#Eisenhower in War and Peace

[deadpresidents]

Could you recommend a biography of Eisenhower please?

There are so many great books of Eisenhower that I'm going to recommend a few of them:

•Eisenhower by Geoffrey Perret (BOOK | KINDLE) Published in 1999, this is one of the best single-volume biographies of Eisenhower, in my opinion.

•Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) This book is a vast, extensively researched look at all aspects of Eisenhower's fascinating life. It's about as complete of a biography of someone like Eisenhower that could possibly fit in one volume and was published relatively recently (2012).

•Eisenhower, Volume I: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952 by Stephen E. Ambrose (BOOK | KINDLE) •Eisenhower, Volume II: The President by Stephen E. Ambrose (BOOK | KINDLE) This two-volume biography of Eisenhower by legendary historian Stephen E. Ambrose is probably the best-known study of Eisenhower's life. If you're not looking to invest the time that it takes to get through these two big volumes, there is an abridged, single-volume edition of Ambrose's book: Eisenhower: Soldier and President: The Renowned One-Volume Life (BOOK | KINDLE).

•Eisenhower: The White House Years by Jim Newton (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) This is probably the best book focusing solely on Eisenhower's eight years as President. Anyone who wants to know Eisenhower's story almost certainly wants one of the full-fledged biographies covering his military career, but this is a good read for anyone who wants a deep dive on his Presidency.

•Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life With Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969 by David Eisenhower with Julie Nixon Eisenhower (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) Again, this is not a full-fledged biography covering Eisenhower's entire life, but it is a tremendously interesting, intimate, and deeply personal focus on Eisenhower's last years, from the time he left the White House until his death in 1969. What really makes this book different is that it's written by Eisenhower's grandson, David, who spent a lot of time with the former President when he left office and retired to his farm in Gettysburg. David Eisenhower (who is the namesake of Camp David, the Presidential retreat in Maryland) is able to give readers a unique look at this giant of the 20th Century, the former Supreme Allied Commander who helped defeat the Nazis and win World War II before becoming President and is all of those remarkable things but also a grandpa. The book is also notable because it's written with David Eisenhower's wife, who just happens to be the daughter of Eisenhower's Vice President and a future President in his own right, Richard Nixon.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

by Mr. Fish

* * * *

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

[wayti-blog]

War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

[dreamofstarlight]

President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free."

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

President John F Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961)

[rotzaprachim]

Many have such little comprehension and empathy for what it was to be a refugee from a communist dictatorship in the kind of 30’s-90’s period in the U.S. and Western Europe. (They also have such little comprehension and empathy for what it was to be a refugee from a right wing capitalist us-backed dictatorship as well, but in some specials and other ways.)

like. These were people who were often working between multiple extremely dysfunctional, systematically unfair immigration regimes. The U.S. functionally shut immigration from everywhere but smallll portions of Western Europe and small groups of people from those areas at that in the 1920’s and things stayed, with fluctuations, roughly the same for decades - simple “economic migrants” from almost the entire world were simply banned. People had to come up with a political reason to flee, and it had to sound good to the authorities, especially when a lot of them were on the exact lists that U.S. immigration did not like - Southeast Asians, Muslims, Jews, central and Eastern Europeans, Latines. They often but not always had the exact professions and backgrounds that the U.S. did not like, especially in peak Cold War 50’s-70’s hysteria - intellectuals of all sorts, psychologists, professors, artists, scientists, researchers.

Or they were running from repercussions from political actions, which were often political actions the United States was not a particular fan of, such as attempts at independent trade unionization - because remember, you likely came from a country with (1) total trade union which was a government entity and the government was your employer, so there wasn’t a single way to raise a workers’ rights complaint - or attempts at non-aligned peace and demilitarization movements - because if you lived in Eastern Europe there was still a massive chance that your labour was going towards some kind of violence abroad - or towards academic intellectual freedom or just some way of tallying your figures to go hmmm something doesn’t add up here. all of these often ended up glossed as “bourgeois capitalism” where they were running from, but were considered kinda suspiciously red in the U.S. where they were trying to go. What do you do?

