In Praise of "Suckers" and "Losers"

"Now the sun shines down on the green fields of France

a warm summer wind makes the red poppys dance

The trenches have vanished under the plows,

there's no gas no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now

but here in this graveyard it's still No Man's land,

the countless white crosses stand mute in the sand

for man's blind indifference to his fellow man,

to a whole generation that was butchered and damned

Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why

Do those who lie here do they know why they died

Did they really believe when they answered the call

did they really believe that this war would end wars

Forever this song of suffering and shame

the killing the dying was all done in vain

for young Willie McBride it's all happened again,

and again, and again, and again and again."-----Eric Bogel

The recent article in The Atlantic about President Trump's purported comments about a cancelled visit to a cemetery in France in 2018 has created a major uproar. Any one who is in a position of leadership has a vast amount of impact on her or his subordinates. A United States Military Academy ("USMA") graduate I knew told me that he had learned in his Military Psychology and Leadership class there that Soldiers ask two questions about their leaders: 1) does that person care about me; and 2) is that person powerful? Within our system, the President is, by definition, powerful but this anecdote implies that President Trump does not care about the people he leads.

However, I think the issue is more complex than that.

Almost no one who has lost a family member in war is untouched by that. Almost no one serving in a leadership position in war, who has had people killed on their watch, is untouched by that. Even for someone like Trump (a Presbyterian) who does not have a cultural or religious tradition of formally remembering the dead, should respect their survivors by visiting the cemetery where they are buried.

However, the cemetery in question holds the remains of men killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood (1–26 June 1918), mostly Marines from the 5th and 6th Marines and Soldiers from the 2d Infantry Division, which was then composed of both a Brigade of Marines and an Army Brigade, as well as Supporting Arms (an Army Field Artillery Brigade and an Army Engineer Regiment). Simply stated, these men's leaders are dead, too. These men's parents and spouses, friends and neighbors are all probably dead. It is even likely that these men's children are all dead, as well. Probably, no one alive was directly insulted by this omission.

As the quote above, from a 1976 song by Scots Folk Singer Eric Bogel, indicates, folk memory tends to regard those who served in the First World War, to some degree, as "suckers."

This is traceable to the disappointment many of them had in the lack of impact their service and sacrifices had. Read, for example, Hemingway's short story Soldier's Home, which concerns a young Marine veteran of World War I, or watch Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings's (a former Marine officer, wounded in the Battle of Belleau Wood) play What Price Glory?. Read, for example, works by our former enemies and allies from that conflict, like the German Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front and the Englishman Robert Graves's memoir of his service as an Infantry Platoon Commander on the Western Front, Goodbye to All That. Note Owens and Sassoon's war poetry. Sassoon's quote: “You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye. Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know. The hell where youth and laughter go," sums up their palpable feeling of betrayal.

But, on the other hand, a lot of the culture of the modern US Marine Corps comes out of the Battle of Belleau Wood, with "Retreat hell, we just got here" and "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?" Colonel John W. Thompson, Jr., USMC, a well known writer in the inter-war years, wrote books like Fix Bayonets! and Marines & Others (that sold well) which were largely about how:

“there were also a number of diverse people who ran curiously to type, with drilled shoulders and a bone-deep sunburn, and a tolerant scorn of nearly everything on earth. Their speech was flavored with navy words, and … in easy hours their talk ran from the Tartar Wall beyond Pekin to the Southern Islands, down under Manila. … Rifles were high and holy things to them, and they knew five-inch broadside guns. They talked patronizingly of the war, and were concerned about rations. They were the Leathernecks, the Old Timers … the old breed of American regular, regarding the service as home and war as an occupation; and they transmitted their temper and character and view-point to the high-hearted volunteer mass which filled the ranks of the Marine Brigade.”

Marines (and Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen)) do not generally fight for some idealistic cause. They fight for the others they serve with and out of a pride in their unit (or, in this case, for the Marine Corps, their service as well), their leaders and themselves.

For those who do not serve in our armed forces, the majority of Americans, despite what has recently become 19 years of war, this can be a difficult thing to understand. That no living person had someone they loved buried in that cemetery or someone they were responsible for buried there, does not mean attending that ceremony was without meaning. Not only did the current leader of France attend, the current leader of Germany attended as well.

Further, The Atlantic's statement of President Trump's view that:

"The president believes that nothing is worth doing without the promise of monetary payback, and that talented people who don’t pursue riches are 'losers.' (According to eyewitnesses, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, 'That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?')"---Jefferey Goldberg, Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’

may more accurately reflect that Trump may not understand that, for someone who does not come from the Trump family's comparative wealth, having a steady job with a pension and benefits and educational opportunities, may be superior to any other option they may have. This may even be true for middle class kids who are bright (but not brilliant) who can get a free college education by a service academy appointment or an ROTC Scholarship.

Even capable young people, as General (Ret.) Dunford clearly was, may not have had a family business or profession which he cared deeply about, as Trump did, in which to make his career. For such people, military service (as a career or an opportunity to gain experience and insight) is very valuable.

However, Trump's older brother, Fred, served as an Air National Guard Officer. Fred Trump famously did not go into the family business. Donald Trump had to step up and assume what would have been his older brother's role in the family business. It is possible Trump may view his brother's military career in the Air National Guard, as well as his career as an Airline pilot (and perhaps his alcoholism, which ended his life at 43), as attempts to evade his responsibilities.

In the end, the issue may not be that Trump has contempt for the Military. The issue may be that Trump has lead a life, not only of wealth and privilege but also of extraordinary focus, that may limit "The People Billionaire's" understanding of the lives of the people he leads.