Ron Gonzales: If Patton, MacArthur are spinning, it’s due to Trump’s devotion to Putin
During the debate, Donald Trump said George Patton and Douglas MacArthur were “turning over in their graves” due to the actions of Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. In Trump’s opinion, these military heroes would be against the policies of the current president and Clinton. I guess when Trump attended military school, he was absent on the days they taught history.
Patton slapped subordinates because, in his opinion, those who claimed to be suffering from shell shock and combat fatigue were malingerers. Today we call that PTSD. In March 1945, Patton sent 314 men into Germany to liberate a group of American POWs. Instead, 26 members of the task force were killed. Some of the men made it back to American lines, but the rest were captured – including some of those just liberated. The main reason for the raid was to free Patton’s son-in-law. Ten days after the ill-fated raid, the POW camp was liberated by advancing American forces.
As for MacArthur, he was fired after threatening to use nuclear devices against the North Korea and China during the Korean war. Both Patton and MacArthur were brilliant military tacticians, but like Trump they made bad calls from time to time. If they’re turning in their graves, it’s because an American presidential candidate praises a Russian president. Both Patton and MacArthur devotedly hated communism.
Ron Gonzales, Atwater
This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Ron Gonzales: If Patton, MacArthur are spinning, it’s due to Trump’s devotion to Putin."