Mark Twain's Colors II: Thug Life

Review by Bill Doughty––

The original Thugs killed for the joy of taking lives, according to Mark Twain, author of "Following the Equator." One sees parallels with the self-proclaimed Islamic State or "Daesh" (aka ISIL/ISIS).

Indian "thugs" from around 1865 in Peshawar, now part of Pakistan. (Photo from NPR)

The word "thug" comes from an actual sect of religious extremist terrorists – the Thugee – who strangled and robbed men, women and children two hundred years ago in India. Murders were often carried out after the Thugs had gained the trust of their victims.

Twain first heard about the Thugs in the mid 1800s and read and wrote about them when he visited Bombay (Mumbai) in 1896.

"Fifty years ago, when I was a boy in the then-remote and sparsely peopled Mississippi valley, vague tales and rumors of a mysterious body of professional murderers came wandering in from a country which was constructively as far from us as the constellations blinking in space – India; vague tales and rumors of a sect called Thugs, who waylaid travelers in lonely places and killed them for the contentment of a god whom they worshiped; tales which everybody liked to listen to and nobody believed..."

Thugee belief: gaining trust, distracting victims, then striking from behind.

Twain devotes more than two chapters of his "Following the Equator" (Volume II) to discussing the Thugs, referencing a government report printed in Calcutta in 1840.

He describes the report by Major Sleeman, of the British Indian Civil Service, as "a clumsy, great, fat, poor sample of the printer's art, but good enough for a government printing-office in that old day and in that remote region, perhaps."

"The Thugs were worshipers of Bhowanee; and to this god they sacrificed anybody that came handy; but they kept the dead man's things themselves, for the god cared for nothing but the corpse. Men were initiated into the sect with solemn ceremonies. Then they were taught how to strangle a person with the sacred choke-cloth, but were not allowed to perform officially with it until after long practice ... the expert's work was instantaneous: the cloth was whipped around the victim's neck, there was a sudden twist, and the head fell silently forward, the eyes starting from the sockets; and all was over. The Thug carefully guarded against resistance. It was usual to get the victims to sit down, for that was the handiest position for business."

Mark Twain aboard USS Mohican, 1895. (PBS)

Twain became captivated with learning more about the cult, which included teenage boys and elderly men. He lauded Britain's "noble" task to remove them. And he saw parallels in other cultures. Twain asks about The Why – "what was the impulse?" Then he draws a surprising conclusion:

"Apparently, it was partly piety, largely gain, and there is reason to suspect that the sport afforded was the chiefest fascination of all ... That must really be the secret of the rise and development of Thugee. The joy of killing! the joy of seeing killing done – these are traits of the human race at large. We white people are merely modified Thugs; Thugs fretting under the restraints of a not very thick skin of civilization; Thugs who long ago enjoyed the slaughter of the Roman arena, and later the burning of doubtful Christians by authentic Christians in the public squares, and who now, with the Thugs of Spain and Nîmes, flock to enjoy the blood and misery of the bull-ring. We have no tourists of either sex or any religion who are able to resist the delights of the bull-ring when opportunity offers ..."

Beautiful "splendid" colors then and now in India. (Photo from PBS)

Twain also looks disapprovingly on the 19th century big game hunters in India who killed tigers and elephants – not for meat or out of necessity, but for the "sport" and joy of killing. He shines a harsh light on human nature, but sometimes his light reflects beauty in fiery spectacle.  

"Following the Equator" sings with colors, especially during Twain's visit to Bombay. Here is part of his description of the trip to Gallé Face by the seashore:

"What a dream it was of tropical splendors of bloom and blossom, and Oriental conflagrations of costume! The walking groups of men, women, boys, girls, babies – each individual was a flame, each group a house afire for color. And such stunning colors, such intensely vivid colors, such rich and exquisite minglings and fusings of rainbows and lightnings! And all harmonious, all in perfect taste; never a discordant note; never a color on any person swearing at another color on him or failing to harmonize faultlessly with the colors of any group the wearer might join. The stuffs were silk – thin, soft, delicate, clinging; and, as a rule, each piece a solid color: a splendid green, a splendid blue, a splendid yellow, a splendid purple, a splendid ruby, deep and rich with smoldering fires – they swept continuously by in crowds and legions and multitudes, glowing, flashing, burning, radiant; and every five seconds came a burst of blinding red that made a body catch his breath, and filled his heart with joy. And then, the unimaginable grace of those costumes! Sometimes a woman's whole dress was but a scarf wound about her person and her head, sometimes a man's was but a turban and a careless rag or two – in both cases generous areas of polished dark skin showing – but always the arrangement compelled the homage of the eye and made the heart sing for gladness."

