General George S. Patton died a death that was in some sense unfortunately banal. He hit his head against a partition in a car during a low-speed encounter with a truck in late 1945. But in many ways, it was a fitting way to go. Something more dramatic would have distracted from the color of his life, and anything that equaled the drama of his life would have been gruesome.
It’s worth celebrating the 79th year of his death not only because he’s a character always worthy of bringing up in people’s minds, but because he stood for many of the qualities and attitudes needed when the world is in peril. He is credited with the quote: “A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood,” a straightforward observation from one who saw the worst horrors of war, a simple piece of advice which should have been followed by everyone involved in setting America’s policy toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Patton had a single-minded military career, passing on from West Point Military Academy to serve during the First World War in tank warfare, having shown his energetic persona in the pre-war Olympic Games. After the interwar years, in which he focused his attentions on building US armored capabilities, he found himself in the limelight as commander of the US Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
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Showing extraordinarily effective leadership and drive, he eventually played a major role in Operation Fortitude, the deception plan in the lead up to D-Day. Once the beachheads were secured, he led the US Third Army in a stupendously potent offensive to drive the Nazis out of France.
Alongside his military success and leadership, one of Patton’s enduring legacies is the invective-filled, profanity-laden speeches he gave, which received the outright approval of his soldiers, and brought embarrassed rebukes by his “superiors.”
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country,” he pointed out to the US 6th Armored Division, on May 31, 1944, as they prepared for the assault on Nazi-occupied Europe.
That was the least of his controversies. Who knows what would happen to him today. He would probably be dismissed from his command and sent on an “Inclusiveness and Unconscious Bias while Fighting Nazis” on-line training course or “Language and Micro-Aggressions while Preventing the Collapse of the Free World” away-day team building experience in which you learn how to say “politically challenged individual on the other team” rather than “poor dumb bastard.”
But there is much better stuff in his speech that is relevant to the current situation. He had something to say to his soldiers about America: “Men, all this stuff you hear about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big-league ball players and the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.”
Imagine this coming out of the lips of Joseph Biden or Jake Sullivan.
Patton also had some simple things to say about bringing wars to an end. Considering that many of our enemies are now our friends (so you’ll have to accept that to modern ears his statements might make you wince a bit), the basic ideas are nothing much to argue about:
“Sure, we all want to go home. We want to get this war over with. But you can’t win a war lying down. The quickest way to get it over with is to get the bastards who started it. We want to get the hell over there and clean the goddamn thing up, and then get at those purple-pissing Japs. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. So keep moving. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper-hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler.”
And there’s more where that came from:
“I don’t want any messages saying, ‘I’m holding my position.’ We’re not holding a goddamned thing. We’re advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding anything except the enemy’s balls. We’re going to hold him by his balls and we’re going to kick him in the ass; twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all the time. Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing. We’re going to go through the enemy like shit through a tinhorn.”
Anyway, you get the general idea, the General certainly got the idea.
You can’t have ever read this speech (I implore you to read the whole splendid thing), and then read anything that has come out of the Biden administration without sighing and throwing your arms up in despair. “We will continue to stand with the Ukrainian people as they defend against Russia’s barbaric war of aggression.” Yes, Mr. Sullivan, yes. If you say so.
The style of some of his speeches often leads people to conclude that Patton was a rough man, crass and lacking in depth, but this would be wrong. He was an avid reader on history, and his letters are thoughtful. It is a classic error to attempt to create a monochrome personality that can be easily described. Like all humans, he was a mix of sentiments and when the situation demanded it, especially in the heat of battle, he was quite ready to let go of the frills of etiquette.
Patton harbored some unconventional views. He believed in reincarnation and was convinced he had seen battle in previous lives. There is no doubt that he expressed views that today we would consider racist, but again, bear in mind the age in which the man lived. He made antisemitic comments that are indefensible. There is also no question that he had an enormous ego, a narcissistic one at that; but we might ask, what sort of personality would you prefer in an effective general who will get the job done? This type of personality must often be accepted as part of the recipe of military success.
Aside from his invectives in battle, Patton understood that tanks, armor and fighting spirit were not enough. Underpinning all of this is the need for the moral quality to be ready to defend the ideas of freedom: “I find that moral courage is the most valuable and most usually absent characteristic,” he expressed in a private letter.
It’s not obvious that, right now, Patton has been reincarnated, but even if he’s not here, we can learn much from what the man stood for and what he fought for. At the very least, you can read his speeches for some blunt-edged unalloyed inspiration in our current time.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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