And then they got to the U.S., and due to the haphazard and brutal nature of U.S. immigration policy, they often came over as individuals and then were desperate to get the rest of their family over as well - keep in mind too that the exact regimes they were running from often punished the families of those who left or marked them as regime traitors who deserved punishment. So if you arrived in the US, not only were you on the ground begging for your own documentation or else keeping very very silent, you were also either desperately telling the authorities about the most dreadfullllll terribleeeee communist spectacle you were running from and how every day you prayed to mcdonalds and j edgar Hoover and our lord almighty Dwight d Eisenhower that you could bring your children to the cleansing light of capitalism.

or you were keeping very, very silent.

like, we need to appreciate that there are appreciable ways in which U.S. border policy has hardened since the, say, 1950’s (although there has been an awful and cyclical policy of border based deportations), anti immigrant hysteria and mass deportation and closed borders have been a feature of U.S. policy since at least the 1920’s in a very systematic way, and these were the Bad Ones. People were playing with multiple very very unfair systems.

It’s in this context I see extremely …. Extreme stuff about members of various exile groups in the U.S. let’s be clear - many of the people above who I mentioned became very publicly conservative. I don’t believe anyone’s particular background justifies conservatism in any way, or that conservatism is understandable when anyone supports it. But I do think it’s underrated how, while very certain figureheads became conservative, an unbelievable number of the people who went through this system just went silent. They voted quietly and worked quietly and did not become loudly or physically involved with that which might deport them again, might make them become again arrested. And many others became conflicting bitter about the whole thing, and never did really wave the flag and cheer because this land of Golden Arches had so much of what they were running from, and they saw it in other people. In Jewish and/or Eastern European and in Asian exilic communities I grew up with and knew all those people. All of them.

it’s a strange place to be in, at this moment in history. On the one hand, the U.S. memory of anti-communism never really includes the people who ran and had to sit at the American visa office. On the other, I see obsessive hatred of a lot of these groups from the American and Western European lefts as the like, ultimate evil capitalists or some such, their exilic culture as the ultimate in evil capitalism, to an extent that far outstrips how they see local and more wasp or nationally-majority oriented areas that are more conservative leaning. And I don’t think they’ve maybe sat down to think about why that is. The U.S. wanted the end of the communist threat to their particular capitalist and political system. That doesn’t ever mean they wanted the people.

[eugenedebs1920]

Just a little fun wordplay 😊

We no longer stand in solidarity. There were periods when we did. These periods saw the biggest gains and the greatest successes of the masses and the middle class.

In the mid to late seventeen hundreds a collective of average people, some educated, some not, some of moderate wealth, others without. With the cumulative efforts, and rebellious spirit, these men, and a ragtag group of immigrants, fought off the mightiest global military forces, while at the same time, composing a series of ideas that would guide a free and prosperous society for centuries.

Theres always bad concepts, arbitrated by bad actors. Characters whose personal agendas of greed and self indulgence overpowers all aspects of decency and humanity. This was the case of the slave owning south.

As this young nation had shown before, there was no tyranny that couldn’t be bested. Again, an aggregation of peoples joined forces for the plight of humanity. For the freedom of the most vulnerable among them, a long, bloody, brutal war was carried out. Again, those who stood for the good of the common man toppled a hierarchy of wealthy, racist, tyrannicals.

Less than a century later a buzzing came from across the Atlantic. A charismatic overlord saw a susceptibility in his people. He would prey upon this by demonizing and lambasting those who weren’t arian, attesting the root of Germany’s woes lay in these immigrants poisoning the blood of their nation.

The largest conflict the world had ever seen commenced. Our cousins in England had bombs dropping on their doorsteps. The manufacturing of equipment and ammunition would prove to not suitable to subdue the forces against them. Again, a coalition of immigrants and native born American slaves would rise together in the fight against totalitarianism. Again their resolve would be victorious.

At home the powers of industry and capital would subjugate the workers of America. Making vast sums of wealth off exploitation. The accumulation of workers, all immigrants, men and women, brown and white, would capitalize on their numbers against the capitalists numbers of capital, showing that without a workforce the power of industry lies not in the wealth one holds but in the richness of solidarity. Again, this patchwork of peoples would, for now, would conquer despotic forces.

