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PATTON, George S. Typed letter signed and accompanying typed statement signed ("G. S. Patton, Jr."), to Col. F. D. Fitzgerald, Headquarters Fifteenth Army, both 12 October 1945. Together 3 pages, 4to, slight closed tears at crease.
AN ANGRY PATTON DENOUNCES THE IDEA "THAT YOU PREVENT WARS BY DISARMING--JUST AS YOU PREVENT FIRES BY ABOLISHING THE FIRE DEPARTMENT?"
"I HAVE STUDIED AND PRACTICED WAR ALL MY LIFE. THEREFORE I AM UTTERLY OPPOSED TO IT BUT I AM NOT AN OSTRICH." After plunging himself into hot water yet again for telling reporters that de-Nazification was akin to a "Democratic-Republican fight," and ruminating about a possible future war with the Russians, Patton lost his Third Army command and was booted over the Fifteenth Army headquarters. From there he sends this letter and statement to the chief public relations officer of U.S. forces in the European Theater: "In order to obviate the necessity of being constantly called up by correspondents to ascertain my feelings toward future wars, and of being misquoted when such feelings have been ascertained, I am herewith sending you a statement which you can give out as you see fit." Attached is a blistering 2-page, 500-word text about the inevitability of war and the necessity for strong defense.
Wars, he asserts, are irrational irruptions, "produced through the efforts of a few unbalanced people" and it is "impossible to prophesy when or whom we shall next fight." He then lists all the conflicts the U.S. had fought since 1812. "Nine wars in all...After each...we have been induced as a nation to subscribe to the doctrine that 'In weakness there is strength,' that you prevent wars by disarming--just as you prevent fires by abolishing the Fire Department?" In both world wars America had to "come from behind to insure victory."
Patton winds up by drawing some lessons from what he saw amid the apocalyptic wreckage of a defeated Germany. "I have studied and practiced war all my life. Therefore I am utterly opposed to it but I am not an ostrich. I do not bury my head in the sands of wishful thinking....The only means of producing a powerful America is to initiate and maintain adequate means to instantly check aggressors. Unless we are so armed and prepared the next war will probably destroy us. No one who has lived in a destroyed country can view such a possibility with anything but horror." Together 2 items. (2)
AN ANGRY PATTON DENOUNCES THE IDEA "THAT YOU PREVENT WARS BY DISARMING--JUST AS YOU PREVENT FIRES BY ABOLISHING THE FIRE DEPARTMENT?"
"I HAVE STUDIED AND PRACTICED WAR ALL MY LIFE. THEREFORE I AM UTTERLY OPPOSED TO IT BUT I AM NOT AN OSTRICH." After plunging himself into hot water yet again for telling reporters that de-Nazification was akin to a "Democratic-Republican fight," and ruminating about a possible future war with the Russians, Patton lost his Third Army command and was booted over the Fifteenth Army headquarters. From there he sends this letter and statement to the chief public relations officer of U.S. forces in the European Theater: "In order to obviate the necessity of being constantly called up by correspondents to ascertain my feelings toward future wars, and of being misquoted when such feelings have been ascertained, I am herewith sending you a statement which you can give out as you see fit." Attached is a blistering 2-page, 500-word text about the inevitability of war and the necessity for strong defense.
Wars, he asserts, are irrational irruptions, "produced through the efforts of a few unbalanced people" and it is "impossible to prophesy when or whom we shall next fight." He then lists all the conflicts the U.S. had fought since 1812. "Nine wars in all...After each...we have been induced as a nation to subscribe to the doctrine that 'In weakness there is strength,' that you prevent wars by disarming--just as you prevent fires by abolishing the Fire Department?" In both world wars America had to "come from behind to insure victory."
Patton winds up by drawing some lessons from what he saw amid the apocalyptic wreckage of a defeated Germany. "I have studied and practiced war all my life. Therefore I am utterly opposed to it but I am not an ostrich. I do not bury my head in the sands of wishful thinking....The only means of producing a powerful America is to initiate and maintain adequate means to instantly check aggressors. Unless we are so armed and prepared the next war will probably destroy us. No one who has lived in a destroyed country can view such a possibility with anything but horror." Together 2 items. (2)