Discombobulated
Gold Member
I'm really looking forward to hearing about Patton.
GENERAL Patton------now you know it all ---or almost all
of it-------
I read Patton's book "The War As I Knew It" many years ago, I was hoping the author of the OP could add some perspective to Patton's recollections.Please go on, do continue......I'm on the edge of my seat with anticipation waiting for your next stunning revelation.
Had I known that, I would have greased the seat.
Are you going to start in with that sexual stuff again?
aw gee-----you one-upped me........ my retort was going to
be----"hey---no action below the waist"
So how about that Gen. Patton anyway........quite a guy huh. I wonder when we get to that part of the discussion?
This thread began with the erroneous "George Patton was pretty irrelevant politically."
General Patton Speaks With God Page 8 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum
Let's examine why Patton's politics ran counter to those of Franklin Roosevelt....
9. Patton did not hide his disregard for the Russians, shown even in unimportant comments, as those of April 25, of 1944, at the opening of a "Welcome Club" for American soldiers in Knutsford, England.
" General Patton was almost fired over the “Affair at Knutsford”.
Knutsford, England was a small town close Patton's headquarters. Patton has been asked to be a guest at the inauguration of a “Welcome Club” for American serviceman. After asking that no photographs be taken, and checking that there were no reporters, Patton made a few off-the-cuff remarks. This included a remark that America and Britain would rule the world. This was considered a slight to Russia, since Patton had failed to include Russia as a world ruler. It was this ‘slight’ that almost ruined Patton’s career. It was released to the world press. Patton was again in the news. All three governments were displeased with Patton. Patton's promotion to the permanent rank of general was placed on hold and Eisenhower sent Patton a blistering letter:
“I am thoroughly weary of your failure to control your tongue and have begun to doubt your all-round judgment, so essential in high military position.”
Patton wrote in his diary,“... this last incident was so trivial in its nature, but so terrible in its effects, but it is not the result of an accident...”
D-Day Three Unique Perspectives Where was General Patton on D-day
The comments did not escape the notice of Joseph Stalin.
He was enfuriated....and FDR couldn't have that!
10. Patton saw the inevitability of a conflict with the Russians.
"It is a conflict that Patton believes will be fought soon. The Russians are moving to forcibly spread communism throughout the world, and Patton knows it. "They are a scurvy race and simply savages," he writes of the Russians in his journal. "We could beat the hell out of them."
"Patton," By Martin Blumenson, Kevin M. Hymel, p. 84
Can you imagine the chagrin in the Soviet-occupied Roosevelt administration???
Had Patton been a subject of Stalin's...one can guess what would have become of him.
But Roosevelt's version of the Kremlin has it's hands tied, both because Patton was non replaceable on the battlefield, but because America was not Russia.
This explanation applies:
" The excesses of the European versions of fascism were mitigated by the specific history and culture of America, Jeffersonian individualism, heterogeneity of the population, ...."
Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism."
If you ask nicely, I may construct an OP on what could have happened otherwise.
Patton was a soldier, not a politician. His own big mouth is what usually got him into trouble, he questioned the decisions of his superior officers on a regular basis. He wasn't always right, his plan for the invasion of Sicily being case in point.