Over the weekend, my Twitter sidebar helpfully let me know that Robert E. Lee was a trending topic. Normally this means some band of historically illiterate ne’er do wells are trying to get another statue torn down, but not this time. This time, the usual group of people were working themselves into a frothing frenzy because President Trump had the unmitigated gall to refer to General Lee as “A great general”.
Mind you, in the context of the larger quote, President Trump was actually talking about General Ulysses S. Grant, the man who finally outmatched Lee in the Civil War, but of course who needs context when you’ve got a mob to keep perpetually outraged? Personally, I find it incredibly humorous that the same ignoramuses who get dramatically angry at the very mention of American Exceptionalism are suddenly upset that there might be great military leaders who fought against America. But who needs logical consistency anyway?
This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “Goose-stepping morons should try reading books instead of burning them.”
But in the interest of providing a bit of educational service for any Millenials who slept through the hour of public high school history class devoted to actual Civil War combatants, or who skipped school entirely the day they were covering World War II, here are four of the greatest tacticians of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries who fought against America.
Robert E. Lee
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May as well start here. Lee is actually an incredibly interesting, and complicated, individual. An American general who fought in the Mexican-American War and became the commander of West Point, he had no desire to lead the Confederate Army. However, when his native Virginia joined the Confederacy, Lee felt he had no choice but to resign his commission and return to defend his home state. Like many men of his time, Lee considered his allegiance to his state as more important than his allegiance to his country.
Among the many excellent books about Lee is a collection of his letters home to his family, collected together by one of his sons. These letters give a fantastic glimpse inside the mind of the man, and reveal a lot of his conflicted decision making.
Then there’s Lee’s military record during the Civil War. Admittedly he was aided by a series of totally incompetent Union generals opposing him, but from 1861-1863, there’s no denying that Lee won victory after victory for the Confederacy as the army made their way north into Pennsylvania.
Lee would never have been as successful as he was, however, without our next man.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
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A tactical genius in his own right, General Stonewall Jackson was Lee’s right-hand man. His tactical decisions remain required reading. His death in 1863 deprived Lee of his best general at the worst possible time, and may have changed the course of the war. Had Jackson led the Stonewall Brigade at Gettysburg, perhaps the battle would have turned out dramatically different.
Isoruku Yamamoto
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Another fascinating individual, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was completely against going to war with the United States. In fact, after he apologies the the U.S. ambassador for the bombing of the USS Panay in 1937, he began receiving death threats from ultra-nationalists inside Japan.
Despite his opposition to the war, when he realized that its coming was inevitable, he used his position as ensure Japan had the best possible chance of winning. Recognizing America’s significant advantages in natural resources and production, he pushed for fast, debilitating strikes that would decisively end the conflict before America could win a war of numbers. His death in 1943 was a huge blow to Japanese moral, although it’s debatable whether his skills would have changed anything at that point.
Erwin Rommel
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Yes, an actual German. Not a Nazi though, although that’s likely a distinction which would be lost on the crowd who’re busy declaring everyone they disagree with as racist sexist Nazi homophobes. Rommel was a brilliant tank commander in World War II, leading the armored blitzkrieg through France in 1940, before taking command of the North African campaign. Loved by his men, respected by his enemies, he was another complex, fascinating individual.
Rommel was never an actual Nazi, as he never joined the party. He was, however, quite ambition, and forged an intense personal friendship with Adolf Hitler. Ultimately he became part of a failed conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, and was given the choice of whether to face a trial that would destroy him and his family, or take the “honorable” way out with the assurance that his family and reputation would remain intact. Rommel chose the cyanide pill.
That’s just four names from the last two hundred years who fought against the United States. There are plenty more, and of course one could easily reach back through the centuries for numerous additional examples of brilliant men who fought for the wrong side, for whatever their reasons. Names, actions, and strategies worth acknowledging, not sweeping into some forgotten historical corner because people don’t like the banners they fought under.