May 28, 2007
JUST ANOTHER BOTCHED VICTORY:
His was the 'war to end all wars': Frank Buckles, 106, is one of three living U.S. veterans of World War I. He will be the toast of a capital parade (Aamer Madhani, May 28, 2007, Chicago Tribune)
The life of Frank Buckles in some ways tracks a timeline in the rise of America as a superpower. World War I brought about the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the United States has been ascendant since. He has been witness to it all — and is one of very few alive to tell about it.At 106, Buckles is thought to be one of three living American veterans of World War I, the Department of Veterans Affairs says.
Buckles' voice is raspy, he has difficulty walking and he needs help getting dressed each morning. But his mind is keen and the memories of his two years in Europe during the war remain clear.
Today, Buckles will serve as a marshal in the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, sharing the starring role with actor Gary Sinise.
Buckles said he didn't mind all the attention. It's a salute to his generation, and he just happens to be the only one of his contemporaries available to take a bow. But he said he was a bit concerned over whether he was the right guy for the parade.
"What are you supposed to do when you lead a parade?" he asked.
The other living World War I veterans are Harry Landis, a 107-year-old in Sun City Center, Fla., and Russell Coffey, a 108-year-old in North Baltimore, Ohio.
After the last Navy veteran and the last American woman to serve in World War I died days apart in March, the Department of Veterans Affairs made a public appeal to identify additional veterans of the war besides Buckles, Landis and Coffey. There were no responses.
Although World War I marked the decline of the British Empire and led to the remapping of the Middle East, it has largely become the forgotten war of American history, said Eli Paul, director of the newly opened National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo.
Paul said the story of "the war to end all wars" had been eclipsed by the "Greatest Generation" of Americans who fought in World War II.
"These World War I veterans raised a generation that did them one better," said Paul, who added that museum visitors regularly commented that they hadn't realize the scope or importance of the war. "They got overshadowed in this country on Dec. 7, 1941, and never got out of the shadow."
The failure to win the peace overshadowed the "victory."
The flipside of this is the Boomer's love of American failure led to the half-victory of Korea to be overshadowed by the "quagmire" of Vietnam.
Posted by: jswendt at May 28, 2007 10:28 AMIs it just me or does the nonstop conventional-wisdom bleating about how unfair we were to Germany with the Versailles treaty seem like the sort of thing that made us stand down to Hitler? I've been thinking about this more and more when I go through the history of World War II. Malcolm Muggeridge wrote about how this was the continuous line at the Manchester Guardian when he worked there and it was obviously the received wisdom among the folks who were setting policy.
All this victimizing was brilliantly played by the Nazis, particularly by making it appear that they were simply interested in the Wilsonian principle of self-determination for the ethnic Germans of other countries.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at May 30, 2007 4:17 AMThe CW underestimates the degree to which Germany got screwed after WWI, depending heavily on the canards that they were solely responsible for the war and were decisively defeated. Read John Mosier's Myths of the Great War.
Posted by: oj at May 30, 2007 6:36 AM