Society would see a period of great prosperity after the labor movements and the devastating war. That is with the exception of those stolen from the continent of Africa and forced to be here against their will.

The tether of reconstruction was long snapped and the menace of oppression in the south had ensnared in its provocations an atmosphere of violence and a thraldom of segregation, disenfranchising an already marginalized people.

Again, a plurality of common poor peoples amassed for the battle against those who contended their superiority over them. An exercise of non violent direct action through the plethora of peaceful persons would placate to the general population the putridness of the prejudices cast upon them by immoral ignorant racist, bringing to light their struggles. Again, the community of conciliating colored Americans coincided to overcome their oppressors.

At the same moment the military industrial complex Eisenhower had warned of, continued to manufacture conflict. This time in south east Asia.

This was a war where the richest county in the world, with the most advanced weaponry, combated communism on some of the poorest people on the planet. The atrocities, like never before, came through the screens, and into the living rooms of every American home. An anti-war, pro love revolution would sweep the nation. Again, the whole of these heartfelt hippies helped in the masses hearing that the horrific hurt perpetrated to these peasants across the globe was harmful to humanity and entirely wrong.

Where we stand now the masters of men have maniacally manufactured a mistrust amongst us.

They have seeded the sourness of the soul throughout our society. This syndicated system of separation from our various sects has shattered our symbolic social structure so severely, simple salutations have strained our sense of sensibility. Systematically dividing the civil citizens in seismic shakes of uncertainty.

A proud and progressive people, pushed apart purposely so politicians and powerful players of commerce can profit by polluting our planet and our perception. Pontificating on a provocation promoted to produce pre manufactured prejudices poised to poison person against person as the prerequisite for prestige.

We have shackled ourselves to the self indulgence of a capitalist culture only curating the catastrophic collapse of the middle class, whilst the cumulative cancer of cash corrodes the contemporary consciousness, cultivating corruption and canceling our once mighty congregation of caring and compassionate countrymen.

Before brethren born by the same bloodshed, serendipitously say our goodbyes, may we not bask in the blessings befallen between us, embracing the brotherly bonds, and the battle brought on by breaking that brokerage long ago, so difficult to ascertain again. Our best bet is to let bygones be bygones and believe that better beginnings rise in the dawn. Because brother, you are my family beyond blood our betterment is best bestowed building upon bridges not barriers, bound by bravery in the land of the free.

[dark-rx]

“All War Is a Symptom of Man’s Failure as a Thinking Animal” — John Steinbeck's Warning for Our Time

tl;dr - Ruins of reason — war leaves behind not just destruction, but the shattered potential of a species that failed to think.

War has ravaged human history with unrelenting persistence. It has claimed the lives of millions, disrupted civilizations, displaced generations, and consumed untold resources. And yet, despite millennia of bloodshed, war continues to repeat itself under new flags, ideologies, and leaders.

In one powerful sentence, American author John Steinbeck captured the root of this enduring tragedy: “All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”

This quote, often cited and widely interpreted, speaks not only to the brutality of war itself but to the moral and intellectual breakdown that makes war possible. Steinbeck—known for his empathy-driven literature, particularly The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden—saw humanity as capable of reason, compassion, and cooperation. So when we descend into violence, we betray that potential. We stop thinking, and we start reacting. We let power, prejudice, greed, and fear guide our actions rather than thought, justice, or empathy.

To explore this quote is to ask a profound question: Why, in an era of unprecedented knowledge and communication, do we still choose war over wisdom?

From the Crusades to the Gulf War, political leaders have framed wars as necessary, righteous, even noble. The reality, however, is rarely so clear. Even wars waged under banners of liberation or defense often mask deeper motivations: imperialism, access to resources, arms profiteering, or nationalist expansion.

The Iraq War, launched in 2003 under false pretenses about weapons of mass destruction, is a textbook example. Over 300,000 civilians died, the region was destabilized for decades, and extremist groups like ISIS found fertile ground in the chaos. A war fought supposedly to "protect" the world resulted in long-term global insecurity.

As Steinbeck suggests, war isn’t the result of rational, thoughtful deliberation—it is often the failure to think critically, question assumptions, and imagine alternatives.

