Blogs For Victory

It is surprising what you can find in second hand stores if you’re just poking around. I mean, take me with my deep interest in history and especially military history. There I was, wandering around the store and I spot this book: The War Lords. Looks interesting. Edited by Field Marshal Sir Michael Carver. Never heard of him. Picture on the back though looks like a thoroughly English officer of the mid-20th century. Open it: printed in 1976. Cool: way before anything like Woke became fashionable. Flip through it: ah, it is a series of sketches covering the main military leaders of the 20th century – varied from Kemal to Bradley. I buy it, take it home and start to read it – and am immediately enthralled. Why? Not because it is all new – though it does provide some info I hadn’t heard before – but because it isn’t written to make a point…just tell us what the men were like as war leaders. Strengths and weaknesses, all of it given out without any political axe to grind.

That is so very important here in our Age of Lies: just telling it as it is. One of my favorite books about World War One is The Great War written by Cyril Falls. Not that Falls was perfect – no, he was a loyal British officer and he would not stick a knife into the back of his chief – Field Marshal Douglas Haig – just to sell a book. But his book is good because, as he put it, it was written in the sense of a grandchild asking, “tell us about the war, and what they fought each other for”. He just told the story. He didn’t varnish it – but he wasn’t trying to make a point; just tell the tale, and that is what makes it so good. If you want a brief and well written history of the war – by a man who served in it – Falls’ book is the go-to. And I’m thinking that The War Lords will be added to my selection of first rate books and one which I will end up reading multiple times.

We must keep in mind that history is whatever the historian decided to say – and if the historian wants to make a point, then what you’re getting is a point of view. It might be a very well written point of view. It might be a logically sound and well sourced point of view, but it is a point of view. William Manchester was an excellent historian and biographer but no matter how you slice it, he was a mid-20th century liberal (and he would have been the first to admit that is what he was) and his books are written through that lense. He might admit to his bias, but that bias did not prevent him from excluding things which worked against his Narrative. For instance, as a mid-20th century liberal, he was of the view that war is a stupid, tragic waste. It is how he saw his own service as a Marine in World War Two (and there are doubts about the accuracy of some of the war stories he relates…so, even when recounting his memoirs, his Narrative was paramount) – and it is how he views the men who lead the wars. Even the best were, in a sense, bad. Maybe less bad than some, but bad all the same. This is why his contribution to war literature must be taken with a grain of salt. He never got over his fury about how many of his friends died on Okinawa…and this prevented him from telling us, except as an aside, how incredibly brave his friends were. War is not mere glory. But it isn’t merely sordid, either. It is a human activity…and it is therefor a mixed bag and if we’re really being honest, we tell the whole story…even the parts that don’t support our argument.

It is so very important to find the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth. It is also pretty rare…but it is what we must always seek. It is amazing how just a little bit of truth will upend perhaps even decades of settled thought in the mind. And how once you reach a critical mass of truth in your mind, you simply can’t be fooled. You also stop being fearful. Or worried. Once your quest for truth passes a certain point, a certain calmness becomes your main sensation. You can tell the liar a mile away, and you stay away from him – except, perhaps, to point out to others he’s a liar. You can tell instantly when someone is just making stuff up to sell a garbage idea. Even if you’re not an expert on a particular subject, you can tell when someone is lying about it. This, I think, is what was meant by “the truth shall set you free”. Not free in your body – someone might throw chains around you at any moment. But if you have the truth, you are free…you already know what is going to happen and you rest content knowing that no matter how triumphant a liar appears at any given moment, total disaster awaits him because lies are always destructive.