In the spring of 1944, General George S. Patton, gave a series of profanity-filled, inspirational speeches to soldiers in the newly formed US Third Army, was preparing to be part of the Allied invasion of France. “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country,” he famously said. “He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
Patton, who was one of the most talented, mercurial and controversial of the US generals in that war, is featured on today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp issued on November 11, 1953, which, like today, not only was Veteran’s Day, but, fittingly, was Patton’s birthday.
Patton’s successes – and failures – provide an interesting perspective on this Veteran’s Day, when I am wondering what to make of troubling changes at the Pentagon. Patton played a central role in leading American forces to victories in North Africa, Italy and, after D-Day, in France and Germany. But he also was enmeshed in controversies, from slapping two shell-shocked soldiers in Italy to making overly aggressive statements about Russia and trivializing denazification when he was serving as the military governor of Bavaria after V-E Day.
“Historians generally agree that Patton was not only one of the greatest military leaders that the United States has ever produced but also one of the most complex and contradictory,” notes the Encyclopedia Britannica in its section on Patton’s legacy. “Patton believed that it was critical for a general to stand out and to be seen by his troops, a philosophy that conveniently coincided with his ego. He dressed impeccably in a colourful uniform and knee-high boots, sporting ivory-handled pistols.
Whether one liked him or loathed him, no one forgot him. He was a devout Christian who prayed morning and night, yet he was liberal with his use of profanity; he was also a staunch believer in reincarnation who was convinced that he had lived many previous lives as a warrior. Although he had many black soldiers under his command-notably, the 761st Tank Battalion, a segregated armoured unit known as the ‘Black Panthers’ that won distinction on the battlefield-he nevertheless saw African Americans as inferior and disparaged their performance in combat. He helped to liberate numerous concentration camps, but he privately made virulently anti-Semitic statements during the occupation of Germany. Whatever demons he struggled with, and likely there were many, Patton possessed a genius for war like few others in history.”
Learning about Patton, made me wonder if my father, who was a radioman with a reconnaissance unit in Europe that was part of the 30th Infantry Division, was part of the Third Army, which Patton commanded. It doesn’t appear that he was, though his division (and the larger army it was part of) were involved with major initiatives that also involved Patton, notably the counteroffensive during the Battle of the Bulge and the advances across the Rhine into Germany in spring of 1945.
My mother, who had married my father in August 1944, had vivid memories of following his unit’s progress while she was a student at Hunter College in fall 1944 and spring 1945. “We were required to take History of Art,,” she recalled in a conversation that my sister transcribed. “We would sit in the auditorium looking at slides and falling asleep. Someone slipped me a note: ‘Isn’t your husband in the 30th Division? They just crossed the Rhine.’ I tore out of the auditorium onto the street and ran like a lunatic to buy a newspaper.” Sometimes when telling the story, she would add that the professor saw her run out and asked the class if they knew what had gotten into Mrs. Luberoff.
My father, who rarely spoke of the war, rejoined his unit, which went on to capture Magdeburg, a university city on the Elbe River, where US forces, in accordance with agreements President Roosevelt had made earlier in the year, stopped their assault. And, although he had just turned 19, my father was made temporary military governor of Magdeburg and five nearby towns because, having taken two years of high school German, he was the only one in his unit who spoke any German. By August, however, he was in England preparing to go to the Pacific, a trip he didn’t have to make because the Japanese surrendered.
Patton also was a military governor, but one with a much larger charge: all of Bavaria. But, his intemperate comments got him in trouble and he was removed. In December 1945, he was preparing to go back to the US. Hoping to cheer him up, one of his aides suggested they go pheasant hunting. On the way back, Patton saw destroyed vehicles along the road and told his driver, “How awful war is. Think of the waste.” Just then, the car was an accident and Patton suffered head injuries and was paralyzed. Told he would never ride a horse again, Patton responded, “this is a hell of a way to die.”
Patton, who died 12 days after the accident, was buried with some of the troops he had commanded, in an American military cemetery in Luxembourg. It seems like an appropriate resting place for the general, who, when speaking to those troops in England, said: “Thirty years from now when you’re sitting by your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks, ‘What did you do in the great World War Two?’ You won’t have to cough and say, ‘Well, your granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.’ No sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say ‘Son, your granddaddy rode with the great Third Army and a son-of-a-goddamned-bitch named George Patton!’ All right, you sons of bitches. You know how I feel. I’ll be proud to lead you wonderful guys in battle anytime, anywhere. That’s all.”
And that leaves us with the paradox of George S. Patton, whose life (at least as portrayed in an award-winning 1970 movie that starred George C. Scott) reportedly greatly shaped how both President Richard Nixon and President Donald Trump viewed not only the military but leadership and governance as well. However, as Arthur Allen noted in a 2016 Politico article about Trump and Patton, the general’s “life isn’t just an example of winning-it’s an object lesson in how hard it is to transfer skills from a ruthless campaign to the complex tasks of real governance.”
It was true in 1945. It was true in 2016. And it’s certainly true today.
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice and work for peace.