Thinking, in Steinbeck’s view, is not merely cognitive. It’s moral. The thinking animal isn’t just rational—it’s capable of empathy. And when nations go to war, empathy is often the first casualty.

Consider the war in Gaza. The humanitarian cost is staggering: thousands of civilian deaths, homes turned to rubble, children orphaned. And yet, each side justifies its actions as necessary defense. As civilian bodies pile up, leaders harden their rhetoric. They stop thinking about people and start counting territory and revenge.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly highlighted the disproportionate civilian toll and violations of international law. Yet the war machine rolls on.

Why? Because war demands the dehumanization of the other. It requires the erasure of faces, names, and stories in favor of categories: enemy, terrorist, collateral. In the fog of war, empathy becomes weakness. And so, the failure is not just intellectual—it’s deeply moral.

War is not only a failure of thought, but a triumph of profit. The military-industrial complex—warned against by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961—now spans the globe. In 2022 alone, world military spending exceeded $2.24 trillion.

The United States accounts for nearly 40% of that figure. Arms manufacturers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman generate billions from conflict zones. Wars create demand for missiles, drones, tanks—and investors reap the benefits.

When war becomes profitable, peace becomes unprofitable. The logic of capitalism—infinite growth, private profit, geopolitical dominance—collides with human need. This is the machinery behind the failure Steinbeck spoke of: we could choose diplomacy, development, and de-escalation. But those don’t drive stock prices.

The 20th century alone should have taught us everything we needed to know. Two world wars killed over 70 million people. The Holocaust revealed the depth of our cruelty. Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed us that one bomb can annihilate entire cities. Yet even in the nuclear age, with doomsday just a button away, militarism persists.

After every conflict, we pledge "never again." And yet we fail to ask why “again” keeps coming. As scholars like Steven Pinker argue, overall violence may be declining globally. But in regions like the Middle East, Central Africa, and Eastern Europe, new wars and coups emerge as symptoms of unresolved trauma, colonial legacies, and economic inequity.

When we fail to invest in education, diplomacy, and justice, war becomes the default. It is the failure not of humanity’s nature, but of its systems. Of politics. Of values. Of imagination.

There is one war that may yet make all others irrelevant: the war on the planet. Climate change is the most urgent threat to human life in the 21st century, and it is entirely preventable. We know the causes—carbon emissions, fossil fuels, unsustainable development—and we have the solutions. And yet, we fail to act.

As the Earth warms, conflicts over water, land, and food will intensify. The UN predicts that over 1 billion people could be displaced by climate impacts by 2050. Climate refugees already exist—from sub-Saharan Africa to Bangladesh. But instead of global solidarity, nations build walls and hoard resources.

Our failure to respond isn’t due to ignorance. It’s due to political cowardice and economic greed. Once again, we know better. But we don’t act better. Steinbeck’s thinking animal has the data. What it lacks is the will.

A worldview rooted in empathy, evidence, and equality offers a path forward. It insists that we are capable of more than instinct and aggression. It holds that we are capable of learning from our mistakes, protecting the vulnerable, and creating systems that uplift rather than exploit.

This vision embraces diplomacy over dominance, dialogue over destruction. It supports funding for education, clean energy, public health, and global cooperation instead of bloated military budgets. It believes that human beings, when empowered with knowledge and compassion, can choose peace.

There are reasons for hope. Global movements for justice—Black Lives Matter, Fridays for Future, women’s rights protests in Iran and beyond show that collective, nonviolent resistance is possible. The younger generations are more diverse, more connected, and more committed to solving the climate crisis and ending systemic oppression than any in history.

Steinbeck’s indictment still rings true: war is not inevitable. It is not natural. It is not a flaw in the human genome. It is a choice—a failure to apply our capacity for critical thought, empathy, and foresight. In a world overflowing with nuclear weapons, automated drones, and cyber warfare, that failure is more dangerous than ever.

To think is to imagine alternatives. To question propaganda. To see the humanity in others. To choose de-escalation over dominance. To read, to organize, to vote, to protest. That is the role of the “thinking animal.”

We must decide if we are content to remain captives of war or if we will rise to the promise of our minds.

We can no longer afford the illusion that war is an accident. It is engineered. It is sold. It is enabled by apathy and silence. And every time it erupts, it confirms that we are still not thinking hard enough, loving widely enough, or imagining boldly enough.