What happens next in the parade of colors – breaking Twain's revery – is jarring and insightful, contrasting cultures, appreciating diversity and showcasing Twain's laugh-out-loud sense of humor. A recommended read.

Twain's "Following the Equator" was suggested in 2012 by Rear Adm. John Kirby, former U.S. Navy Chief of Information and former Pentagon spokesperson, now State Department spokesperson.  "Twain has always been my favorite author. I love his humor, his wit and the ease and simplicity of his writing. 'Following the Equator' captures his essence best, in my view," Kirby wrote.

Twain captures the common shared values of humanity, good and bad – including Thug Life in India two centuries ago. Read our first installment of "Mark Twain's Colors" published last year on Navy Reads  here.

As for the original 'gees – Thugees – read a fascinating post by Lakshmi Gandhi at National Public Radio. Gandhi ties in other aspects of American culture, including thuggish-ruggish music and a new genre of literature known as thug-lit. The big revelation: how the term "thug" has been misused but is being reshaped, especially considering the original murderous group from which the word originates.

Mark Twain's Colors: 'Following the Equator'

by Bill Doughty––

This is a book by one of America's greatest writers. Mark Twain's "Following the Equator" takes the reader not just to different places around the globe but also back in time. Volume I covers the Pacific Ocean – to Hawaii and Fiji, to Australia and New Zealand. Volume II continues into the Indian Ocean from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India to Africa.

"Following" is fun, fantasy and philosophy. It's storytelling, daydreams and nostalgia.

"On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head, a piece of this world which I had not seen before for twenty-nine years. So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again. Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock.  In the night we anchored a mile from shore. Through my port I could see the twinkling lights of Honolulu and the dark bulk of the mountain-range that stretched away right and left."

More than a century later, during this summer of 2014, thousands of Sailors from nearly two dozen countries are discovering Diamond Head and Honolulu during the world's largest maritime exercise: Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2014). They may be seeing the same kinds of vistas as Twain describes:

"We had a sunset of a very fine sort. The vast plain of the sea was marked off in bands of sharply contrasted colors; great stretches of dark blue, others of purple, others of polished bronze; the billowy mountains showed all sorts of dainty browns and greens, blues and purples and blacks, and the rounded velvety backs of certain of them made one want to stroke them, as one would the sleek back of a cat. The long, sloping promontory projecting into the sea at the west turned dim and leaden and spectral, then became suffused with pink – dissolved itself into a pink dream, so to speak, it seemed so airy and unreal. Presently the cloud-rack was flooded with fiery splendors, and these were copied on the surface of the sea, and it made one drunk with delight to look upon it."

Alfred Thayer Mahan

Mark Twain

Twain transited the Pacific in 1895, the same year that then-Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, intellectual father of the industrial-age Navy, commanded USS Chicago and sailed the Atlantic. Twain's "Following" was published in 1897, the same year as Mahan's "The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future" and "The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain."

Twain visits Nelson, New Zealand. Two years earlier that country established women's right to vote, a right that would take 25 more years to become a reality in the United States; the delay much to Twain's chagrin after his earlier ambivalence.

The shadow of Captain Cook, Admiral Nelson and Great Britain looms throughout Twain's travels. Just three decades after the Civil War, he eviscerates imperialism and racism. Using a virtual magnifying glass, he examines his world – introspectively and actually.

A statue after an ice storm.

He describes the duckbill platypus in Australia, the crow in India and a chameleon in Africa. He is enthralled with funeral rituals, religious traditions and how people treat each other. His greatest reverence is for nature. To Twain, the Taj Mahal is no more beautiful than an ice-storm, "Nature's supremest achievement in the domain of the superb and the beautiful":

"The ice-storm occurs in midwinter, and usually its enchantments are wrought in the silence and the darkness of the night. A fine drizzling rain falls hour after hour upon the naked twigs and branches of the trees, and as it falls it freezes. In time the trunk and every branch and twig are incased in hard pure ice; so that the tree looks like a skeleton tree made all of glass – glass that is crystal clear. All along the under side of every branch and twig is a comb of little icicles – the frozen drip. Sometimes these pendants do not quite amount to icicles, but are round beads – frozen tears.

