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To: Mike Thank you for responding to my summary of the essay entitled, "Bolshevism by Legal Maneuver," which is the lead essay in our new Eternal Vigilance journal of contemporary American culture. Looks like one or two Boomers took the bait. Glad to have your comments. We may just learn from each other. You wrote, The USNA grad you refer to is RADM C.A. 'Mark' Hill, Jr. USN (Ret.) of the class of '44 which graduated in '43 in order to ship out early to fight a war. He and his contemporaries won the Battle of the Pacific in WWII. Had you read my e-mail (you are an addressee) of 9/4/00, you would know that this old guy is far from 'out-of-touch.' I described him thusly, "So, who is 'Mark' Hill? RADM Hill is a graduate of the Naval Academy class of 1944. He served on the submarine USS Ray (SS-271) in the Battle of the Pacific in World War II. His ship suffered every battle experience that was recorded on film for the German U-boat in the documentary film, 'Das Boot, including a sinking to the bottom of Lingayen Gulf with a recovery due only to the courage, bravery, and skill of its crew -- except Hill's ship was not destroyed in the end. Mark entered flight training after the war and rose to command an A-4 Skyhawk squadron and an Air Group as well as the USS Independence. He was a manpower expert from the grade of LCDR to RADM and served as the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Manpower. RADM Hill is a staunch opponent of women-in-combat and has forcefully, intelligently, and PUBLICLY defended his views on this subject. He argues for a return to teaching 'traditional' leadership and ethics at the Naval Academy -- a program based on the traditions of John Paul Jones, ADM Horatio Nelson, ADM Chester Nimitz, ADM Thomas H. Moorer, and CDR Sam Dealey, not that of the flawed Enlightenment philosophers." RADM Hill belongs to that close-knit group of flag officers who call themselves 'Moorer's Boys' after ADM Thomas H. Moorer USN (Ret.) of whom I am sure you have some cognizance. This bunch is definitely NOT out of touch with current naval and military affairs. They are also quite politically active in national politics. ADM Moorer is a hero to my generation of naval aviators who fought in the skies over North Vietnam. It is he who convinced President Nixon to mine the Haiphong Harbor and bomb Hanoi in order to bring back our POWs. One week after the Christmas bombing of Hanoi the North Vietnamese were at the bargaining table and a year later our POWs were home. I have many Navy NAMPOW friends, a few of whom were fellow-Vigilante pilots. They, along with the rest of us, revere ADM Moorer for his leadership. You do a great disservice to RADM 'Mark' Hill and the man he still works diligently for, ADM Moorer, in your dismissive remark of them. For, you see, ADM Moorer believes exactly as RADM Hill does with respect to today's flawed Navy flag-rank leadership, including that at the Naval Academy.
This is a valid criticism. That is why I have carefully defined the group of people whom I identify as 'the power elites of the Boomer generation.' They are the bad guys in my essays. This is the group which includes Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Strobe Talbott et al, who came-of-age on our nations campuses during the counter-culture revolution of the mid-1960s -- the elite Boomers. Their revolution involved demonstrating against the Vietnam War both at home and abroad, 'loathing' the military, dodging the draft, fleeing to Canada, taking over the college and university campuses and generally flouting constituted authority (I went to school with these people -- I saw it happen, I was there, I know them well).
If you still don't like this 'generalization,' I suggest you spend a bit more of your time reading history. For example, Samuel Huntington in his 'Clash of Civilizations' reminds us that each civilization is characterized by its 'elites.' Loosely defined, these people are the 'leaders' in some dimension of importance in a society. For an excellent characterization of your generation, the Boomers, take a look at the seminal book, 'Generations: The History of America's Future,' by William Strauss and Neil Howe. It has a vivid description of how history will probably see your Boomer generation -- in terms of its culture and its impact on American civilization. You might find some interesting stuff there. If you dare pick up a book and read it, you will see that historians all 'generalize' generations in terms of their 'power elites.' I see that you graduated 258th in a class of 947, so I expect you can understand this stuff. Those USNA grads with whom I competed, class of '53, were certainly capable of doing so. I also see that you were born 12/10/58 which puts you in the last few years of the Boomer cohort. This definitely puts you out of reach of the 'bad guys' of your generation. You are almost a 'tweener,' that is, on the border of the Boomer and the 13er (Generation X) generation. So grow up and take it like a man. My generation, the Silent, has been characterized as the ADAPTIVE generation. Hardly radical. Mostly with a tendency to compromise, coordinate, and live by the comfortable consensus. Not one of my generation has held the office of President of the United States. It may even be that the likes of Dick Cheney and Colin Powell will never make it either. But just because my instincts do not fit this mold, I do not get pissed and whine when historians remind us of my generation's peer personality -- a convenient generalization for the purpose of understanding the broad scope of history.
you will find hundreds of references which back up every one of these 'unsupported' claims. If you have never heard of Herbert Marcuse (make love, not war), Eric From (Escape from Freedom), Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, or Wilhelm Reich, please read my essays (abundantly referenced to mainstream authors -- books available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.com). Or if you want it from another source, please read Martin Jay's book, "The Dialectical Imagination: The Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-1950." Jay is the Chairman of the History Department at the University of California at Berkeley -- hardly a Buchanan stronghold. You may be surprised at the connection that the liberals make between the 'power elites' of your generation and this group of German intellectuals who fled Germany in 1933 to escape Hitler, came to America, dispersed to our universities -- Teachers College at Colombia, Princeton, Brandeis, and the U of Cal, Berkeley. They were the intellectual foundation for the counter-culture revolutionaries of your generation. And you may even be surprised to find out how and why the 'power elites of the Boomer generation' drank the intoxicating wine of the Frankfurt School 'cultural Marxists' and became their 'foot soldiers' in the culture war that is occuring all over America today.
