Four hostile newspapers are to be more feared than a thousand bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Shameless Napoleon Quote of the Week
December 20-26, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Dead General Quote of the Week
Singing His Praises.
This Dead General Quote of the Week comes from the only general we've covered in the past two weeks or so, Ulysses S. Grant. While Grant proved himself to be one of the most capable general officers in American history, music aficionado he was not:
This Dead General Quote of the Week comes from the only general we've covered in the past two weeks or so, Ulysses S. Grant. While Grant proved himself to be one of the most capable general officers in American history, music aficionado he was not:
I know two tunes. One of them is Yankee Doodle. The other isn't.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
December 17, 1862
Dear Readers,
We beg your pardon for the lapse in production we've suffered these past few weeks. Our old friend capitalism has put a lot on our table recently, and while we are thankful, perhaps you could click on the links of our sponsors in the spirit of commerce (wink wink).
In that light, our editors did want to take the time today to briefly mention a moldy old skeleton from the closet of one of the highest ranking American soldiers ever, Ulysses S. Grant. At the end of 1862, cotton export from the Confederacy was conducted solely on the black market, and apparently the Union Army in the Department of Tennessee had few doubts as to who was responsible. On December 17, 1862, Grant signed General Order #11, banning Jews from his district.
Not surprisingly, many were outraged. Union community leaders, Jew and Gentile alike, howled in protest, and the issue reached the floor of a Congress about to break for the Christmas holiday. The Army of the Tennessee claimed the order was curtail the rash of under-the-table cotton dealing to Northern mills. Grant, for his part, claimed the order was drawn up by a subordinate and he had signed it without reading it. Either way, the storm reached the desk of President Lincoln, who quickly had the order rescinded.
Just another lovely chapter in the ever-growing catalog of terrible things about warfare.
We beg your pardon for the lapse in production we've suffered these past few weeks. Our old friend capitalism has put a lot on our table recently, and while we are thankful, perhaps you could click on the links of our sponsors in the spirit of commerce (wink wink).
In that light, our editors did want to take the time today to briefly mention a moldy old skeleton from the closet of one of the highest ranking American soldiers ever, Ulysses S. Grant. At the end of 1862, cotton export from the Confederacy was conducted solely on the black market, and apparently the Union Army in the Department of Tennessee had few doubts as to who was responsible. On December 17, 1862, Grant signed General Order #11, banning Jews from his district.
Not surprisingly, many were outraged. Union community leaders, Jew and Gentile alike, howled in protest, and the issue reached the floor of a Congress about to break for the Christmas holiday. The Army of the Tennessee claimed the order was curtail the rash of under-the-table cotton dealing to Northern mills. Grant, for his part, claimed the order was drawn up by a subordinate and he had signed it without reading it. Either way, the storm reached the desk of President Lincoln, who quickly had the order rescinded.
Just another lovely chapter in the ever-growing catalog of terrible things about warfare.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Shameless Napoleon Quote of the Week
December 13-19, 2009
I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to 40,000 men in the balance.
The Duke of Wellington
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Dead General Quote of the Week
On the Field and In the Field.
In honor of the Army-Navy game being played in Philadelphia today, for this Dead General Quote of the Week we turn to General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army during World War II:
Go Navy. Beat Army.
In honor of the Army-Navy game being played in Philadelphia today, for this Dead General Quote of the Week we turn to General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army during World War II:
I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.
Go Navy. Beat Army.
Monday, December 7, 2009
December 7, 1949
Nanking No More: Or a Date Which Will Rent an Apartment in Infamy.
The new week begins with a historic date, a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. It was a lazy Sunday morning in 1941, at a time when most Americans were still more impressed by the bat-waving of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams than the sword-rattling of Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo. Once the last Japanese planes vacated the skies above Pearl Harbor, America grew from sleepy, isolated giant into a world super power. The events of that day are well chronicled, so instead we here at Lies Agreed Upon turn our attention to an event that occurred seven years later, but was no less influential in shaping the 20th Century.
The Japanese war machine that attacked Pearl Harbor was in fact primarily engaged in mainland China in late 1941. For a decade prior to the invasion in 1937, the army of General Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China had been hard at work suppressing a communist insurrection led by Mao Zedong. Once the Japanese landed, Chiang's main focus shifted to the foreign enemy, but the communists still harassed the fringes of his army for the duration of the Second World War. As soon as the Japanese were defeated, the two old enemies saw the internal conflict erupt into the Chinese Civil War.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
With American backing, Chiang and the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party, tried to fend off the communists from his war ravaged nation. Exhausted by their battles with the Japanese, KMT forces needed American troops and supplies to carry out the fight. Likewise, Mao's forces were being supplied by the Soviet Union, who maintained a large troop presence in Manchuria, to the north, even after World War II ended.
