realizes that Mereen is in its own state of fresh chaos. She decides to put the whole "retake the Seven Kingdoms" thing aside until she can maintain some order in her new kingdoms first.
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** The Third Age prior to the events of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is a three-thousand year version of this. The Last Alliance defeat Sauron at the end of the Second Age, but Isildur fails to destroy the Ring, which leads to the estrangement of Elves and Men and his untimely death, which itself causes the split of Arnor and Gondor. Arnor ends up fragmenting into smaller states and slowly being gobbled up by Angmar, with the Elves only helping when it is destroyed, while Gondor spends centuries fighting the Easterlings, Haradrim and itself, leaving it a shadow of its former self by the time Sauron rolls round again.
* Machiavelli points out in [[The Prince]] that a Prince who was won a war and want to avoid be perceived as cruel will left the opposition live. This inevitable concludes in a later war, disorders and a lot of people dead. So, the paradox is that a Prince who truly wants to won the peace must [[The Purge|crush the opposition]] (but not [[Crushing the Populace|the general populace]]) [[No Kill Like Overkill|fast even when the war has already been won]], so all their subjects cannot see any hope in opposing their new ruler, [[Humans Are Bastards|and don’t waste time and effort trying it and truly accepting the new peace]].
* Referenced in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Guards Guards|Guards Guards]]'' as a common problem of revolutionaries. One minute everyone is cheering the overthrow of the tyrant, and the next everyone is complaining because nobody's picking up the trash.
 
== Theater ==
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* ''[[Suikoden III]]'': Used to set up the [[Backstory]] and opening chapters. The tribes of the Grasslands are brokering a cease-fire with the Zexen Confederacy, but neither side really ''respects'' the other. When the Karayan chieftess sends her son to the capital, the council takes great joy in jerking him around and demonstrating just how powerless they see him as. Then to add further insult, they attempt to {{spoiler|kidnap and hold him hostage}}.<br /><br />The Flame Champion didn't do much better. While he brokered a secret peace treaty with the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia, the Harmonians are simply waiting for it to expire, positioning thier agents so that they can act the ''moment'' it expires. He also failed to get them to release the tribes they'd already conquered, leading to Le Buque and [[The Quisling|Franz's]] situation in the main game.
* Each of ''[[ASP Air Strike Patrol (Video Game)|A.S.P. Air Strike Patrol]]'''s normal endings, in which the one or more of the Force, Supplies, or Opinion Ratings were too low to get the [[Golden Ending]], result in this. The [[Qurac|Zarakis]] are defeated and the war ended in victory, but (depending on which meter was low) a [[Opening Scroll|Closing Scroll]] will narrate the disastrous effects the war has had on your country.
* ''[[Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy (Video Game)|Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy]]'' is a remake of ''[[Ace Combat 2]]'' that ties the game's events more closely into [[Constructed World|Strangereal]]'s timeline. During the debriefing for the final mission, unit commander Ulrich Olsen explains that defeating the Usean Rebellion has led to a state of "armed peace" as the rebelling countries of USEA will seek to expand their military, and that another war looms on the horizon--a [[Call Forward]] to ''[[Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies]]''.
* In the backstory of ''[[Skyrim]]'', the Empire managed to drive out the Thalmor from Cyrodiil, but were unable to secure true victory because the Legion was in no condition to continue. The best the Empire could manage was the White-Gold Concordat, an uneasy treaty/cease-fire that banned Talos worship. The Stormcloaks couldn't accept that and started a civil war in Skyrim. No one is under any illusions that the peace with the Thalmor will last either, and there are many hints in the game that the Thalmor are preparing for another war and are working behind the scenes to weaken the Empire. {{spoiler|Even the Stormcloaks' civil war is just another Thalmor scheme against the Empire.}}
 
