Interesting that you brought up Patton. I think a real change in expectations of American culture came during WW2 when Patton was publicly pilloried and forced to apologize to the grunts he slapped for being in evacuation hospitals with "battle fatigue" and "exhaustion" rather than on the front lines. It didn't end well for society. Of course, the "gutless bastard" he tried to ass-kick out of the hospital tent turned out to have a malarial fever, and pulling a service pistol on a subordinate probably isn't a good look outside of an NKVD blocking detachment, but it seems like a huge moment in cultural history, especially in the 1940s.
Interesting that you brought up Patton. I think a real change in expectations of American culture came during WW2 when Patton was publicly pilloried and forced to apologize to the grunts he slapped for being in evacuation hospitals with "battle fatigue" and "exhaustion" rather than on the front lines. It didn't end well for society. Of course, the "gutless bastard" he tried to ass-kick out of the hospital tent turned out to have a malarial fever, and pulling a service pistol on a subordinate probably isn't a good look outside of an NKVD blocking detachment, but it seems like a huge moment in cultural history, especially in the 1940s.