By the middle of 1946, the guerrilla attacks popularized by Mao before the Japanese invasion had evolved into a full scale conventional war. The KMT suffered setback after setback, and the communists supplied themselves with Nationalist stores following each victory. With Soviet backing in Manchuria, Mao's forces had a strong hold on Northern China by 1948, and began operations south of the Great Wall soon after. Nanking, Chaing's capital, fell in April, 1949, and later that year Mao founded the People's Republic of China with its capital in Beijing.
Chairman Mao Zedong declaring the foundation of the PRC in 1949.
On December 7, 1949, after escaping mainland China, Chiang's government fled to the island of Taiwan, and declared Tapei the new capital of the Republic of China. To this day, no formal agreement has been signed by either side to end the war, and for many years following his exile, Chiang planned on retaking the mainland. While relationships between the communist government and Tapei have improved recently, no president of the KMT has ever spoken with a chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
While some may feel we did our audience a disservice by looking over the attack on Pearl Harbor, our editors felt this topic deserved some press as well. It was surely one of the first times of the Cold War where the U.S. and Soviet Union went at each other through satellite states. Furthermore, the conditions and borders affected by Chiang's flea to Taiwan still exist today. While it may now seem ludicrous for tiny Chinese Taipei to challenge mainland China, it was a mess that for many years consumed American foreign policy.
The new week begins with a historic date, a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. It was a lazy Sunday morning in 1941, at a time when most Americans were still more impressed by the bat-waving of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams than the sword-rattling of Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo. Once the last Japanese planes vacated the skies above Pearl Harbor, America grew from sleepy, isolated giant into a world super power. The events of that day are well chronicled, so instead we here at Lies Agreed Upon turn our attention to an event that occurred seven years later, but was no less influential in shaping the 20th Century.
The Japanese war machine that attacked Pearl Harbor was in fact primarily engaged in mainland China in late 1941. For a decade prior to the invasion in 1937, the army of General Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China had been hard at work suppressing a communist insurrection led by Mao Zedong. Once the Japanese landed, Chiang's main focus shifted to the foreign enemy, but the communists still harassed the fringes of his army for the duration of the Second World War. As soon as the Japanese were defeated, the two old enemies saw the internal conflict erupt into the Chinese Civil War.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
With American backing, Chiang and the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party, tried to fend off the communists from his war ravaged nation. Exhausted by their battles with the Japanese, KMT forces needed American troops and supplies to carry out the fight. Likewise, Mao's forces were being supplied by the Soviet Union, who maintained a large troop presence in Manchuria, to the north, even after World War II ended.
By the middle of 1946, the guerrilla attacks popularized by Mao before the Japanese invasion had evolved into a full scale conventional war. The KMT suffered setback after setback, and the communists supplied themselves with Nationalist stores following each victory. With Soviet backing in Manchuria, Mao's forces had a strong hold on Northern China by 1948, and began operations south of the Great Wall soon after. Nanking, Chaing's capital, fell in April, 1949, and later that year Mao founded the People's Republic of China with its capital in Beijing.
Chairman Mao Zedong declaring the foundation of the PRC in 1949.On December 7, 1949, after escaping mainland China, Chiang's government fled to the island of Taiwan, and declared Tapei the new capital of the Republic of China. To this day, no formal agreement has been signed by either side to end the war, and for many years following his exile, Chiang planned on retaking the mainland. While relationships between the communist government and Tapei have improved recently, no president of the KMT has ever spoken with a chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
While some may feel we did our audience a disservice by looking over the attack on Pearl Harbor, our editors felt this topic deserved some press as well. It was surely one of the first times of the Cold War where the U.S. and Soviet Union went at each other through satellite states. Furthermore, the conditions and borders affected by Chiang's flea to Taiwan still exist today. While it may now seem ludicrous for tiny Chinese Taipei to challenge mainland China, it was a mess that for many years consumed American foreign policy.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Shameless Napoleon Quote of the Week
December 6-12, 2009
He who can control the English Channel for six hours can control the world.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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