Memorial Day: Ponderings for Donny the Dodger
With Memorial Day approaching, DJT chose to praise Xi, Kim Jong Un, and Putin in a fresh reaffirmation of his ignorance of history and how to honor veterans of bygone years.
Trump’s Hall of Heroes featured ahead of Memorial Day…
DJT builds on his draft-dodging heroism of 1968 with effusive praise of autocrats Xi, Putin, and Kim just before Memorial Day as he condemns the US Commander in Chief and after years of taking potshots at US Generals. A true Presidential Memorial Day moment.
We offer a few historical details for DJT on the role of China, North Korea, and Russia in sending numerous Memorial Day veterans to their early graves.
Forgetting the past and ignoring history is always a bad idea, and too many are doing both at this critical juncture.
Trump’s Bronx speech this past week included more compliments to Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin just ahead of a historically sacred day for many veterans and their families. In this latest display of unrelenting bad judgment, bad form, and bad intent, Donny the Dodger continued to insult most veterans with his praise of dictators whose nations had been “on the other side” in numerous foreign wars.
Memorial Day weekend is a time when some cable channels run nonstop war movies that cut across history. I imagine these films make Trump uncomfortable given how he got busted on calling heroes “losers and suckers”, but they might help him frame some history around how many veterans found their way to their graves.
Below we offer a few historical highlights for Trump to ponder as he attacks US leaders and the US military, e.g. calling for the execution of General Milley, disavowing statements made to General Kelly, and hurling insults at General Mattis. Trump really could use some context in that historical fact-free head of his.
First we look back at the 2018 Belleau Wood controversy that shed light on just how little respect Trump has for those killed or maimed by war (see Political Economy: The Contrasts are Not Hard to Find These Days 10-3-23).
Tradition, history, and facts matter…so does respect for veterans…
“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”
The picture alludes to the Marines gearing up for the assault on the Germans and Belleau Wood in 1918. The quote is from one of the Medal of Honor winners in that battle delivered in the heat of the action. That June 6 date resonates since it was the same day in 1944 for D-Day in the same country. A memorial celebration was tied to the event that Trump skipped which caused so much controversy while he was President. As reported at the time, bad weather and rain meant he feared a bad hair day.
The battle of Belleau Wood in military history saw a few medals of honor and legendary quotes that offer a sample of what streamed across the fields that day. The other well-known quote is “Retreat Hell, we just got here” as the Marine officer responded to a French officer’s urgent recommendation to retreat. These inspiring veterans deserve better than the base gutlessness and dishonesty so prevalent in Washington today.
The battle at Belleau Wood is the stuff of legend in France. Belleau Wood as an event was more than a battle. It was the last stand against the last desperate offensive of a crumbling German effort in WWI when both sides were exhausted. The US was late to the party, but the additional forces tipped the scales.
When the Bolsheviks took the helm in Russia in 1917 and gave up in the East by 1918, German forces were able to redeploy and turn the heat up in the West. It does not take much work (even for those who don’t read books, like Trump) to see how critical battles in France could have sent the war either way. The Battle of Belleau Wood was one such battle during a massive German offensive—Belleau Wood being less than 50 miles from Paris. In some of the most intense fighting of the war, US forces prevailed, but the Bolsheviks did their part to make that a very close call.
Trump skipping that ceremony at Aisne-Marne Cemetery thus caused quite a stir for those without fingers in their ears or hands over their eyes. It was also when the Trump commentary around deceased veterans being “losers” and “suckers” picked up steam. That is an individual choice as to who you want to believe: General Kelly of the Marines or Donny the Dodger. General Kelly lost a son in battle in Afghanistan, so the measure of Trump is that he would say such a thing to such a father at such a time.
When in doubt, Trump praises dictators to normalize authoritarian thinking…
The praise of Kim, Xi, and Putin are what Trump thought to focus on this past week as he plans his ambition of President for Life and immunity from all laws. Maybe Trump and his sycophants should consider a few points of history as we summarize below. If they cannot get him off that track, they should remember what so many US soldiers died for.
Kim Jung Un and North Korea and Xi of China…
The Korean War started with a surprise attack (June 1950) on South Korea largely after Kim II Sung (grandfather of Kim Jung Un) received the long-withheld green light from Stalin (Putin’s idol) with strong support from Mao of China. The imbalance of military equipment favoring North Korea (notably armor) had been building up for some time and Kim II Sung was straining at the leash.
