Mark Twain called US soldiers "uniformed assassins," in soon-to-be-released autobiography

[Jayendra Sandeep]

NY Times excerpt:

Twain’s opposition to incipient imperialism and American military intervention in Cuba and the Philippines, for example, were well known even in his own time. But the uncensored autobiography makes it clear that those feelings ran very deep and includes remarks that, if made today in the context of Iraq or Afghanistan, would probably lead the right wing to question the patriotism of this most American of American writers.

In a passage removed by Paine, Twain excoriates “the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War” and Gen. Leonard Wood’s “mephitic record” as governor general in Havana. In writing about an attack on a tribal group in the Philippines, Twain refers to American troops as “our uniformed assassins"; and describes their killing of “six hundred helpless and weaponless savages” as “a long and happy picnic with nothing to do but sit in comfort and fire the Golden Rule into those people down there and imagine letters to write home to the admiring families, and pile glory upon glory.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/books/10twain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=mv

[ellisonz]

1. Essential Twain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_The_Person_Sitting_In_Darkness

Original article linked at bottom.

[peopleb4money]

2. That's awesome

They released a new Hendrix album, and now their releasing Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Why doesn't he support our troops?

And I suppose he blamed America for our involvement in the Philippines rather than the Filipinos? They had it coming to them Mr. Twain, or don't you remember the Maine? The Maine changed everything!

Have you forgotten 2-15?

[L0oniX]

18. "suppose" all you want. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

20. It's a well known fact that they harbored the Spanish, who attacked us on 2-15!

No one disputes that. Thank you, I'll suppose what I like. And I suppose in your contributions we have another voice in the "Blame America" chorus. Well, you and this Mark Twain character, who I gather goes by the improbable sounding alias of Samuel Clemens are going to have to adjust to a new spirit of order and discipline and frankness in this country. That old irony-monger is out of a job now that irony is dead. We're going to have some good old fashioned, sincere patriotism and some good old fashioned parades in complete earnest with utterly sincere marching bands. We're going to have some sincere interrogations of subversive elements and we're going to have some sincere invasions of foreign troublemakers. He can ask our Predator drones if they're joking. Americans are going to have to watch what they say and they're going to have to watch what they do.

Remember the Maine, sir. Remember the Maine.

[L0oniX]

23. heh ...and the killing of “six hundred helpless and weaponless savages” has to do with what?

Stir up shit much?

[kenny blankenship]

24. How do we know the perfidious Spaniards wouldn't sneak back in there,

if we just left Philippine archipelago to their own devices? How do we know they wouldn't soon be back to their old tricks, using that labyrinth of jungle and water and mountain as a base from which to attack us again?

How do we know that? No one can say they know it couldn't happen! What's more, I call racism on this "Mark Twain", who refers to our partners, the Filipinos, as "helpless savages". Soft bigotry of low expectations much, Mr. Twain? He's just one reference to grass skirts and bones-through-the-nose short of getting his racist ass banned from a site like this one, even though it largely agrees with his liberal cynicism and jaded viewpoint. You can hear him scoffing at the Filipinos' aspirations for liberty and democracy as he derides them as Paleolithic throwbacks, blinking as it were in savage amazement at the Sky People who are able to kill them with our magical thundersticks from so far away. Well I happen to believe that liberty and democracy are God's gift to ALL people, Mr. Twain. And I know our President agrees, whatever the year and whatever his name might be. Just ask him, in those exact words. He will tell you unhesitatingly: No one is unworthy to receive this gift from God, even if they don't want it. All we are trying to do is to play Santa Claus' helper and plant the gifts of liberty and democracy throughout the world, and if Samuel Clemens thinks the Filipino "savages" aren't ready for it, that's just sad.

