I'm not sure there's enough context here to tell.  They certainly work,
but they change the passage in ways the author might not like.  One
effect of moving from simple past to past perfect is to reduce the sense
of immediacy.  The passage becomes a little less vital with the past
perfects.  This is one of those speaker/writer attitudinal effects that
determine a lot of our choices between tenses.  The rules are not simple
and straightforward.

 

Herb

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brad Johnston
Sent: 2008-02-17 09:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Context matters - continued

 

In context, do the five 'had's belong in or out?

 

"Beyond containment, the major thrust of American Cold War diplomatic
foreign policy was to return the defeated enemies, Germany and Japan, to
the emerging international system as full-fledged members. This task,
unprecedented in respect to nations on which unconditional surrender
(had been) was imposed less than five years earlier, made sense to a
generation of American leaders whose formative experience (had been) was
overcoming the Great Depression of the 1930s. The generation that
organized resistance to the Soviet Union (had) experienced Franklin D.
Roosevelt's New Deal, which (had) restored political stability by
closing the gap between American expectations and economic reality. The
same generation (had) prevailed in World War II, fought in the name of
democracy."

 

  

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