At the time, the US had gotten sloppy with Dean Acheson making a notorious speech to the National Press Club that framed US vital interests and omitted Korea. This is a much-debated topic but one of many examples where sending signals to ruthless dictators can lead to bad results (put that in Ukraine context today with Central and Eastern Europe, Taiwan, etc.).
What is not debated is the fanatical desire of Kim’s grandaddy to invade South Korea to “unify” the two countries. What many forget is that the Korean War involved US forces, UN forces, and China along with the two Koreas. (The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.”) What is critical to remember, is that the region is as dangerous today as it was in 1950, but the nuclear threat is much bigger (Russia got “the bomb” in 1949). A lot of Americans died in that war, which on a “per year basis” was even bloodier than Vietnam.
So naturally, Trump gives Kim a big hug and lots of praise while often berating South Korea for “not paying more.” I guess he missed the part where South Korea suffered over a million casualties during the war, including civilians.
We all know the end of the story. North Korea invaded and blitzed the South in June 1950 very quickly after the sneak attack and took Seoul while pushing south, so the US had to come in. The US counterattacked through a bold landing at Inchon and then pushed North Korea back almost to China and the Yalu River.
MacArthur got cocky since he “knew” China would not dare invade and get in the war. Wrong. China arrived in force, and that gave rise to some epic fighting with the Army lines breaking and the Marines surrounded at the Chosin Reservoir.
During the Battle of Chosin, the Marines fought their way out of it. The odds were brutal but gave rise to the famous quote: “Gentlemen, we’re not retreating. We’re just advancing in a different direction.” I would encourage everyone to explore YouTube to look up the “Battle of Chosin.”
The father of a friend I worked with at Deutsche Bank (now a hedge fund manager) was in the Inchon invasion that freed Seoul and sent North Korea reeling. The Marines then got caught up in the Chosin Reservoir fighting as China fielded more than a hundred thousand men against the US forces in their own version of a sneak attack. My own father enlisted in the Korean War after Chosin.
The “Frozen Chosin” Marines are part of the “lore of the Corps” along with Guadalcanal (WWII) and Belleau Wood (WWI). Many of the “Frozen Chosin” had also served on Guadalcanal. Trump famously disrespects those who fought and died in those battles, and instead, heaps praise on China and the North Korean “eternal leader” dictator gene pool just ahead of Memorial Day.
Clearly, Trump admires the “President for life” crowd. They are role models in the authoritarian playbook (see the Lucid publication in Substack by Ruth Ben-Ghiat for some great research on dictators).
The Trump approach to Korea should be food for thought. That generation of Americans is mostly gone now. My father voted for Goldwater and Nixon (my mother for George Wallace in 1968), but I suspect they would be disgusted by Trump’s sentiment on Kim, Xi, and Putin ahead of such a day of remembrance. People who saw the Great Depression, WWII, Korea and Vietnam tend to be touchy about such matters.
Putin, Stalin and the Soviet/Russia direct and indirect connection to US military graves…
The Russia/Soviet Union connection to Memorial Day runs deep and back to WWI, which makes Trump’s admiration of Putin and anti-Ukraine stance particularly grotesque.
On Korea, we earlier cited how Stalin was the pivotal vote in giving the “Go” on the North Korean sneak attack that began the Korean War. Sneak attacks have ample precedent, and that should be food for thought in the missile age for defense budgets. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a lot more information was declassified and shared, and there is little question that Stalin was the key trigger for the North Korean attack that had been long desired by the Kim family tree and supported by Mao.
Now consider the fact that Stalin is Putin’s idol. And Trump seems to have Putin in his hall of heroes. Does the transitive property apply here? Does that make Stalin Trump’s idol also? That can’t be good.
Stalin directed the Holodomor, a man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s. Ask Trump about Holodomor. He will say, “I don’t know that guy.” Many have dubbed that period the Soviet genocide of Ukrainians. Traditions die hard, but Putin has a friend in Trump for the latest version of mass murder in Ukraine. The GOP removing opposition to the occupation of Crimea out of the 2016 GOP election platform is a separate story. At least two pro-Putin Trump loyalists allied with pro-Putin Ukrainian officials got pardons from Trump. Wonder why?