"The weather clears, toward dawn, and leaves a brisk, pure atmosphere and a sky without a shred of cloud in it – and everything is still, there is not a breath of wind. The dawn breaks and spreads, the news of the storm goes about the house, and the little and the big, in wraps and blankets, flock to the window and press together there, and gaze intently out upon the great white ghost in the grounds, and nobody says a word, nobody stirs. All are waiting; they know what is coming, and they are waiting – waiting for the miracle. The minutes drift on and on and on, with not a sound for the ticking of the clock; at last the sun fires a sudden sheaf of rays into the ghostly tree and turns it into a white splendor of glittering diamonds.  Everybody catches his breath, and feels a swelling in his throat and a moisture in his eyes – but waits again; for he knows what is coming; there is more yet. The sun climbs higher, and still higher, flooding the tree from its loftiest spread of branches to its lowest, turning it to a glory of white fire; then in a moment, without warning, comes the great miracle, the supreme miracle, the miracle without its fellow in the earth; a gust of wind sets every branch and twig to swaying, and in an instant turns the whole white tree into a spouting and spraying explosion of flashing gems of every conceivable color; and there it stands and sways this way and that, flash! flash! flash! a dancing and glancing world of rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, the most radiant spectacle, the most blinding spectacle, the divinest, the most exquisite, the most intoxicating vision of fire and color and intolerable and unimaginable splendor that ever any eye has rested upon in this world, or will ever rest upon outside of the gates of heaven."

Twain can be serious, but the author of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" was in his orbit when he used whimsy and wit to describe his world. 

His power of observation extends to other languages, accents and people, often in sharp, tongue-in-cheek ways, such as his description of a Boer traveler on a train in South Africa:

"One man had corduroy trousers of a faded chewing-gum tint. And they were new – showing that this tint did not come by calamity, but was intentional; the very ugliest color I have ever seen. A gaunt, shackly country lout six feet high, in battered gray slouched hat with wide brim, and old resin-colored breeches, had on a hideous brand-new woolen coat which was imitation tiger-skin – wavy broad stripes of dazzling yellow and deep brown. I thought he ought to be hanged, and asked the station-manager if it could be arranged. He said no; and not only that, but said it rudely; said it with a quite unnecessarily show of feeling. Then he muttered something about my being a jackass,and walked away and pointed me out to people, and did everything he could to turn public sentiment against me. It is what one gets for trying to do good."

When Samuel L. Clemens as Mark Twain ends his 13-month global circumnavigation and feels very proud, his pride is quickly extinguished when he is forced to consider his place and time in the Cosmos after hearing about the latest astronomical discovery.

"Human pride is not worth while; there is always something lying in wait to take the wind out of it."

Read "Following the Equator" to discover more – in time.

Toughness of Churchill & Orwell

Review by Bill Doughty––

Thomas Ricks's choice of subject is at first glance a head scratcher. What could right-wing imperialist Winston Churchill and left-wing flamethrower George Orwell have in common?

Churchill in WWI, middle row, center.

George Orwell

The answer: toughness of character, love of freedom and a commitment to truth and action. Both fought in combat for their belief in democracy and liberty – Churchill as an army officer in the First World War, Orwell twenty years later as a rebel against fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Churchill also served as First Lord of the Admiralty in the lead up to WWI.

In "Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom" (Penguin Press, 2017) Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ricks shows how military experience shaped the two men as thinkers and writers.

In Orwell's case his position was cemented as a lifelong skeptic. "From Spain on, his mission was to write the facts as he saw them, no matter where that took him, and to be skeptical of everything he read, especially when it came from or comforted those wielding power."

For Churchill, connections to the military informed his approach as Prime Minister. "From his time in World War I, and even more from his two turns at overseeing the British navy, Churchill had developed a delicate feel for the wiles of military bureaucracy."

The bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 1941 was a moment of truth for the United States not only in the Pacific but also, Churchill immediately realized, across the Atlantic to Europe.

"Churchill's post-Pearl Harbor address to Congress was a work of political genius," Ricks writes. "Its structure was artistic, with four sections that could be titled: I, We, They, Us Against Them." Churchill was a good writer but a great orator.

"Orwell's reaction to Pearl Harbor was markedly more skeptical about the Americans. While Londoners were becoming more pro-Russian, he observed, 'There is no corresponding increase in pro-American sentiment – the contrary.'" Still, Orwell seemed to be enamored with the idea of America if not the reality. Writer Christoper Hitchens, Ricks says, described Orwell as having a "curious blind spot" about America.

