General Westmoreland Dies at 91
From the Boston Globe:
General Westmoreland dies; led US in VietnamI hope you have a few minutes to read this article.
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff | July 19, 2005
General William C. Westmoreland, who as commander of US forces in South Vietnam from 1964 to 1968 presided over the period of greatest escalation in the Vietnam War, died last night. He was 91...
I had the opportunity to go through Air Force Boot Camp in San Antonio with this man's grandson in the mid-90's.
With his last name, and mine (McPeak) in the same boot camp flight, I got a hell of a lot of scrutiny while he got off unscathed because of the respect the DI's had for the Westmoreland name.
Little did I know that Merrill (Tony) McPeak, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force and no relation to me that I know of, was extremely disliked by the enlisted ranks because of his liberal leadership. Not that this means anything except that the DI's took extra pleasure in trying to break me the first few days... Anyway...
I just wanted to pay my own very small tribute to this great man who was given awful circumstances to attempt to control... Not to mention very little political support during a vicious war. My hats off to this man...
Asked once how he wanted to be remembered, General Westmoreland cited the last sentence of his memoirs, ''As a soldier prays for peace, he must be prepared to cope with the hardships of war and bear its scar. He added, ''I bear its scars."
In addition to his son and wife, General Westmoreland leaves two daughters, Katherine and Margaret, and six grandchildren.
Our nation is ass backwards at times in my opinion.
As you said “I just wanted to pay my own very small tribute to this great man who was given awful circumstances to attempt to control... Not to mention very little political support during a vicious war. My hats off to this man...”
Then someone like Jane “the traitor” Fonda gets honored as one of the 100 greatest women, by Barbara “Wa Wa” Walters. I just have a hard time understanding this thinking.
Nate
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:39 AM
It's the purposeful distortion of our history and our real heros with the known or unknown purpose to subvert the future generations.
The anti-heros will be their examples of 'greatness' (scum like Jane Fonda) subsequently reducing the expectations and motivations of future citizens.
Personally I don't think the whole of American Society will fall for it, especially with the prevelance of alternative media like the blog-o-sphere where we decide who the heros are again!
Posted by
Peakah |
7:45 AM