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Dr. Clyde N. Wilson

Whatever Happened to History, Part 2

8/8/2020

3 Comments

 
Picture

The ex-general Petraeus has weighed in with his expert opinion on today’s hot issues. “Robert E. Lee was a traitor,” he declares. This managed to get him a little news attention for the first time in a long while. After all, this is the general who botched occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, is an adulterer, and violated military security.

Where did our General learn about Lee? I may be wrong, but I don’t think he learned this at West Point. We have here someone who has commanded American armies who is seriously ignorant of the complexities of history. That such a person has risen to the top of our military, I suggest, explains a lot about its performance in recent years.

Our top leaders, military and civilian, are prime examples of the “Kevins” I wrote about in another post. People without any genuine achievement but who nevertheless have slithered up the promotion rope by stepping on others, ass kissing, and back-stabbing. I repeat, someone so flippantly and self-promotingly ignorant of the complexities of great historical events has no business in high office, much less commanding an army.

Our Founding Fathers knew history well. If men like Churchill and DeGaulle had not been deeply versed in serious history they may not have done what they did and we might all be wearing swastikas. And lorded over by such opportunists as I have described, who flourish under any regime. Hitler failed in the long run because he viewed history in a distorted and rigid ideological lens.

If George Bush the Lesser had known any history, would he have allowed his handlers to launch a war to conquer and reform the Middle East and Afghanistan?

History seriously considered tells us usefully where we human beings have been over a long course and helps us to understand where we are and what to do. It does not provide perfect answers but it is helpful, a necessary form of wisdom for leaders when important things are at stake. The kinds of shallow views of the past held by the General and the mobs in the streets is one evidence of the sorry state the former democratic America manifests today.
3 Comments
Anthony Powell
8/9/2020 06:32:22 am

Dr Wilson....thanks for this excellent essay. Petraeus never defended his home state and country from foreign attack, as the honorable General Lee did. All Petraeus ever did was participate in attacking, invading and destroying a couple of countries about 7000 miles from America. Now he collects a lavish pension on the backs of people who actually work for a living. He needs to shut his mouth and go play golf with Bush and Cheney.

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John Woodruff
8/9/2020 12:25:24 pm

In the movie Patton, we have the general as portrayed by George C. Scott uttering this line, "My God, I hate the 20th Century". I wonder what he'd have thought of the 21st? Thanks for this essay.

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Tobacco Planter and a Coal Miner
8/9/2020 05:38:21 pm

The latest articles all have the theme of treason of late. Perhaps we could look at recruiting posters from the time? What do they say the war is about? Or perhaps we could look at a letter Sherman wrote; maybe we can use Uncle Billy's words against him?

Men of Virginia!
Men of Kanawha!
TO ARMS!

The enemy has invaded your soil and threatens to overrun your country under the pretext of protection.

You cannot serve two masters. You have not the right to repudiate allegiance to your own State. Be not seduced by his sophistry or intimidated by his threats. Rise and strike for your firesides and altars. Repel the aggressors and preserve your honor and your rights. Rally in every neighborhood with or without arms. Organize and unite with the sons of the soil to defend it. Report yourselves without delay to those nearest to you in military position. Come to the aid of your fathers, brothers, and comrades in arms at this place who are here for the protection of your mothers, wives and sisters.

Let every man who would uphold his rights, turn out with such arms as he may get and drive the invader back.

C.Q. Tompkins,
Col. Va., Vol's. Comdg.
Charleston, Kanawha, May 30, 1861

Notice that recruiting poster doesn't mention a word of slavery.

Now, what "rights" or any single right, might any man choose to uphold and defend? For that answer, let's look to General Sherman.

"For my part, I believe that this war is the result of false political doctrine, for which we are all as a people responsible, viz., that any and every people have a right to self-government; and I would give all a chance to reflect, and, when in error, to recant."

Uncle Billy continues:

"In this belief, whilst I assert for our Government the highest military prerogatives, I am willing to bear in patience that political nonsense of slave rights, State rights, freedom of conscience, freedom of press, and such other trash, as have deluded the Southern people into war, anarchy, bloodshed, and the foulest crimes that have disgraced any time or any people."

So, maybe a man is a one issue voter and only cares about freedom of press. For that reason alone, William Sherman and the entire Union army could become that man's enemy.

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    Author

    Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews

    Dr. Wilson is also is co-publisher of Shotwell Publishing, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books. 

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