Home Truths from 1963

T.R. Fehrenbach, writing a history of the Korean War in 1963, saw clearly some crap that we are a long, long way from grasping as a nation- mostly because the truth is unpleasant. Suck it up, people. The universe owes you nothing, least of all truths that are pleasant.

"The problem was that America had fought the war- as she had most of her wars- as a crusade, while Russia had fought first for survival, then for power. Crusades are usually inconclusive; it was no wonder Russia won the peace."

"It was hard for a nation and a people who had never accepted the idea of power, not as something immoral in itself, but as a tool to whatever ends they sought, to fight and die for limited goals. In short, it was hard to grow up."

"The United States could not be bought, or even intimidated, but it had a long history of looking the other way if not immediately threatened."

"Citizens fly to defend the homeland, or to crusade. But a frontier cannot be held by citizens, because citizens, in a republic, have better things to do."

"Korea was an infantry war, essentially no different from any infantry war of the twentieth century. This was one of the factors, along with the political, that made the fighting so distasteful to a people who had subconsciously come to regard infantry warfare as obsolete."

"Revolution and terror are synonymous; only with the passage of time does any revolution become respectable."

Fehrenbach wrote these words as Vietnam started to suck in more and more men. It is nearly half a century since he wrote them, and the lessons have not been internalized.

History. Read it and weep.