Let us reject the cynicism that tells us peace is naive. Let us refuse the binary of victor and vanquished. Let us question the next call to arms—who profits, who dies, who decides?

We have the tools. We have the knowledge. What we need now is the courage to think.

[blog-against-ai]

List of American Presidents and what years they served! I figured this might be a helpful resource for some of yall :) I’ll also include what each is best known for!

~ please read my pinned post ~

1. George Washington 1776-1800 most known for: being the first president

2. John Adams 1797-1801 most known for: having three wives and two husbands

3. Thomas Jefferson 1801-1802 most known for: being so cunty it was off the charts

4. Alexander Hamilton 1802-1825 most known for: nothing, nobody really knows anything about him lol

5. Andrew Jackson 1829-1831 most known for: being the first gay president

6. George W Bush 1831-1845 most known for: signing a deal with china to double the size of the country

7. James Polk 1845-1849 most known for: that one they might be giants song

8. Zachary Taylor 1857-1861 most known for: crashing two planes into the World Trade Center

9. Abraham Lincoln 1861-1900 most known for: being good at poker

10. Dwight Eisenhower 1912-1913 most known for: attacking the state of maryland (he lost)

11. Calvin Coolidge 1913-1929 most known for: hanging out with a large tiger

11. Franklin D Roosevelt 1929-1981 most known for: being the first openly trans president

12. Bruce Wayne 1963-1962 most known for:

13. Richard Nixon 1981-1988 most known for: serving as president during world war 1 and helping bring peace to america

14. Bill Clinton 1988-1990 most known for: I can’t remember but it has something to do with avocados

15. Ronald Reagan- was actually never the president because he died before he could assume office. his grave became the nation’s first gender neutral bathroom

12. Donald Trump 1990-1996 most known for: being a champion for the rights of straight people and italians

13. Joe Biden 1996-2004 most known for: posting daily tiktok dances

18. Rutherford B Hayes 2018-present most known for: having seventeen children

[sea-changed]

"But despite the bridges and the abandoned machinery of war and the ruined cities, the most ever-present reminder the French had, a year or two years after, that the American Army had ever been to their country was the GI clothing they were still wearing. [...] Besides being comfortable and warm, the Army clothing, which had been sold in a majority of cases through a petty black market while Americans were still all over France, had a strange fascination for its French wearers. [...] "The most popular pieces of Army clothing in France were the green herringbone twill fatigue pants with the big pockets, the regular OD pants, and the shoes. Two winters after the Americans came, overcoats were still a popular item and brought a good price on the black market. In Paris many men wore GI clothing in the routine fashion by putting their pants on their legs and the shirts on their backs, but thousands of French girls created hats, shirts, skirts, suits, shoes, and dresses from the miscellaneous pieces of clothing they had managed to get hold of from an American friend. It was not unusual to see a chic French girl strolling down the street in a well-tailored suit which on closer inspection turned out to be principally nothing but an Eisenhower jacket rebuilt to suit her frame."

Bud Hutton and Andy Rooney, Conquerors' Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders (1947)

[darkmaga-returns]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio seems to have cancelled, at the last minute, a meeting last Wednesday with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s high representative for foreign policy. An EU spokesperson cited “scheduling issues,” but the cancellation happened while Kallas was already in Washington, where she had planned to discuss the Ukraine war with America’s top diplomat. Instead, she held meetings in the Congress and hawkish DC think-tanks. 

Adding insult to injury, the next day President Donald Trump vowed to slap a 25 percent tariff on goods from the EU and said that the supranational union was created to “screw the United States.”  

Trump may be a mercurial president, and he is certainly wrong about the origins of the EU: It wasn’t created to harm Americans, but to prevent the Europeans from killing each other, which is what they had done with gusto for centuries. President Dwight D. Eisenhower encouraged European integration as a means to secure a lasting peace on the continent and reduce the need for American intervention. 

Still, this string of diplomatic embarrassments shows how extremely poorly the EU has played its hand with the new Trump administration so far.