"Among Orwell's favorite authors were three Americans – Twain, Walt Whitman, and Jack London. Orwell does not seem to have been much influenced by the scathing portrayal of the nineteenth-century United States by another of his favorite writers, Charles Dickens. 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' a novel based upon Dickens's tour of the United States in 1842, depicted America as a nation of 'dollars, demagogues, and bar-rooms,' violent and deeply hypocritical, prating about honor, freedom, and liberty while enslaving millions."

Mark Twain (Library of Congress)

Ricks's book, with great photos of the protagonists and insights into their work, is a fascinating examination of two vines intertwined in the arc of history in the early 1900s.

Both men were drawn progressively more toward the ideas and ideals of the United States – including as expressed by the venerated Mark Twain.

"Early in his career, in the mid-1930s, Orwell had contemplated writing a biography of Mark Twain, but could not find a publisher interested in the project. Churchill also contemplated a book on an American theme in his youth – a history of the American Civil War. As a young man on his first lecture tour in America, he was introduced on the stage by Mark Twain."

During WWII, as Churchill led the British nation, Orwell served in the Home Guard. Orwell, influenced by the war and especially the postwar period, wrote his great novels "Animal Farm," published in 1945, and "1984," published 69 years ago this month in 1949.

After the war Churchill, like Orwell, retreated to the countryside to write. He had been voted out as prime minister and took what Ricks calls his "revenge," his Homeric war memoirs, starting with "Volume 1: The Gathering Storm."

Ricks examines each of Churchill's volumes and concludes, "No one can ever consider the history of World War II without referring to Churchill's account."

Orwell, however, may have the longer lasting impact on the world, at least from a literary standpoint. "A new post-Cold War generation has found his words to have resonance," Ricks writes. "All told, in terms of contemporary influence, Orwell arguably has surpassed Churchill."

Orwell, whose hero of 1984 is named Winston, gave us words and phrases including "doublethink," "big brother" and "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

Ricks shows how "kindred spirits" Churchill and Orwell had the toughness to fight to preserve the liberty of the individual – "the key question of the century" – first by seeking facts, then by acting on their beliefs and finally by writing down their thoughts for posterity.

Both were men of action who, "facing an existential threat then responded with caring and clear-sightedness."

In his conclusion Ricks asserts that their path leads to a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama and to the pen of Martin Luther King Jr. "King was arguing that in a world based on facts, in which the individual has the right to perceive and decide those facts on his or her own, the state must earn the allegiance of its citizens. When it fails to live up to its rhetoric, it begins to forfeit that loyalty. This is a thought at once profoundly revolutionary and very American."

Ricks's explanation of how Orwell and Churchill are relevant to MLK and the Civil Rights movement is an eyeopener and a call to action for truth, justice and reality in the face of lies, corruption and obfuscation.

"That struggle to see things as they are is perhaps the fundamental driver of Western civilization," Ricks concludes. Facts matter.

Arctic Adventure: Sides with Science

Review by Bill Doughty

A good Navy read during hot summer months is the chilling true tale by Hampton Sides, "In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette" (2014, Doubleday).

Sides, author of "Ghost Soldiers," takes us to the late 19th century when science was still revealing the truth about earth's geography.

Explorers like Hudson, Barents and Barrington believed in an open polar sea. They sought to find warm currents and a temperate land beyond the ice. Navy charts at the time were incorrect.

Vain efforts to prove an open sea at the North Pole were fueled by assumptions of a deranged German mapmaker named August Petermann. He's just one of the interesting characters in the drama. 

Another is newspaper magnate James Gordon Bennett Jr., the obscenely wealthy owner of "The New York Herald." The eccentric newspaper publisher capitalized on strong feelings of nationalism and saw rich profits to be gained by backing a voyage to the Arctic. Bennett funded a U.S. Navy public-private venture to discover something that didn't exist.

This is a tale of life and death, courage and resilience.

The Navy's maps indicating a "supposed open polar sea" were developed by a naval officer respected for his oceanography, Silas Bent, who had previously served as flag lieutenant under Commodore Matthew C. Perry aboard USS Mississippi.

The Jeannette mission to the Arctic was launched in early July 1879, just 27 years after Perry sailed his "black ships" into Japan, 14 years after the Civil War (in which Silas Bent would resign his commission to side with the Confederacy) and 20 years before the Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Parts of the world were still being opened to trade, ships were just being converted from canvas to steam, and Thomas Edison was about to light up entire streets with his greatest invention.

