The Mysterious Death of George Patton

Fox News ^ | 4/27/06 | Oliver North

[Ciexyz]

Most interesting.

[Lord_Baltar]

His views on past lives/reincarnation are pretty well known.

He was one hell of a Soldier, and more than just a bit philosopher.

[elcid1970]

Awesome! Never read Patton's entire poem before.

[spanalot]

"he was recalled at that moment in time by the good Lord."

And praytell why would the Lord be on the Commies side - why would the Lord take back Patton so that the Russians could get the bomb and kill us in three more wars? And then kill another 50 million in the last half of the century.

[TruBluKentuckian]

I thought it was a plot. Patton's driver was a former Arab taxi driver and if one has ever ridden in a car with an Arabic driver one would understand the danger.

Umm... where did you come up with that?

Patton's driver was a relative of mine, Horace Woodring, and about as far from being arab as one can get.

[concentric circles]

Patton guided for a higher purpose? It's not that small a club. His entire life seemed to be a form of training for the fulfillment of a single purpose.

I found it to be a remarkable bit of fate that, as a lad, he should have been out riding in the foothills of the San Gabriels near his home in southern California and encountered none other than an elderly John Singleton Mosby riding horseback on the same trails.

The chance meeting led to a relationship and many succeeding visits, a nearly mystical passing of a warriors mantle.

[scrabblehack]

I remember reading that Ronald Reagan said he would not run for a 2nd term as governor if he had been offered the role of Patton. Maybe he was joking though.

[SunkenCiv]

Interesting. Patton lived, paralyzed, for some time after the accident (or whatever).

[DakotaRed]

Everyone knows Elvis did not plot to kill people.

It's obvious. Patton died a mysterious death and now, Bush is in the White House. Sure likes a Karl Rove and George Bush ops to me ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

I love that scene in the movie Patton where he recites a verse from that over the site of an ancient battle.

[lawdude]

"I thought Elvis did it."


Bush dunnit!

[musicman]

IIRC, I saw a History Channel show about Patton, and one of the important things I remember about it, was that after the fall of Berlin, Patton was VERY insistant in trying to get Ike to continue all the way to Moscow.

Patton's arguement was backed up with these points:

#1 Our military would NEVER be in a better position AND strength, and be more ready and able.

#2 All the logistical aspects and needed equipment were IN PLACE, along with enough battle hardened troops, and air power to support it.

#3 Our factories were still at full producing capacity to make the equipment needed for such a task.

#4 Patton was looking into the future, and pointed out that we were, EVENTUALLY, probably going to have to fight them sooner or later, and there was NO BETTER TIME than that.


Well, he was relieved of his duty not too soon after, and then had his "accident".

IMHO, think of how different the world would be if Patton had gotten his way. He was a hero back home, and to some even more than Marshall or Ike, which would have made it worse for them, if he had tried to get the US public into his arguement for taking on Stalin, ESPECIALLY the way things turned out in Europe BECAUSE the US didn't destroy Stalin after Patton's impassioned plea.

I have seen t-shirts, and bumper stickers with the saying:

"Patton WAS right!!"

[yarddog]

I did not know how they met but in his biography it is mentioned that Mosby was often a house guest at the Pattons which makes me think he stayed overnight with them. Also he instructed the young George on Guerilla tactics.

I am sure they got on well because both of Patton's Grandfathers were Confederate officers, I think one a general and one a colonel.

[Leatherneck_MT]

That's a story I had never heard. Thanks for passing that on.

[zot]

Thanks for posting General Patton's poem.

[zot]

Ping to Post 36 -- General Patton's Poem

[Thunder90]

I bet that Putin won't say anything....

[GB]

OK, I can sit here and say 61 years after the fact what we should've done, or Ike should've done, or that Patton should've been listened to.

Here's the thing, though. That is completely irrelevant. You have to put yourself back in 1945. And I ask this question. Where would the national will have been in 1945 to go to war with someone who was our best buddy not a month earlier? Who we were dancing with and trading vodka shots with not a month earlier after we crushed Cpl. Schicklegruber and his minions. What do you think the national reaction have been if, say, on June 1, 1945, Harry Truman had gotten on the radio and said, "We're now declaring war on Russia and we're going all the way to Moscow? Quite honestly, I don't know if there would've been any conceivable scenario under which the U.S. public, again looking at things through a 1945 prism, with us just having whipped Germany and having not whipped Japan yet, to swing right into a war with the Russians.

And the whole gist of this thread is Oliver Stone/grassy knoll nonsense, IMHO. Patton was killed in a car wreck. Period. And I'm sorry, but as great a general as he was ... and he was GREAT ... he was not as big a hero in the U.S. in 1945 as Ike.

[Riley]

I understand where Patton was going with that and why, and why it might look like a good 'what if' today, but:

*The Soviet Army in Europe at the end of the war was HUGE and also experienced,
*Roosevelt and Truman would've thought attacking the Russians was insane,
*the troops and American public saw Stalin as a legitimate ally and
*Said troops and American public were heartily sick of the war by that time.

[FDNYRHEROES]

Had Patton not died, I'm sure the Dems would try to get him to badmouth Rummy as well...