This Day In History

U.S. President History for March 14

1923 - President Harding becomes the first U.S. President to file an income tax report.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office.
1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton committed $100 million for an anti-terrorism pact with Israel to track down and root out Islamic militants.

Flags of Our Fathers Reviewed

Last night after I finished reading Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley and turned out the light, I laid wide-eyed and awake in my warm comfortable bed and wondered if I could have endured what the Marines who conquered Iwo Jima endured. As I lay staring at the orange glow of my alarm clock, I imagined that first night on Iwo for those young Marines and Navy corpsmen, most barely over 20. Huddled in fox holes and shell craters, red flares casting eerie shadows in all directions, always the very real fear of Japanese infiltrators appearing out of nowhere to bayonet you in your sleep or worse drag you back to their underground lair to do unspeakable torture. And the sunrise wouldn't bring relief, but mortars, artillery shells, and machine guns. Yet the Marines trudged forward, with little or no cover, toward a hidden enemy that poured out death from all directions. Iwo Jima was an ugly eight square-mile hunk of volcanic rock with little vegetation, craggy ravines, razor sharp rock formations, and black sand. As one Iwo veteran put it, "It looked like hell with the fires out." Somehow, the Marines conquered this hell, but at a cost greater than any military victory in US history. And as I pondered all of this as I drifted off to sleep, I thought, "Could I have done that?"

Flags of Our Fathers is at once stirring and sobering. The story of the six men who raised the replacement flag on Mt. Surabachi has all the elements of a Shakespearean comedy, history, and tragedy rolled into one narrative. Bradley tells a brief biography of the six men, all from very different circumstances and backgrounds from all parts of the country. Mike Strank of Pennsylvania, the son of Czechoslovakian immigrants; Harlon Block, a Seventh-Day Adventist high school football star from Texas; Franklin Sousley, a good old boy from the backwoods of Kentucky; Rene Gagnon who worked with his single mother in a textile mill as a teenager in French-influenced New Hampshire; John Bradley the quiet, serious and devoted Catholic son of middle-class Wisconsin parents; Ira Hayes, the aloof Pima Indian from Arizona.

The descriptions of the battle are raw and told with vivid and unsettling detail. For every story of stirring heroism in the face of withering enemy fire, corpsmen rushing to the aid of the wounded through sheets of hot lead and Marines drawing enemy fire away from their buddies, there is one of cruel and seemingly random tragedy. Two buddies in the same shell crater and suddenly one is blown to pieces by a mortar shell. The Japanese were dug into the terrain itself, practically invisible to the slowly advancing Americans. Some Marines said it was like fighting the island itself. They saw very little sign of progress. The Japanese would pull their dead back into their blockhouses and caves leaving no evidence of success for the Marines. The author pulls no punches and through quotes from survivors and his own research describes the battle as it was fought--brutal and without mercy.

The flag raising event is the central event of the book, obviously, and serves as a catalyst to shift gears from military operations to the surreal turn the lives of the three remaining flag-raisers took upon returning to the states. The chance photo had been embraced by the American populace as a symbol not only for the courage and bravery displayed by "our boys over there", but as an icon of fundamental American values. The photo was the centerpiece of a war bond drive to raise funds to continue the war and the living flag-raisers were to play a central part in it. They adjusted with varying levels of success to the stark contrasts between the bloody battlefield they just left and the throngs of adoring crowds and star treatment on the war bond tour.

When a photograph becomes an icon, the individuals in it cease to be individuals and are lost to history as symbols of a time or event. Flags of Our Fathers brings these six men back from history as young, vibrant men who knew they had a job to do and did it in some of the worst conditions imaginable. They fought for their country, but fought harder for each other. They were individuals with families, three of which would never see them again. The survivors didn't want to be called heroes. But if they weren't heroes, then such men don't exist.

Highly reccommend
Also reccommend: Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

Shifting Sands of the MIddle East

Here is a pretty cool map animation that shows the various Middle Eastern empires over the centuries. Enjoy.

First In the Hearts of His Countrymen?

