In this nation over the past few years, history has become much like the Bible; many know of it, few read it, even fewer let it influence their lives. The Evangelists on Fox News talk about history's message has been corrputed by forward thinkers and use it to point out our nation's many sins.
Now, I am not a historical literalist. Just because the Founding Fathers didn't envision an EPA or things like women voting doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.
So if that is the case, what meaning does history have? Well, just some people feel that Bible is not a literal rule book but rather a medium for the Holy Spirit to speak to us, so I do I feel that a study of history can throw our current times into relief. It's not going to give you any answers, but it does provide a prism through which our times - and even ourselves - can be viewed.
As a case in point, take a couple books that I have recently read that you may not like (if you don't like history...especially straight military history...you may not like these books).
For the first: "The Bitter Woods", by John D. Eisenhower, which is about the German offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944, commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge. For those of you who don't rememer, Hitler made a great last gamble, going on the offensive after the Allied armies had stalled in front of the Rhine. His thinking was that Allied command would be split and slow to react to a major offensive, and he underestimated the fighting qualities of American soldiers (the attack is a section of front held by Americans). Though the attack did cause some friction in command, US forces reacted quickly and fought with incredible alacrity. By December 26th the Germans had been halted, and by the middle of January The Bulge had been closed and reduced.
It is a very detailed account, with Eisenhower discussiong operations down to a batallion and occasionally even company level, and very much a military history in that there are lots of "X's and O's". The stories of the defenses of St. Vith and Bastogne are incredible stories of tenacity, of how crisis was turned into an astounding success, is really rather inspiring.
It comes at a cost, of course. Too much of a cost. Sometimes its not easy to see the human element behind the X's and O's, but occasionally Eisenhower describes an action with great vividness, particulary around Bastogne, in a way that captures the brutality of the fighting in horrible conditions.
For the other book, "Valley of Death" by Ted Morgan, misery is writ large. The book is about the French-Indochina war, fought in Vietnam in the early 1950's, but it focuses on the battle of Dien Ben Phu. At Dien Ben Phu, a French force made up of mostly Moroccans, Southern Vietnamese, and German Legionaires found itself surrounded by Northern Vietnamese in a "hedgehog" base that was supposed to be resupplied by air. The Vietnamese held the high ground and were able to haul heavy artillery up the heights piece by piece, much to the surprise of the French. It was a fairly hopeless situation, and about half the book detials the diplomancy conducted by France to try to get extra help from Britain and the US in the form of air strikes and support which seemed to be the garrison's only hope.
The French War aims were a little odious; they were concerned mostly with the restoration of French prestige. And yes, they probably should have never been at Dien Ben Phu at the first place, as the goals were to defned Camboida (or was it Thailand?) and conduct offensive operations; the first goal was merely political and not realistic, and the second was proven impossible.
The conditions under which the battle were fought stagger the mind. One of the things about the Ardennes was that the basic rules of war seemed, for the most part, to be followed. One manifestation of this is that during an action occasionally there was a truce to clear wounded from the filed and evacuate them to the rear. The French were given no such luxury at Dien Ben Phu. Aside from a few pauses there was no let up in the bombardment and planes were for the large part not allowed to land by Vietnamese anti-air batteries. As such there was no way to evacuate the wounded. The dead were left unburried. There was no relief and few reinforcements (though it is amazing that even once the situation was beyond hope there were Frenchmen -- yes, Frenchmen -- still willing to volunteer to be dropped in to the fight). When one legionarre was wounded during an attack towards the end of the battle and saw his comrades coming to assist him, he drew out his revolver and shot himself so that they might not risk their lives in saving him.
It was one of the saddest books I have ever read.
Now, the US is fighting, still, dual wars in far off lands. You can't make a comparison between Dien Ben Phu and Iraq or Afghanistan, but that is not the point. Sometimes, even in a 24 hr news cycle (maybe espeially in a 24 hour news cycle), it is possible to forget how tragic war is and how much we ask of our military. And that's why reading books like this from time to time is a good thing to do: it throws a relief on our times and helps me remember.
So, what's next for me? Fiction. Wonderful, wonderful, mindless fiction. It is Christmas, afterall.
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