Tomorrow...

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918, the "Great War" ended with the Armistice of Compiegne. In the nearly 100 years since, we have seen the rememberance of this day change from that of honoring veterans of that war to honoring veterans of ALL wars. A good and right thing to honor, no questions there.

Ironically, just last night I was reading a biography of Pershing because I couldn't sleep (I took my 15 year old son to his robotics club meeting and had a huge cup of coffee... never good), and it was then that it occured to me that the date of the Armistice was coming up quickly... and that drove me to read a bit more carefully.

Having met the last living American veteran of WWI (Private Frank Buckles) at my former place of employment, and having been deeply effected by the conversation I had with him then, I found the biography particularly interesting. It was written in the early 80's by a Dr. Samuel Greene, and it is a very objective look at Pershing's career (not always flattering to Pershing, but not anti-Pershing, either, by any stretch). It touched rather hard, however, on Pershing's reasoning for keeping the attacks going in the last hours... indeed, the last MINUTES... of the war. At Pershing's orders, more than 3,500 American soldiers and marines died in attacks on the German lines in the last 120 minutes of the war... for no greater reason than the occupation of an additional few hundred yards of mud, blood and barbed wire.

Even more telling was the critical view made by the author about the means by which Wilson directed policy in the days before Nov 11 and in the weeks and months after. If the author wasn't painting a "rosey" picture of Pershing, he was even harder on Wilson.

Anyway, I did find it very interesting that a date now determined to honor veterans and service men and women has a history so stained by questionable leadership (at best) with questionable aims.