The bottom-line question:
“If Stalin and later the Soviets were critical in supplying and dictating the direction of North Korea and the Korean War, and served as the primary supplier to North Vietnam, what is wrong with the US supplying Ukraine? Even if you don’t care about defending democracy and protecting national security and US interests in Europe, it also qualifies as payback for the many US veterans who gave their lives.”
“Though I walk in the shadow of the valley of the podiatrist…I shall fear no bone spurs.”
Considering that the then-Soviet Union was the primary supplier of arms to North Vietnam, the Putin and Russian connection to US Memorial Day continues. The Battle of Hue pictured above made it into pop culture in Full Metal Jacket. While my neighbor across the street was getting a purple heart in the Battle of Hue in 1968, Trump was hunkered down in his air conditioned bunker with his podiatrist, who according to the NY Times, was a real estate tenant of Trump’s father. It was a pitched battle, but the world was again safe for golf shoes. Perhaps Trump simply appreciated the Soviets supplying the antiaircraft missiles that shot down John McCain?
Facts are better than monuments and posing by leaders…
In the times such as these, it seems to take courage to just tell the truth and buck the group collusion of falsehoods, willful ambiguities, and routine practice of blurring the reality in front of us. Think of all those veterans’ graves and imagine what the country would be like if they were that cowardly.
There are always many debates about wars and foreign policy over the years that will always rage on. The Vietnam War was one of the worst of those back-and-forth clashes of views. What was never a debate was the courage and grievous loss in Vietnam even if history has been unkind to the motivations and the execution of the war.
I attended the dedication of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Nov 1982 and the follow-up dedication of more traditional statues in 1984. It was an experience I will never forget. The Korean War monument took a long time to arrive as did the WWII monument, but it is an insult to those veterans to heap praise on dictators ruling countries that were arming the opposition and sending those veterans to their graves. It gets worse when you spend more time criticizing those on the US side. Monuments are important, but some courage under political fire won’t kill you.
Korean War Monument in Washington:
“Compliments” of North Korea, Russia, and China
Times change…
As the son of a Marine who enlisted to fight in Korea with the First Marine Division, I had the 1st Marine emblem on my lapel (with the vertical word “Guadalcanal” in the “1”) for elementary school photos. At that age, winters saw my brother and I wearing the legendary Korean War winter hats (the ones with the flap in the front and side that could snap under the chin) embellished with a gold Marine emblem in the middle of the front flap (OK, that was a bit much looking back).
Those were very different times obviously, but as a little league age kid I remember the veterans of WWII and Korea very well. At that time, most of them were much younger than I am now. They all seemed bigger than life. Just given my father’s background, I tended to meet more Marines. My father was a commander of the local Legion post, and I would meet them at events, parades, and Legion baseball games.
Such patriotic events often brought out veterans of the Greatest Generation. I was able to drop by a First Marine Division Association meeting once as a kid in Boston and even got to meet some legends. Traditions live on, and they do in fact make them like they used to in the military. Just not in Washington DC (or Mar-a-Lago). I will always remember the framed photo of Chesty Puller on the wall in our house and other tributes to tradition.
One common thread among the old guard (and the Old Breed) was they did not like draft dodgers. Maybe that is why Trump is so neurotic about veteran’s ceremonies and the whole topic and why he seems to have a special dislike of career military who stand up to him as they stand up for their oath. Deep down, he knows what they think of him.
You should have seen me in 1968…I haven’t changed a bit.
The insecurity around his own history in dodging the draft has likely contributed to his animosity toward military leaders steeped in tradition. If DJT gets reelected, he will look to better control the military leadership and put in the fix for more Flynns in the upper ranks and not the Mattis and Kellys and Milleys of the world. He will want more lapdogs and fewer Devil Dogs. His use of the image above makes it all the more offensive.
Perhaps his hair and comb-over worries and his need to remove that hideous MAGA hat during solemn ceremonies is what kept him out of honoring the US Marines in France in his first term. He will never admit that was a mistake of course. We wonder what Trump will be doing with the rest of his Memorial Day weekend. We already know who he praises on the way into it. The weather looks good. Maybe his hair can risk a tribute to those who served when called upon.