Yes, Mike, you definitely should get out more! And maybe when you are out you will drop by your local library, pick up a book on the subject, and read it to completion. May I suggest a couple of books that may help you understand what is going on with the soccer moms (???the ladies on your daughter's soccer team??? -- you aren't old enough to have a soccer mom daughter -- maybe you just meant your wife????). Please read Ann Douglas' excellent book, "The Feminization of American Culture." You will learn that your generation was preceded in history by the Transcendentals whose women helped fuel the fire of a civil war that was the most costly in American history -- a war that produced a chasm in the nation that lives and breathes even today. And if you read Otto J. Scott's outstanding book of that period, "The Secret Six," you will see the damage that generation did to the fabric of American civilization. You see, the Transcendentals were Idealists as is your Boomer generation. And the idealism of both generations sometimes produce(d) a darkness that often is born of the best of intentions. The Navy as a job corps for women and minorities? The Navy as a surrogate father for single women? The Navy as a floating 'day care center' for illegitimate children? Navy ships as 'dating places' for love-sick sailors? If you haven't observed it yourself, please read Stephanie Gutmann's excellent book, "The Kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral Fighting Force Still Win Wars?" I know personally some of the naval officers she interviewed. They back her views to the hilt. If you have not observed the continued feminization of American culture, primarily by the women of your generation (not blue-collar factory workers), you are not fully awake. Did you watch the Oprah-ization of the '96 Republican convention? Have you read my book, "From Trust to Terror: Radical Feminism is Destroying the U.S. Navy?" Maybe you should pick up a copy. And while you are at it, take a look at ADM Moorer's praise of the book on the back cover. He states,
If you don't know what the Franco-German path to Bolshevik socialism is, please read Balint Vazsonyi's excellent book, "America's 30 Years War: Who is Winning." This book is favorably reviewed in my Jan/Feb 2001 issue of the Eternal Vigilance journal. This man, a world reknowned concert pianist and historian, is a national treasure. Having lived as a young boy in Hungary under Hitler's National Socialists and as a young man under Stalin's Bolshevik socialists, he immigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen. He knows better than any of us what it means to lose our individual freedoms. He sees on the horizon the same forces at work in our culture that he observed in Hungary during and after the brutal suppression of the Hungarian freedom fighters. Different in scope but very similar in their totalitarian impulses.
No, we do not know each other. But I see from your record that you are a 1310 with absolutely no battle decorations. Since you are not a member of the Tailhook Association, it is not clear that you are even a carrier aviator -- could be though. So, I could draw a tentative conclusion that you have never been fired at in anger by a resolute enemy determined to kill your ugly ass. Since you graduated from the Academy in 1980, it is clear that you haven't been in a real shooting war of any sustained duration and of any consequence to America's survival as a nation. So let's compare records. I joined the Navy at the end of the Korean War and chose jet carrier aviation rather than the draft. I made four extended carrier deployments, the last two of which resulted in 20 months of overseas duty in a 22-month period. I voluntarily extended a sea-duty tour for one year during that time to make a Vietnam War combat deployment aboard the USS Ranger. If my generation was going to war, I damn well was going to be a part of it. During the year flying over North Vietnam in the RA5C Vigilante I was fired upon many times and my aircraft was hit. I was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals. I graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and was chosen for the Most Outstanding Test Pilot award. I was a qualified Landing Signal Officer and have over one hundred night traps. I flight demonstrated the RA5C Vigilante in the 1965 Paris Air Show -- only one of six U.S. aircraft participating that year. The Navy sent me to the University of Michigan during the campus riots of the late-1960s to earn a PhD in Nuclear Engineering. While there, I learned more about the 'elites' of your Boomer generation than I wanted to know. Consequently, I have first-hand knowledge of the people of whom I now write.
P.S. For the rest of you guys, I hope this epistle has been informative and, in the end , a bit entertaining. I actually wrote it for your benefit. Let me hear from you. Better yet, just take a peek at my Web Site. Especially at Mark Hill's Corner and the Eternal Vigilance journal section.
We all admired your efforts as reported by John Fristachi in his e-mail of 8/18/00, i.e. "When Stewie, as CO of VF-2 released a HAZREP on readiness based on post-deployment stand down, lots of folks were waiting to see whether he'd get schwacked by "The Pentagon guys". He didn't -- his message was received by the senior aviation flags, right up to then-CNO Johnson with the concern it deserved. He wasn't viewed as a maverick, but as a courageous CO who was doing his job." This was the first time during the '90s that we had heard of a naval officer standing up and 'telling it like it is' in the mold of Navy combat leaders of old. But the real test will be when and if you make flag and find yourself in the position of the flag-rank naval leadership of today -- that is, under a CIVILIAN leadership which attempts to take the Navy in a direction that you know, deep down, is destructive and not in the best interest of either the Navy or the nation. Will you then have the same honesty, courage, and determination that you have displayed as a squadron CO? Will you be able to 'lay your stars on the table' as others too numerous to mention in Navy history have done -- in the best interests of their Navy and their nation? Only time will tell. |
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