[luimnigh]

At 1am on the 3rd of June, 1944, Maureen Flavin woke up on the morning of her 21st birthday, and as part of her job as a post office clerk she went and checked the meteorlogical station at the nearby lighthouse.

Readings showed a slight drop in pressure, a 7mph wind from the southwest, and a light drizzle. Good indications of an inbound storm.

After consulting with another clerk, Ted Sweeney (her later husband), she sent the information via telegraph to Dublin.

Later hourly readings between 2-7am, and then reports from other stations, confirmed the storm was well on it's way.

Dublin, as part of an agreement made in 1939, promptly sent this information on to London, who then proceeded to hand it over to Allied Command and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

At 11am, Blacksod Post Office received a direct call from London, requesting that they double-check their readings, which they confirmed. It wasn't until the 1950s that Maureen learned that was an officer from Allied Command.

The decision was made: based on windspeed and direction, the storm would be over Normandy on June 5th, but blow over by the morning of June 6th.

With two days advanced knowledge, D-Day was able to be postponed 24hrs, so as troops would not be landing into a storm, and air support wouldn't be hampered by cloud cover.

Maureen Sweeney did her job, and in the process helped changed the fate of a continent. May she rest in peace.

[jethroq]

it’s always kinda wild when Dem partisans on social media say the GOP started going bad with Reagan. Like did you forget Nixon? like Watergate Nixon? Sabotage the Paris peace talks Nixon? Rolling Thinder Nixon? War on Drugs Nixon? Southern Strategy Nixon? Also, I’d argue Eisenhower was also pretty bad, but then again maybe his worst crime was getting the US involved in Vietnam, and dems can’t really say much about that what with JFK and LBJ’s track record with that war.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

In the Air by Christopher Nevinson, 1917. Lithograph.

Today is Armistice Day, commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the end of the First World War and the armistice signed.⁠ ⁠

In this work by Christopher Nevinson the abstract patchwork of fields is laid out under the wing of a military aircraft, the sharp angles of the composition emphasising the dizzying height of the plane.⁠ During the war, the world was being seen from entirely new angles, inspiring artists to experiment and to depict landscape in new, unexpected ways.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 11, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 12, 2023

In 1918, at the end of four years of World War I’s devastation, leaders negotiated for the guns in Europe to fall silent once and for all on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was not technically the end of the war, which came with the Treaty of Versailles. Leaders signed that treaty on June 28, 1919, five years to the day after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the conflict. But the armistice declared on November 11 held, and Armistice Day became popularly known as the day “The Great War,” which killed at least 40 million people, ended.

In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson commemorated Armistice Day, saying that Americans would reflect on the anniversary of the armistice “with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…."

But Wilson was disappointed that the soldiers’ sacrifices had not changed the nation’s approach to international affairs. The Senate, under the leadership of Republican Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts—who had been determined to weaken Wilson as soon as the imperatives of the war had fallen away—refused to permit the United States to join the League of Nations, Wilson’s brainchild: a forum for countries to work out their differences with diplomacy, rather than resorting to bloodshed. 

On November 10, 1923, just four years after he had established Armistice Day, former President Wilson spoke to the American people over the new medium of radio, giving the nation’s first live, nationwide broadcast. 

“The anniversary of Armistice Day should stir us to a great exaltation of spirit,” he said, as Americans remembered that it was their example that had “by those early days of that never to be forgotten November, lifted the nations of the world to the lofty levels of vision and achievement upon which the great war for democracy and right was fought and won.” 

But he lamented “the shameful fact that when victory was won,…chiefly by the indomitable spirit and ungrudging sacrifices of our own incomparable soldiers[,] we turned our backs upon our associates and refused to bear any responsible part in the administration of peace, or the firm and permanent establishment of the results of the war—won at so terrible a cost of life and treasure—and withdrew into a sullen and selfish isolation which is deeply ignoble because manifestly cowardly and dishonorable.” 

Wilson said that a return to engagement with international affairs was “inevitable”; the U.S. eventually would have to take up its “true part in the affairs of the world.” 

Congress didn’t want to hear it. In 1926 it passed a resolution noting that since November 11, 1918, “marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed,” the anniversary of that date “should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

In 1938, Congress made November 11 a legal holiday to be dedicated to world peace. 

