Trump's obsession with WW2 generals strikes sour note with historians

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Politics | Fri Feb 26, 2016 2:50am EST

Trump's obsession with WW2 generals strikes sour note with historians

NEW YORK | BY EMILY FLITTER

Presidential candidate Donald Trump admires the late Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, both World War Two generals. They were winners, unpredictable, and not especially nice guys, he says in campaign speeches. But Trump's pledge to imitate their styles sets modern-day military experts on edge.

Although unquestionably in the pantheon of U.S. military heroes, MacArthur and Patton were also controversial figures remembered by historians as flamboyant self-promoters. The commander in the Pacific, MacArthur was eventually fired by President Harry Truman for speaking out against Truman's policies in the Korean War, which followed World War Two. Before Patton died in December 1945, he questioned the need to remove Nazis from key posts in postwar German politics and society.

As Trump edges closer to the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, he likely will face more pointed questions about the policy ideas behind his sweeping statements. His main Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have offered far more details about their foreign policy visions as has Hillary Clinton, front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

Born in 1946, a year after World War Two ended, Trump often praises MacArthur and Patton for the blunt ways he says they commanded respect. "George Patton was one of the roughest guys, he would talk rough to his men," Trump told an audience last week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "His men would die for him," Trump added. "We don't have that anymore." He said Patton would wipe out Islamic State without hesitation were he still in command.

But military historians and retired generals say Trump has an inflated view of the two military men and especially their relevance to an era of modern warfare when armies rely more on technology and when battle successes and failures and civilian casualties are communicated far more rapidly than when MacArthur and Patton commanded troops 70 years ago.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-generals-idUSMTZSAPEC2P4M27U5

[sarge43]

1. "His men would die for him."

They didn't have much choice, jackhole.

"His guts, our blood."

[Zambero]

2. Well after all MacArthur did get fired

Trump's favorite parting gesture for his TV show's non-team-players is YOUR FIRED. Presidents have indeed fired generals who are insubordinate. The Donald would have presumably licked his boots and given him a sixth star?

[SheilaT]

3. Last night I watched

"The Long Way Home" on Netflicks, a documentary about Jews who survived WWII. Many of them wound up in Displaced Persons camps, where conditions weren't very good, to say the least. When Eisenhower mad a visit he was horrified by what he saw. Patton saw no problem and said the Jews were getting better than they deserved, and were subhuman.

That's not a man I can admire.

[DetlefK]

4. WW2-generals? I prefer Montgomery and Rommel.

EDIT:

http://www.cracked.com/article_23034_6-crazy-stupid-ways-people-have-won-pointless-bets_p2.html
Montgomery just had that way of pissing people off through his bizarre and seemingly arrogant behavior -- he once invited the U.S. Army field commander for Christmas lunch, but only gave him an apple to eat. But, the thing that really soured things between him and General Eisenhower arose from a bet Monty had made with Eisenhower's chief of staff. The story goes that Monty was at a dinner party with General Walter Bedell Smith, who said that if Monty captured the Tunisian city of Sfax by April 15, 1943, the U.S. government would give him a B-17 Flying Fortress (a gigantic long-range bomber.)

To Smith, the whole thing was clearly meant to be a joke, but Montgomery took it seriously, and, by "it," we mean the city of Sfax, which fell on April 10. And once it did, the British general immediately sent a telegram directly to Eisenhower, demanding his flying gun city. This is probably a good time to mention that Montgomery might have had Asperger's.

This behavior pissed Eisenhower something fierce, but, in order to not cause an international incident, he actually gave Monty his B-17.