Naturally, in any rapid change of government for the better, there are some dead enders who cling to their old ways and their former tyranny. I'm sure Saddam's sons would have liked to have inherited their Pop's power, and they would have liked to have kept Abu Ghraib and its rape rooms open for their private delectation, but we couldn't allow places like that to exist or things like that to go on another day. We had to crack some eggs - a few - but eventually we cleaned up the mess we'd made. "You can't make a bourgeois democracy in Iraq without killing at least 4% of the total population", as I believe the old saying goes. When Progress is on the march, there will always be a few pockets of resistance that must be liquidated and mopped up. So 600 dead ender Filipino tribesmen were given their wish to resist unto death, in exchange for the sweetness and light of democracy and the blessings of private enterprise? That sounds like a comparative bargain. But it was more than a generous deal on our part, it was our moral obligation. Absolutely! We had to occupy the Philippines after the Spanish Empire attacked us and started the war, which we won, thank God, and no thanks to people like Mr. Twain. Then after the war, with a broken Philippines on our hands, we were obliged to fix the brokenness and move the people living there forward - an obligation to uphold against all resistance and whatever the cost. All serious, sincere people agree - we have to fix the Filipinos, the Iraqis, and the Afghans. Because we OWE it to them. These 600 were resisting. They wanted to hold the Philippines back, and so stern but necessary measures had to be adopted to bring that benighted spattered spitwad of islands into the Light. It's sad that Mr Twain would take their side, but it's to be expected from one belonging to the Blame America First crowd. Every nation has a right to self-defense --every nation but ours, according to the Blame America crowd. And there is no enemy of Enlightenment and Progress so barbaric and depraved that he cannot rely on their sympathy and support. We had to fix the Philippines, just like we have to complete the task of fixing the Iraqis and Afghans. I think we can agree that the Philippines turned out all right; the Iraqis and Afghans will turn out all right too, and they will all thank us later.

Now I think I promised you a parade.

[ClassicLiberalRoss]

27. Colbert-style irony, right?! AWESOME!

Sure beats thinkin'.

[Lilith Velkor]

28. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[ClassicLiberalRoss]

32. Happy to be here!

Love your name, btw.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. This is a book I really want to read. n/t

[Rex]

5. No surprise there.

[pnorman]

6. Jim Zwick once had an excellent website on the anti-imperialist writings/speeches of Mark Twain.

It was called boondocks.net, but was taken down for copyright violation reasons. He also had a book "Weapons Of Satire", that covered the same material, but he was unable to bring it out in reprint for the same reason. It's currently available at "collector prices", but it might be in your local library. Give it a check and you might just luck out! It's well worth the read. I have that book, as well as a CD-ROM called "Twain's World, but can't seem to find either at present in my cluttered apartment. RATS!

[girl gone mad]

7. Radical Alternative Liberal!

He would not be welcomed with open arms around here, either..

[Goldstein1984]

8. I love quoting Twain to my Democrat and Republican

Conservative friends. They hate him.

Not enough blind patriotism for them.

[malaise]

9. Mark Twain was a fucking genius

He was correct about several issues. I adore his approach to work.

[unhappycamper]

10. In 1933 Smedley Butler said:

Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.


on edit to add:

Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History
(Excerpts dealing with some of his radical, post-retirement activities)

[hobbit709]

11. +1000

[stray cat]

12. And all German soldiers are Nazi's? I think Twain speaks of a case by case basis

[pleah]

13. K&R

[arcadian]

14. "uniformed assassins"

"uninformed assasins" works there as well.

[CBGLuthier]

15. This article uses the word unexpurgated and then manipulates the quote

Would it have fucking killed them to include the exact quote?

Referring to Teddy Roosevelt he said,

"He knew perfectly well that to pen 600 helpless and weaponless savages in a hole like rats in a trap and massacre them in detail during a stretch of a day-and-a-half from a safe position on the heights above was no brilliant feat of arms. He knew perfectly well that our uniformed assassins had not upheld the honor of the American flag."


Shitty, manipulative journalism designed to inflame. Hearst and Kane would both be proud.

[Posteritatis]

21. It probably would have killed them. Context makes kneejerk freakouts harder, after all. (nt)

[ProgressIn2008]

25. Thanks for that -- the full quote is fascinating. nt

[conspirator]

16. The first time I read the post title I read "uninformed". And also fits like a glove n/t

[JackRiddler]

17. Mark Twain hates our troops. Also, he hates President Obama.

A hundred years he felt he had to wait, just to speak plainly - imperialism is murder and soldiers are the tools - figuring things would have surely got better in the meantime.

[L0oniX]

19. Samuel Clemens quotes on patriotism are interesting too.

http://www.twainquotes.com/Patriotism.html

[Greyhound]

22. K&R for truth.

:kick: & R

[Yavin4]

26. Can't Wait for the Glenn Beckian Spin on this

Here's my guess: He'll say that it was those commie UC Berkeley staffers who wrote it, not Twain.

[G_j]

29. The War Prayer

for anyone who missed this work from Twain:

The War Prayer
by Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

http://www.ntua.gr/lurk/making/warprayer.html

Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.

The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed.

[Hugabear]

30. Guess it's time to start burning Mark Twain books.

Wouldn't surprise me if there were more than a couple of book-burnings across the country.

[Umbral]

31. Wait until the volume covering Twain's thoughts on God are released...

The fundamentalists will skip right over banning his books and proceed directly to the bonfires.