Editor’s note: This commentary is by Don Keelan, a certified public accountant and resident of Arlington. The piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
On May 14, the graduating class at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester had the distinct pleasure of hearing the commencement address delivered by alum Joseph Dunford, Marine Corps general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
According to Adam Silverman’s report in the Burlington Free Press, the general told the graduates, “The challenges we face today are as complex and difficult as any we’ve faced since World War II.” Given the limited amount of time our schools and colleges devote to the study of American history, I wonder if the graduating class had any idea on how difficult the challenges actually were 75 years ago, in May 1942.
I don’t pretend to even fathom what Americans were thinking in the spring of 1942, upon hearing the news reports of governments collapsing throughout Asia, Europe and Africa, stemming from the onslaught of the armies of Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan. America at the time had a population approximately one-third of today’s and an army equal in size to that of Portugal. Despair must have been the currency of most Americans.
Five months prior, in December 1941, Americans had heard that most of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific battleship fleet was destroyed with close to 2,500 dead and thousands more wounded. What had transpired in Europe over the two years preceding the attack at Pearl Harbor, overnight, became America’s problem.
Imagine trying to put into perspective today the news of the loss of France, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Austria and other eastern European and North African countries to a conquering enemy.
Imagine trying to put into perspective today the news of the loss of France, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Austria and other eastern European and North African countries to a conquering enemy. Americans in early 1942 had to deal with this news. But the news only got worse as winter turned to spring.
Thousands of miles away, places that were only familiar to most Americans from seeing them pictured in National Geographic magazine were being overrun by the Imperial Japanese Army. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the order for Gen. Douglas MacArthur to abandoned his command of the Philippines and re-establish it a thousand miles away, in Australia.
FDR’s decision in early May 1942 resulted in the surrender of 42,000 American and Philippine troops and the loss of the Philippine islands. It was reported several years later that thousands of GIs did not survive the march they were forced to make from Bataan and Corregidor to prisoner of war camps in the northern Philippine islands.
The losses in the Pacific area were only compounded by the losses of U.S. merchant ships in the North Atlantic, much of which took place not far from the coast of New England. In March 1942, 120 U.S. ships were sunk.
In making the comparison to WWII, Gen. Dunford is correct when he points out that today’s problems are as difficult and complex. The fear of being conquered by a foreign enemy might not be the case; nevertheless, today’s threats are real and dangerous. Most notable are the impacts from nuclear weapons, IEDs, cyber-attacks, and chemical and biological weapons. This is compounded by the millions of refugees and the impact to come from climate change. Added to which, our leaders must contend with dozen of nations that are leaderless or are engaged in civil wars.
Gen. Dunford emphasized the need for leadership. “The pace of change is unprecedented,” he said. “Navigating in the days ahead is going to require leadership. Your generation of leadership is going to play an increasingly important role …”
Leadership was one of the key factors that enabled America and its Allies to bring an end to the goals of the Axis powers in WWII. Along with leadership there was unity at home and abroad. I am not at all certain that it exists today.