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* This is a popular stereotype of how Bulgaria's wars end. This arose from two events, and really the only ones that actually happened: the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 (when Russia assembled a vast alliance of Balkan states to fight against Turkish control of the Balkans and independence for Bulgaria and managed to do the nearly unthinkable by pushing into the very suburbs of Constantinople... [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|right before the Congress of Berlin forced the allies to yield most of their gains back to Turkey]]) and the First Balkan war, in which Bulgaria shouldered some of the heaviest burdens, but its allies got most of the territory, causing them to fall out over the spoils. Then things [[It Got Worse|got worse]]...
** The other half of the stereotype, of course, is the inversion. Bulgaria was the only Axis power to come out with territorial gains from the Second World War, regaining the ethnically-Bulgarian Quadrilater/South Dobruja and winning the peace despite losing the war.
* This was the common opinion of the Congress of Vienna, which ended the Napoleonic Wars and established a new status quo for Europe. Justified or not, virtually every party felt betrayed by some portion of the outcome. <ref>Russia's ambitions for a united Poland and dual monarchy were quashed, as were Prussian goals to absorb all of Saxony. The Bourbon French and Hapsburg Austria were annoyed that Murat was to be tolerated in "their" Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (until his sudden but inevitable betrayal in the Hundred Days gave them an excuse to depose him anyways). Denmark's loss of Norway to Sweden was confirmed to compensate the Swedes for their own loss of Finland to Russia and Pomerania to Denmark...the last of which was overturned when Pomerania was granted instead to Prussia to compensate ''them'' for being unable to take all of Saxony. Austria ceded the Austrian Netherlands to the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was content with that until they eventually rebelled to form Belgium. France was on the verge of coming out ahead in spite of losing the war after Talleyrand successfully divided the Allies against each other and set himself up as a kingmaker player between the two alliances, but [[Spanner in Thethe Works|Napoleon's Hundred Days]] overturned all of Talleyrand's careful plotting and cost France all of their gains from 1790-1792, 700 million francs in indemnities, and the restoration of the Quadruple Alliance. Finally, in the defunct Holy Roman Empire, 322 states were eliminated to strengthen the remaining 38, which would make up a new German Confederation. The only major powers to come out in front across the board was the perfidious Albion, Britain, who still had to admit defeat in convincing the other powers to accept anything stronger than a [[Strongly Worded Letter|vocal condemnation]] of the slave trade; the new Kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, who had their borders confirmed; and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, which regained their old borders with the addition of the Republic of Genoa, but still had to tolerate Hapsburg statelets throughout Italy in addition to Austrian Lombardy and Venetia.</ref>
* The Soviet-Afghan War. Yes the Afghans defeated the Soviets, but the country devolved into a civil war and eventually an even worse dictatorship seized power.
** Also from the US perspective. America wasn't ''technically'' at war, but was supporting the Afghan rebels. After the war, America was quick to pull out instead of trying to rebuild the war-torn country. As a result, many of the very fighters the US trained and equipped [[The War Onon Terror|turned against them]], including an assertive young go-getter by the name of [[It Got Worse|Osama Bin Laden.]]
* The Vietnam War. The Americans won in any major battle that they ever fought, but underestimated the North Vietnamese tenacity and dedication (they thought a prolonged war would make the North give up -- big mistake), and finally had to cave to political opposition at home and leave.
** Meanwhile, though the North Vietnamese easily assimilated the two countries into one unified Communist Vietnam without America to stop them, Vietnam today is an economically poor country, and they don't even hate the United States that much -- you would think that America had been the winner, given the state it is in today.
*** [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM The "boat people"] [[Your Mileage May Vary|might dispute how "easy" the assimilation of the two Vietnams was.]]
** And cityscape throughout the country, but especially Saigon, resembles South Vietnam in its heyday more and more as time goes on. Even the "communist" regime has now become corrupted and endorsed crony capitalism, almost exactly like the former Saigon government did. Oops.
* [[The War Onon Terror]] shaped up to be this. Yeah, America is mostly secure, but at the cost of several violations of the constitution, the respect of much of the eastern world, and an overall feeling of animosity in politics.
* The [[Korean War]] was bloody, but only succeeded in effectively permanently dividing the Korean peninsula. And it didn't end in a lasting peace -- it ended in an armistice, which has been periodically violated by North Korea.
 
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