US China war 70 years later
December 14, 2020 at 12:17 pm
(This post was last modified: December 14, 2020 at 12:20 pm by Apollo.)
https://www.economist.com/united-states/...0-years-on
The key takeaway for me from this article were the bits:
As a person raised in different culture I see how telling of history by distorting it to glamorize past glories or conquests, and wrap moral failings under the rug can help produce generations of citizenry with questionable moral stature and intellectual dishonesty.
I didn't have a very favorable view of Truman after watching Oliver Stone's documentary on Netflix, History of America but I've a new found admiration for him for his judgement.
The key takeaway for me from this article were the bits:
Quote:That does not denote shame, however. Notwithstanding Americans’ dewy-eyed view of their forces, public knowledge of their victories and defeats is similarly thin. American schools do not teach much military history and democracies do not mobilise people through a militaristic view of the past.
....
In the soul-searching that followed the American retreat, notes Max Hastings, a British historian, it is possible to see a familiar debate about the kind of superpower America should be. Deaf to the entreaties of allies, MacArthur refused to accept the limits to American power that his incompetence had helped display. He wanted to nuke the Chinese. Truman resisted and, after MacArthur sneakily appealed to his Republican backers in Congress, sacked the revered general. It may have cost him a second term. It also set a gold standard for civil-military relations that has since prevailed.
As a person raised in different culture I see how telling of history by distorting it to glamorize past glories or conquests, and wrap moral failings under the rug can help produce generations of citizenry with questionable moral stature and intellectual dishonesty.
I didn't have a very favorable view of Truman after watching Oliver Stone's documentary on Netflix, History of America but I've a new found admiration for him for his judgement.