But neither the “war to end all wars” nor the commemorations of it, ended war.

Just three years after Congress made Armistice Day a holiday for peace, American armed forces were fighting a second world war, even more devastating than the first. The carnage of World War II gave power to the idea of trying to stop wars by establishing a rules-based international order. Rather than trying to push their own boundaries and interests whenever they could gain advantage, countries agreed to abide by a series of rules that promoted peace, economic cooperation, and security. 

The new international system provided forums for countries to discuss their differences—like the United Nations, founded in 1945—and mechanisms for them to protect each other, like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in 1949, which has a mutual defense pact that says any attack on a NATO country will be considered an attack on all of them. 

In the years since, those agreements multiplied and were deepened and broadened to include more countries and more ties. While the U.S. and other countries sometimes fail to honor them, their central theory remains important: no country should be able to attack a neighbor, slaughter its people, and steal its lands at will. This concept preserved decades of relative peace compared to the horrors of the early twentieth century, but it is a concept that is currently under attack as autocrats increasingly reject the idea of a rules-based international order and claim the right to act however they wish.

In 1954, to honor the armed forces of wars after World War I, Congress amended the law creating Armistice Day by striking out the word “armistice” and putting “veterans” in its place. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, himself a veteran who had served as the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and who had become a five-star general of the Army before his political career, later issued a proclamation asking Americans to observe Veterans Day:

“[L]et us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[strictlyfavorites]

Veterans Day is a federal holiday and a time to both celebrate and honor those brave individuals who have served this country as members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Whether in times of war or peace, their commitment to defending our freedoms – with their lives if need be – have been a bulwark to the experiment called the United States of America. Veterans are special people from all walks of life, colors, creeds, and ethnic heritages. But they all share a demonstrated love of this country.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are around 19 million U.S. veterans, representing approximately 10% of the total adult population in America. Of those, 1.7 million members of the veteran population reside in California, making The Golden State home to the most veterans in the Country. 

Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, which was considered the anniversary of World War One’s end. it was President Woodrow Wilson who proclaimed November 11, 1919, as the first commemoration of Armistice Day in honor of the Allied Powers signing a ceasefire agreement with Germany at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918, bringing the war to a close.

Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938. On October 8, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day to commemorate veterans of all wars.

[girlactionfigure]

🟡 ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

Morning Report - Tuesday

▪️A HERO SOLDIER HAS FALLEN.. Yehuda Geto, 20, from Pardes Hana-Karkur, fell in battle in Tulkarm, Samaria.  May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge his blood!

.. a bomb exploded on a Panther APC that stopped and unloaded in Nur al Shams, Tulkarm.  There was the driver and a commander from the Duvdvan unit in the vehicle, the rest of the fighters unloaded before the explosion.  The Panther was parked in an area where there was no fear of explosives (that is, there was no intelligence information about suspected explosives) and therefore the road was not scrapped by a D9.  The driver was killed and the commander was seriously injured.

▪️GERMAN PAPER SAYS - WAR WITH LEBANON IN 2 WEEKS.. According to its sources, the German newspaper "Bild" (the most widely read newspaper in Germany) reports that Israel will launch a full-scale war against Hezbollah in the second half of July if Hezbollah does not cease its attacks.  (( I always rely on foreign media for knowing when a war will start. ))

▪️US QUIETLY THREATENS.. The US military released photos of the Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group together with the USS Wasp amphibious attack ship and the British Navy ship HMS Duncan in the waters of the Mediterranean.

.. Related: Houthis threaten to attack US carrier strike group coming to replace the Eisenhower in the Red Sea / Gulf of Aden area.  "Any aircraft carrier that enters the Red Sea will become our main target.”

▪️TEL AVIV RELIGIOUS CONTRAVERSY.. The Municipality of Tel Aviv responded negatively to the request of the Hotam organization to hold a segregated outdoor prayer on Rosh Chodesh (the new Jewish month) in the exact same place where Israeli-Arab Muslims were permitted for an outdoor segregated prayer session.  