This was a persuasive essay I wrote for an academic planning class I took a while back. Even in academic planning class I have to turn it into a history assignment. I may be ill. I hope it persuades you.

A Gallup poll conducted in February of 2005 asked people who they thought the greatest U.S. President was. The results were surprising to say the least. Finishing at the top was Ronald Reagan, followed by Bill Clinton, Lincoln, FDR, and then JFK rounding out the top five. The current President placed sixth. Where did George Washington place? A disappointing seventh, barely ahead of Jimmy Carter! CSPAN did a survey of historians as to who the greatest President was and the results were quite different (American Presidents: Life Portraits n. pag.). Lincoln finished at the top, followed by FDR and then Washington; a far more reasonable ranking. What does this say about how we view history in this country? The Gallup poll indicates an “out of site, out of mind” attitude. Wartime Presidents not withstanding, the public favored more recent Presidents. But, how could our first President, the Founding Father, whose face we see everyday on our currency, have placed so low? Though his face in familiar, his accomplishments are not so, sadly. Despite the lack of familiarity and though he is often passed over for those in office during wartime, George Washington is our greatest President.

George Washington established the roll of the executive branch of the government. Prior to the government of the newly independent colonies, there had never been such an office as President. Though the duties of the President were outlined in the Constitution, how those duties were to be applied and to what affect was a matter of question. Washington left the powers of legislating to the legislators and, instead, concerned himself, as President, primarily with foreign affairs. He held firmly to the belief that the young nation should avoid entangling itself with foreign allegiances (The White House n. pag.).

Washington believed in a strong Federal government and was prepared to exercise the power and authority of the Federal government over the states in order to preserve the union. After Shay’s Rebellion in 1787 he believed that a new constitution would be needed that would allow a standing army to prevent such incidents (under the Articles of the Confederation, a standing army was prohibited) (Encyclopedia Britannica n. pag.). In 1794 he raised up 12,000 militia to quell an uprising in Pennsylvania over the collection of an excise tax on whiskey (National Park Service n. pag.). The “Whiskey Rebellion,” as it came to be known, was one of the first major crises that threatened the young nation and Washington’s decisive leadership was able to suppress it.

After his tremendous leadership as the commander of the Revolutionary Army, Washington’s popularity was fantastic. Many in the colonies, especially those in the army, wanted to make him King. Though it was his for the taking, he refused to accept it saying, “I didn’t fight George III to become George I.” (George F. Smith n. pag.).

In conclusion, George Washington was our greatest President because he defined the office, used the power of the Federal government to preserve the Union, and refused to be named King. He was a man of unquestionable character and leadership who held fast to his vision of a land that would be free. All of these things make George Washington our best and inexplicably overlooked President.

Works Cited

American Presidents: Life Portraits. “CSPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership.”
American Presidents.org. 26 March 2005 <http://www.americanpresidents.org/survey>

National Park Service. “The Whiskey Rebellion.” NPS.gov. 26 March 2005
<http://www.nps.gov/frhi/whiskreb.htm>

Smith, George F. “The Man Who Could Have Been King.”
freedom.orlingrabbe.com. 26 March 2005

The White House. “Biography of George Washington.” Whitehouse.gov. 26 March
2005 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gw1.html>

“Washington, George.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica
Premium Service 26 March 2005 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=24513>

Open the Archives

While sweeping up the Halls last night, I stumbled across this box of old film reels from the National Archives. It's a whole bunch of newsreels from WWII as well as some about the history of NASA and Department of the Interior motion pictures that ran during the Depression. It's a pretty nifty way to get in touch with Americas past the way my grandparents got in touch with it's present. There weren't a bucketload of 24 hour news channels back in those days. Unfortunately the Halls do not posess the technology to post any of the films here, but fortunately Google Video has been kind enough to host them here.

Also, the National Archives and Records Administration has some pretty cool things worth checking out on their website, including many pictures from WWII (like the one above), helps for researching a geaneology or family history, and resources if you're just brushing up on your knowledge of the Declaration of Independence. It's a very cool and essential stop for the history buff. Please check them out and enjoy the videos. Until next time........................