I watched the 1970 film Patton this afternoon. This film stands up well after 50 years. I dug the DVD out of our collection a few days ago, planning to watch it if the weather was bad - which it has been.
Coincidentally, Patton has been reported on in the last couple of days as parallels have been discussed between the 1932 protest by army veterans outside the White House and the current White House demonstrations.
Trump would have liked to do what Patton did in 1932 when dispersing US army veterans who were protesting for the government to respect their rights and honour promises. See:
Hoover ordered the military to remove the protesters from the city at once. General Douglas MacArthur — the U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff — led the 12th Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment into the fray.
The cavalry regiment contained six Renault FT tanks commanded by Major George Patton. The Army troops, with bayonets affixed to their rifles, charged into the shanty town and launched tear gas into the crowds.
“Cavalrymen and infantrymen jerked gas masks out of their haversacks,” the Baltimore Evening Sun reported. “The spectators, blinded and choking with the unexpected gas attack, broke and fled. Movie photographers who had parked their sound trucks so as to catch a panorama of the skirmish ground away doggedly, tears streaming down their faces.”
Patton’s tanks crushed the makeshift buildings.
The veterans fled across the Anacostia River, and Hoover ordered the assault to stop. But MacArthur saw the protesters as communist agitators intent on overthrowing the U.S. government, and continued the operation.
More than 1,000 injured veterans ended up in area hospitals.
Like Donald Trump, Patton was full of bluster and bombast but wasn't a coward.
The monstrous egos of men like these though led and leads to deaths of many people caught up in their hubris. Trump no doubt would like to be like Patton but I have no doubt that Patton would have had no time for Trump. He would have seen him as a whiny arsehole who can never take responsibility for his actions. Patton was an arsehole, by all accounts but no-one would have said he was whiny.
He at least had that going for him.
5 comments:
You could watch The Assistant next.
Uh, no. Lynn suggested that and I asked her if there were any new Bruce Willis films out.
Interesting read.
"Uh, no. Lynn suggested that and I asked her if there were any new Bruce Willis films out."
Please be careful of that film!
""Uh, no. Lynn suggested that and I asked her if there were any new Bruce Willis films out."
Please be careful of that film!"
Have some cheese.
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