Lines of Departure #1: We can put a man on the moon, but… Call me, “Tom.” Thanks for reading Tom’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I’m a retired infantry officer, lieutenant colonel, a recovering attorney, and a science fiction and military fiction writer for Baen Publishing. I’m also a political refugee and defector from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. Currently I make my home, with my wife and a couple of children, in Blacksburg, Virginia.
I try to hold to the rule of Nil Nisi Bonum where the dead are concerned. Even the dumbest major in human history gets that courtesy, since he's dead. But I don't for, for example, apply it to Woodrow Wilson, Douglas MacArthur...and Robert McNamara.
Wilson for his work to establish the idea of supra- and inter- national law, counter to the established and realistic requirements of what law means.
McNamara for his utter misapplication of statistics and so-called business practices to military endeavors, his disruption of the relationship between the Pentagon and the Executive, to the extreme detriment of all of the above - and so very much more...
But MacArthur - let me guess ...
China (immediate after WW2) or China/Korea (push over the Yalu)?
More simply, because every political atrocity of the mid and late 20th century, communism and nazism, both, can be laid at Wilson's feet. MacArthur for unsound theology - he thought there was a fourth person in the Trinity, you see - for fucking up the defense of the Philippines, for fucking up Korea, for spending an entire afternoon while his men were locked in mortal combat on Bataan, making sure a bonus the Philippine government had promised him was paid and properly invested. Oh, and stealing credit due to others. I think MacArthur was clinically insane, actually, but do not consider that a defense.
All three of them were both arrogant and incompetent, a deadly mix.
Starting off by slamming the never-to-be-sufficiently damned McNamara. Can't wait to read the rest.
I try to hold to the rule of Nil Nisi Bonum where the dead are concerned. Even the dumbest major in human history gets that courtesy, since he's dead. But I don't for, for example, apply it to Woodrow Wilson, Douglas MacArthur...and Robert McNamara.
Wilson for his work to establish the idea of supra- and inter- national law, counter to the established and realistic requirements of what law means.
McNamara for his utter misapplication of statistics and so-called business practices to military endeavors, his disruption of the relationship between the Pentagon and the Executive, to the extreme detriment of all of the above - and so very much more...
But MacArthur - let me guess ...
China (immediate after WW2) or China/Korea (push over the Yalu)?
More simply, because every political atrocity of the mid and late 20th century, communism and nazism, both, can be laid at Wilson's feet. MacArthur for unsound theology - he thought there was a fourth person in the Trinity, you see - for fucking up the defense of the Philippines, for fucking up Korea, for spending an entire afternoon while his men were locked in mortal combat on Bataan, making sure a bonus the Philippine government had promised him was paid and properly invested. Oh, and stealing credit due to others. I think MacArthur was clinically insane, actually, but do not consider that a defense.
All three of them were both arrogant and incompetent, a deadly mix.
More like Mac was an arrogant, self centered narcissist.