This is something that has tugged at my soul for a long long time. I think Americans tend to view things in “yeah for my side” and too much in the lense of “America is the best” to the point we forget that in many cases we only love heroes who further our political beliefs and bury anything negative in American history to cover up where we don’t live up to the image.
Take WW2 for example… We constantly want to downplay how powerful the “America First” movement was. Yet Gallup polls have shown that more Americans believed in American isolationism and the treatment of Jewish persecution was over exaggerated by the FDR administration to get us into the war.
But probably one of the craziest moments was when Lindbergh started attacking FDR. This sparked a war hero from WWI to come out of the shadows to attack Lindbergh after retiring from public life for nearly two decades. He had this to say about Lindbergh:
“ Twenty long years have gone by since I came home, and yet if you pick up your newspaper today, the same topic occupies the headlines as blazed across our front pages then. War . . . Russia's record of military success is rivalled [sic] only by Hitler's record for honesty. I will be sorry if Russia is defeated quickly, for a number of reasons. The first is Hitler must [his emphasis] be stopped. The second is that a long, drawn out war between Russia and Germany would weaken both dictators. The third, and most important reason for my sorrow at a speedy German victory is that it will give fuel to such isolationists and appeasers as Senator Wheeler and ex Colonel Lindbergh, and ex-President Hoover. They will burst forth with long, windy statements to the effect that this effort proves that the German Army is the greatest military machine in the history of the world, and that it therefore makes our helping England a little stupid, since no country, no matter how strong, can possibly stand up before the punishment dealt out by the Nazis.
Stalin did everything he could to make himself a super-Neville Chamberlain. And before two years of that counterfeit friendship had run its inevitable course, Germany was sending its armed legions across the border to attack its recent strange bedpartner. Can ex-colonel Lindbergh now say that appeasement hasn't been given every conceivable chance to prove itself? . . .I hope that the former Colonel is not too hurt by what I have said here this afternoon and what I will continue to say on other afternoons and evenings. I hope he understands how I feel, and believe me when I say that I have tried to understand how he feels. I have failed in that, but that may be because of the fact that of all the medals I was fortunate enough to get, none of them came with the personal blessings of Adolf Hitler.*"
After this, the veteran received a letter that quickly became public from a woman in Michigan. The letter said:
" “Well you skunk and ignoramus, you got fooled yourself in the last war, and now for a few dirty dollars that you are getting, you are betraying millions of young men… You ought to kiss every step the Hon. Chas. Lindbergh and that Champion of Men, Mr. Nye is making (sic), just to stop others from getting into the same stupid conditions as you are at the present time. It’s a shame that such people as you cam back, it would have been a blessing if you were shot to pieces. May you break your neck right now as you and others like you are a menace to civilization.
Dear Mr. veteran, if you need hospitalization make the ones who look after this give it to you, and I hope success for you.”
That veteran.... was Alvin York.
My overall point is that Im always hesitant of the "We support the troops", "America First", and "American history in public schools should be all positive" crowd because historically it translates to "we pick and choose what history and which heroes we want and our support isnt absolute." Because if someone has the guts to say that about probably one of the two greatest soldiers in US history (Audy is possibly the greatest), then it means heroes from war are only useful if they are quiet or a champion for your side. We saw this with how Trump went after Mccain's service record and we still see it with how the America Firsters defend General Flynn's service record. The Second version of this movement feels eerily similar to the first in how they bash military servicemen that speak up and how they have no empathy to the suffering at the hands of brutal dictatorships. They are also hooked on cults of personalities that are determined to tear down democratic institutions in order to make their power absolute.
sorry for length and format. Flame away.
* Lindbergh was awarded medals from Goerring and was given many gifts from the Nazis that were very publicly known.
Take WW2 for example… We constantly want to downplay how powerful the “America First” movement was. Yet Gallup polls have shown that more Americans believed in American isolationism and the treatment of Jewish persecution was over exaggerated by the FDR administration to get us into the war.
But probably one of the craziest moments was when Lindbergh started attacking FDR. This sparked a war hero from WWI to come out of the shadows to attack Lindbergh after retiring from public life for nearly two decades. He had this to say about Lindbergh:
“ Twenty long years have gone by since I came home, and yet if you pick up your newspaper today, the same topic occupies the headlines as blazed across our front pages then. War . . . Russia's record of military success is rivalled [sic] only by Hitler's record for honesty. I will be sorry if Russia is defeated quickly, for a number of reasons. The first is Hitler must [his emphasis] be stopped. The second is that a long, drawn out war between Russia and Germany would weaken both dictators. The third, and most important reason for my sorrow at a speedy German victory is that it will give fuel to such isolationists and appeasers as Senator Wheeler and ex Colonel Lindbergh, and ex-President Hoover. They will burst forth with long, windy statements to the effect that this effort proves that the German Army is the greatest military machine in the history of the world, and that it therefore makes our helping England a little stupid, since no country, no matter how strong, can possibly stand up before the punishment dealt out by the Nazis.
Stalin did everything he could to make himself a super-Neville Chamberlain. And before two years of that counterfeit friendship had run its inevitable course, Germany was sending its armed legions across the border to attack its recent strange bedpartner. Can ex-colonel Lindbergh now say that appeasement hasn't been given every conceivable chance to prove itself? . . .I hope that the former Colonel is not too hurt by what I have said here this afternoon and what I will continue to say on other afternoons and evenings. I hope he understands how I feel, and believe me when I say that I have tried to understand how he feels. I have failed in that, but that may be because of the fact that of all the medals I was fortunate enough to get, none of them came with the personal blessings of Adolf Hitler.*"
After this, the veteran received a letter that quickly became public from a woman in Michigan. The letter said:
" “Well you skunk and ignoramus, you got fooled yourself in the last war, and now for a few dirty dollars that you are getting, you are betraying millions of young men… You ought to kiss every step the Hon. Chas. Lindbergh and that Champion of Men, Mr. Nye is making (sic), just to stop others from getting into the same stupid conditions as you are at the present time. It’s a shame that such people as you cam back, it would have been a blessing if you were shot to pieces. May you break your neck right now as you and others like you are a menace to civilization.
Dear Mr. veteran, if you need hospitalization make the ones who look after this give it to you, and I hope success for you.”
That veteran.... was Alvin York.
My overall point is that Im always hesitant of the "We support the troops", "America First", and "American history in public schools should be all positive" crowd because historically it translates to "we pick and choose what history and which heroes we want and our support isnt absolute." Because if someone has the guts to say that about probably one of the two greatest soldiers in US history (Audy is possibly the greatest), then it means heroes from war are only useful if they are quiet or a champion for your side. We saw this with how Trump went after Mccain's service record and we still see it with how the America Firsters defend General Flynn's service record. The Second version of this movement feels eerily similar to the first in how they bash military servicemen that speak up and how they have no empathy to the suffering at the hands of brutal dictatorships. They are also hooked on cults of personalities that are determined to tear down democratic institutions in order to make their power absolute.
sorry for length and format. Flame away.
* Lindbergh was awarded medals from Goerring and was given many gifts from the Nazis that were very publicly known.
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