I attended the Round Table Discussion at the Coronado Library on March 24, and guest speaker was Professor Gregory Daddis from San Diego State University on the subjects Faith and Fear.
Well, the gentleman from SDSU, because of his thinly veiled anti-war and indirectly, the military, he assured us somewhat light heartedly that he was not a Communist.
He started by mocking General MacArthur’s approach to war in the Pacific and didn’t really deal with the war in Europe. He spoke of Americans’ inordinate fear of the Japanese in particular.
During the discussion period, I noted that he never mentioned FDR’s forcing of Japanese U.S. citizens into camps (1942-45), implying that may have exacerbated Americans’ fear adding to Pearl Harbor.
He somewhat passed it off as possibly land speculators in the West who wanted their land. Plus, he wrongly stated that it involved Congressional action, but it was an executive order by President Roosevelt.
President Carter later ordered an investigation into the incarceration to determine if the government was justified. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which formally apologized, and it admitted that the government actions were based upon “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.”
I believe the professor was dishonestly not going to blame FDR for anything.
Let’s look back for a moment.
A Democratic president had been in charge for eight years prior to Lincoln taking office and the Civil War started a few months later.
Wilson was in power four years before WWI; FDR, eight years before WWII; Truman, about five years before Korea; Kennedy/Johnson four years before Vietnam; Clinton was president for eight years leading up to the Afghan War, which was trip wired by 9/11 under Bush nine months after taking office.
In the leadup to WWI, Wilson gave his famous speech, Peace Without Victory.
His peace at any price thinking was a mockery in the face of the German slaughter in Europe. FDR held out as long as he could until the Japanese forced his hand at Pearl Harbor again, in the face of Germany’s destruction of Europe, showing utter weakness.
Truman fired MacArthur for wanting to chase the Communist Chinese back to their own country and now we have a divided Korea with a threatening monster in the North.
And now the latest hot spot is Taiwan.
The U.S. under Carter in 1979, initiated the slippery slope by signing an agreement that there’s only one legitimate China — the Communist one.
To add to the West’s capitulation, the UK returned Hong Kong, sending millions into ultimate slavery.
Do you see a pattern here? Contrary to the professor denouncing military strength as a cause of war, it’s the presidents who have been perceived as weak by our enemies which has invited war.
As The Russians stormed into Ukraine, our president “boldly” declared that “not one American boot will be on Ukrainian soil.” Which immediately emboldened Putin.
Oh, and by the way, where are the UN “peacekeepers?!!”
Jim Korver is a Coronado resident and married to Angela. The couple have 13 children, 34 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
