Comments on: The Problem With Trump’s Admiration of General Patton

By: TWS

TWS — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:31:08 +0000

You should read the reactions of his soldiers after the slapping incidents and what happened when he was forced to apologize.

For what it’s worth I believe he was murdered as well.

By: Graham

Graham — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 19:57:25 +0000

Patton was and would today even more be a troublesome figure.

But he was undeniably a combination of fearsome and personally brave warrior [with all the medieval bombast required] with military intellectual and historian, with man of culture, learning and arts.

You need men like him at all rank levels to win battles, let alone wars. Not too many. Not too few.

I’m not convinced even the best of America’s currently [or recently] very sporadic general officer corps could do what he did, put in the same conditions. Maybe Mattis. Certainly not Petraeus. But that’s just based on distant observation.

I have some acquaintance with depression and anxiety, so I am not one to call a man out for PTSD when and if he has experienced things I have not. I can’t say I would have approved of the slaps if I’d been around and heard of them then. But I doubt I’d have gone all ‘muh feelz’ on Patton either. Pro forma was enough.

There’s a scene in the movie in which the German intelligence officer [the audience stand in character in many ways] reports to Jodl that Patton is on the outs because of the slaps, thereby discrediting the story of Patton’s impending Calais landings.

Jodl, sensibly, cannot believe the Americans would be so insane as to sideline their best commander for such a stupid reason.

Just goes to show how out of touch the Germans were with American sensibilities even as they were in the 1940s.

By: Dan Kurt

Dan Kurt — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 23:55:11 +0000

Incredible smear job on Patton. He could make Christ look bad if he wrote a similar screed on Jesus. Suggest one read the Patton papers as published in War As I Knew It. He read and studied war as few American military men did. A late uncle of mine who was in Europe as a soldier for nearly two years after the war told me that the rumors he heard were that Patton was murdered.

By: Desert Rat

Desert Rat — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 23:19:39 +0000

Some generals are warriors, and some are managers, and the two are rarely combined in one man. Patton was a warrior and a leader (men are not managed into battle). He is sometimes compared to Stonewall Jackson (who also possessed some interesting personality quirks and odd beliefs).

In time of war I will take a Patton any day of the week over the managerial types. In time of peace such men should be in positions overseeing training and planning. Let the managers keep the troops housed and supplied while maintaining good PR with the civilian population.

By: Faze

Faze — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 23:18:30 +0000

I don’t think people “admire” Patton in all the details of his behavior. The name Patton is shorthand for aggressive warfare and the straightforward pursuit of national self-interest. The movie still of the man in the silver helmet standing in front of the giant American flag is what counts here.

By: FNN

FNN — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 16:29:20 +0000

I read somewhere a long time ago that the German method for dealing with PTSD (or whatever you want to call it) was to calm the guy down and convince him he was needed back at the front to help his comrades. (My guess, probably a shot of schnapps as well.) Of course in the last year of the war, with all the collapsing fronts in the East, suspected deserters were usually summarily shot.

By: Vito

Vito — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 16:23:53 +0000

Patton’s war-time record was somewhat besmirched by the siege of Metz — three months wasted doing what Patton himself had stated was a form of antiquated warfare, frontal assaults against well-entrenched German infantry.

Personally, I think the Devers Plan for the crossing the Rhine and the invasion of Germany probably was the best way to go.

By: Simon Degree

Simon Degree — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 15:45:29 +0000

It’s very telling that the author makes an equivalence between Patton’s incredible leadership skills and battlefield victories with the incident of slapping the two soldiers.

Even if he had shot them the spot for cowardice, the two things – massive victories and disregard for two soldiers – would not be remotely comparable.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 14:32:53 +0000

Stories like this make it seem pretty clear that Patton was murdered.