▪️PEACE POLITICS.. MK Ayman Odeh, chairman of Israeli-Arab party Hadash Ta’al: "the peace camp is waking up and calling with all its might to stop the war immediately."  (( Nobody wants war, but we want our children burned to death and women raped to death less. As long as the enemy is committed to slaughtering us and trying to do so, peace is not an option. ))

▪️US ARMS DELAYS - AGAIN.. Israel submitted a request to the Americans to purchase combat helicopters, but the administration is delaying the request.  

▪️DRUG DANGER.. wave of hospitalizations: young people seriously injured with 1 death by using fake vapes that pretend to contain cannabis but in fact contain dangerous synthetic drug "nice guy" synthetic cannabinoids.  Symptoms: convulsions and agitation.   These fake vapes are sold in Israel mainly through Telegram and are illegal. They are packed in colorful packages impersonating well-known brands. False claims such as "contains 78.5% THC" and "Made in the Netherlands" appear on the packaging.

▪️ISRAELI AID.. Electricity returns to Gaza: operation of a sewage and water desalination plant "directly from Israeli electricity”.

▪️HIGH COURT HEARING TO REQUIRE MEDICAL TREATMENT IN ISRAEL FOR GAZANS.. Yesterday at the hearing on the introduction of a population that supports terrorism and is holding our hostages into medical treatment in Israel, the audience in the courtroom shouted ‘shame! shame!’ The judges shifted uncomfortably.

♦️IDF firing artillery shelling in Nuserat.

⭕ HOUTHI MASS SHIP ATTACK CLAIM.. The Houthis claim to have attacked four ships associated with the US, UK and Israel - in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.  No confirming reports, particularly about the Mediterranean.

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Lit Hub: How From Here to Eternity Contradicted Post-War America’s Wholesome Notions

From Here to Eternity was published between the release of the controversial first Kinsey Report (1948’s “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”) and its scandalously received sequel, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,” in 1953. News stories reported reactions of shock, dismay, denial, and disgust as the Kinsey Reports’ charts about extramarital sex, masturbation, and queer orientations contradicted America’s postwar self-image and its proprieties. The love between Prewitt and Lorene is as doomed as the adulterous liaison between Sergeant Warden and Karen Holmes. It’s a wonder that Jones’s bold, rough, grimly realistic narrative managed to get published when it did (by Scribner, no less). A saturation novel in the densely textured tradition of Theodore Dreiser, the book is still shocking for its evocation of relentless hazing and the stockade’s brutalities, as well as the profanity-laced lingo of enlisted Army men. But the dueling tales of star-crossed lovers offer readers an abundance of human yearning and emotional sensitivity. It just happens that the men are in uniform. From Here to Eternity was not the only postwar bestseller contradicting America’s wholesome notions. In 1947, an audacious debut novel called The Gallery appeared. It was written by John Horne Burns, an ex-G.I. who served during World War II in North Africa and Italy. He was the opposite of Jones, in one respect: John Horne Burns was gay. Both authors presented intimate, intelligent portraits of characters whose quests for love bring them much suffering (as well as moments of joy and episodes of bliss). What profoundly connects their debut novels is that both Burns and Jones managed, in the epoch of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, to write about sexual taboos, and specifically gay characters and gay encounters, despite that epoch’s rampant homophobia and the military milieus of their respective books. As for The Gallery, a unique novel comprised of 17 interlinked stories, only three (“Momma,” “The Leaf,” and “Queen Penicillin”) present gay male soldiers. Nonetheless, to do so in 1947 was nearly impossible; it was also hazardous to John Horne Burns’s fledgling career. Burns enfolds his boldest lines deep within the book. At the very end of “Momma” (the eponymous character presides over a gay bar in Naples), a British sergeant remarks to a fellow officer that they’re all “expressing a desire disapproved of by society. But in relation to the world of 1944, this is just a bunch of gay people letting down their back hair…” No movie was made of The Gallery, and so no iconic images exist to rival the beach scene in From Here to Eternity. But in Burns’s writing, he creates prose portraits akin to those magic moments on the beach. “She bent down and laid her mouth against his temple, passing down to his lips,” Burns wrote in “Moe,” the final chapter of The Gallery, as a G.I. and his Neapolitan lover say farewell. “There was no pressure in her kiss, but it sealed a wild peace he’d been feeling with her all evening. Her kiss made him hers…” (Full article)