Heroes of the Other Side

Now I see that in some parts of the US, Confederate statues are being taken down.  On one hand, you might wonder why they were up in the first place.  What’s the point of defeating a pro-slavery rebellion in 1865 if you allow the losers to honor their fallen leaders?   That doesn’t make a whole of a sense to begin with.  However, once you made that decision, why back off now?  Is there a nascent movement to abolish the Thirteenth Amendment, reinstitute slavery in the former CSA, and secede de novo, re-establishing the Confederate States of America?  Or is it just that some people are offended?  Ultimately, however, the voters of these states have the prerogative to decide for themselves.  If I were a rich and disgruntled CSA enthusiast, and these were being taken down off public property, I’d buy up the statues and erect them on private property.  Anyhow.  My loyalties lie with Grant, Sherman, Farragut, etc. so I’m not upset at all.

But it reminds us that many times there are some fairly “excellent” people on what we would consider the “wrong” side of the conflict.

Last week I profiled George Orwell (Eric Blair), arguably the best socialist among them, counting socialists as political enemies.  But there are still others worthy of note.

Saladin (1137-1193).  Born in Tikrit, Iraq (actually Kurdish) and died in Damascus, Syria.  Arguably the most noble opponent among Muslim military leaders during the Crusades.  Although the Crusaders were often complete bastards – sacking Constantinople, what’s the deal with that? – their opponent on the Muslim side was seriously cool.  He spared the Christians’ lives upon the Muslim recapture of Jerusalem.  He was so well esteemed among his opponents that Richard the Lionhearted and him swapped praises, although they never met.  Sadly, while still much revered among today’s Muslims, an analogous contemporary figure has yet to emerge.  And for his part, Trump is nowhere close to King Richard in character.  Even so, Saladin was a Sunni, so it’s questionable the Iranians would accept his latter-day incarnation even should that occur.  Is it possible for the West to make peace with both the Sunnis AND the Shi’ites?  Discuss.

Robert E. Lee.   The CSA lends itself to romanticism, and its leaders to being worshipped as gentlemen and gods, but there’s always Nathan Bedford Forrest to point to as the counterexample - as I’m sure Sherman qualifies as the Union Antichrist, though I don’t consider him nearly as much as a bastard as Forrest.  At the top of the heap of would-be CSA saints is this man.  Now his statues are being taken down – though not in Virginia, to my knowledge.  His former home and grounds are now the Arlington National Cemetery.  While no fan of slavery, Lee accepted the CSA’s military leadership simply because he couldn’t fight against fellow Virginians.  Like Rommel he was a bold and reckless general, expert at leveraging inferior numbers into successful battles, but eventually Grant called his bluff and it was GAME OVER for the Confederacy. 

Erwin Rommel.   Germany’s best Field Marshal during World War II, although Guderian also comes close.  Rommel was never a Nazi party member and considered himself simply a loyal soldier.  He was implicated in the plot to kill Hitler (July 1944) and thus forced to commit suicide.  In World War I he served as an infantry officer first in France, then in Romania, then finally in the mountains of Italy, where he earned his Blue Max (Pour le Merite), Germany’s highest medal, essentially by tricking a series of gullible Italian officers into believing his own forces were much larger than they were – an elaborate bluff.   In WWII he was most famous for cruising across North Africa with the Afrika Korps, a force which never amounted to more than two armored divisions: Hitler couldn’t spare more – plus Rommel did so well with what he had, he was a victim of his own success.   After the Afrika Korps surrendered in May 1943, he came back to supervise the Atlantic Wall preparations, and as noted, was eventually coerced into killing himself.  No German commander earned more praise and respect from his adversaries – including Winston Churchill himself – than Rommel.  I’m not aware that Stuttgart, his home town, has any memorials to him, but his son Manfred was the mayor for awhile.  Rommel was played by James Mason in “The Desert Fox”, and by Christopher Plummer (aka Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music”) in “Night of the Generals”.

Vasili Arkhipov.   Born 1926, died in 1998.  Possibly most important.  During Cuban Missile Crisis, he was submarine officer in Soviet Navy – in fact, fleet commander.  His ship, B59, had been “nudged” by depth charges from US vessels.  Sub commander (Savitsky) and political officer (Maslennikov) wanted to launch sub’s SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles) which required cooperation and approval of multiple officers – precisely to prevent rogue launches “Dr. Strangelove” went on about; in this case, Arkhipov’s consent as fleet commander was also required.  This man refused – and saved not only own countrymen back home scourge of US ICBMs, but also US population which would have been subject to not only his own ship’s rockets, but those of rest of Soviet rocket fleet.   Everyone, US and Russian alike, owes this man their lives.