I read the comments to this on the TNR site. Liberals can’t help being military-hating liberals.
Most commented on the “racism” of Dr. Wilsey. The rest were “See, I told you so, American G.I.s weren’t the angels you think they were!”
My Dad was infantry and helped to liberate Dachau. He seldom talked about it. When I brought up G.I.’s summarily executing SS-men, Dad replied that American soldiers didn’t do such things. By then there were stories everywhere about Nazi war criminals escaping justice & living out their lives comfortably, and I was glad to hear that rough justice was meted out in Dachau.
“...I was glad to hear that rough justice was meted out in Dachau.”
Yes, there are better things to shed a tear over. I also hate how people of today seek to hold those from the past to today’s standards.
The family could easily have gotten rid of all the ‘racist’ letters, but they did not.
I remember reading a Nero Wolfe story, a big part of which was the large kitchen and wait staff at some country club (or something like that). They were all black guys. There was such archaic slurs used about them that I barely knew what was being discussed. (Or course our hero Nero is not like that, but his sidekick and narrator Archie was, iirc.)
Calling them “smokes” and stuff like that. I actually had to ask my mom about some of the language. I will always remember what she said to me “There’s been a great change”.
I think everyone from her generation (same as the Doctor in the NR piece, although since he was aleady an MD I guess he was older than my parents) KNOWS this, but some seem determined to convince young blacks that nothing has changed, in fact maybe things are worse than ever.
I hate the Left, they are idiots. When all you’ve got left to worry about are “microagressions” you better get down on your knees and thank God.
My dad served in the Pacific. I know nothing about his time there. It was actually my grandma, his mother-in-law who told me that he had never discussed any of it.
We never asked either, but I don’t know why that was. My father was a very sweet man, not intimidating like the man in the story, but still we never asked, not that I remember.
Yup, a couple of the quotes in the letter sounded “off”, for lack of a better word. Like “the Germans were SO not doing (something). That sounds more like a modern day teenager, than someone from the 40s. Makes me wonder how much is a figment of the author’s imagination.
I’ve no doubt that some of our soldiers weren’t Angels. But, I have a hard time reconciling atrocities with good, honest men like my grandfather, and the other vets he served with.