Bad religion is arrogant self-righteous dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.
World War II had been such a tremendous success story for this country that the political and military leadership began to assume that they would prevail simply because of who they were. We were like the British at the turn of the 19th century.