One hero of the voyage is captain of the USS Jeannette, Lt. Cmdr. George Washington De Long of New York.

De Long became captivated by the Cold North on an earlier journey up "the ragged west coast of the world's largest island, Greenland."

"De Long's disdain for the polar landscape soon wore off ... something began to take hold of him. He became more and more intrigued by the Arctic, by its lonely grandeur, by its mirages and strange tricks of light, its mock moons and blood-red halos, its thick, misty atmospheres, which altered and magnified sounds, leaving the impression that one was living under a dome. He felt as though he were breathing rarefied air. He became intrigued by the phenomenon of the "ice blink," the spectral glow in the low sky that indicated the presence of a large frozen pack ahead. The scenery grew more impressive: ice-gouged fjords, towering bergs calved fresh from glaciers, the crisp sound of cold surf lapping against the pack ringed seals peeking through gaps in the ice, bowhead whales spouting in the deep gray channel. This was the purest wilderness De Long had ever seen, and he began to fall in love with it."

Sides describes De Long as frustrated by Navy bureaucracy and red tape yet fully embracing the stern, disciplinarian style of shipboard leadership, quoting a contemporary of his, Mark Twain. According to Sides:

"De Long blamed the Navy for some of his worst traits. He once wrote, 'Ship life is a hard thing on the temper. Mark Twain in his Innocents Abroad says that going to sea develops all of man's bad qualities and brings out new ones that he did not suppose himself mean enough for. I wonder if that accounts for all the rough edges of my character.' He admitted that he could be 'hard on men,' but such was the nature of a naval officer's life. 'I can only say I never allow any argument,' De Long once wrote. 'It is my office to command and theirs to obey.''"

Prior to heading north, De Long brought USS Jeannette to the Mare Island Shipyard where double trusses, new iron beam reinforcement and extra pitch were installed and applied. Mare represented the nation's original "rebalance" to the Pacific and was considered a "western outpost of America's burgeoning might."

The Navy's Chief Engineer at the turn of the 20th century, George W. Melville

Another hero of the voyage is innovative engineer George W. Melville. Years later, Melville would become chief engineer for the Navy, earning the rank of rear admiral. As the 20th century dawned, Melville "presided over an expansive redesign of the fleet, largely completing its conversion from wood to metal, and from wind to steam power.  When he retired, in 1903, the U.S. Navy boasted one of the most powerful modernized fleets in the world."

Sides, known for revealing the personalities of long-dead characters, excels here in describing more than a dozen men of De Long's ill-fated mission.  The author shows the hard choices the sailors and civilians faced so they could survive: ice or sea, boats or sleds – which dogs to cull – what to eat.

Arctic-bound USS Jeannette becomes icebound.

Books were an important part of the mission, as inspiration both before and during the months at sea: books by Twain, Stephen Crane, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley and Frederick Marryat, of the British Royal Navy, whose swashbuckling tales ignited in De Long "a profound desire to enter the Naval Academy."

"Kingdom" is a fascinating book, recommended by retired Adm. James Stavridis and another favorite Navy Read author, Nathaniel Philbrick, who calls this book a "dazzling page turner ... full of unforgettable characters and vividly described scenes." For example:

"Much of their journey seemed like a dream, a long whiteout of undifferentiated days punctuated by a few moments of haunting clarity: A snowy owl staring at them. A pile of decrepit sleds they smashed up for firewood. The corpse of a native buried in a box on a hill. A crow, circling and circling and circling."

Hampton Sides used original documents and reports from the voyage, coupled with contemporaneous newspapers and letters, including some heartbreaking correspondence between De Long and his wife Emma – featured in each chapter. The author's notes and selected bibliography span 34 pages and more than 140 years.

Pick up "In the Kingdom of Ice" to read more about De Long and Melville's daring adventure, the entropy of their mission in search of the open polar sea, and the revelations found in the frozen and unforgiving Arctic. Some survived. Others perished. Those who did not return alive were called by the Secretary of the Navy, "martyrs in the cause of science."

What Warriors Read -- to Learn, for Escape?

By Bill Doughty

Catching up this week, after the interview with Professor Jackson, manager of the Navy Professional Reading Program. I want to highlight comments received by two Sailors a while back that I didn’t want to get “lost in the sauce”...

“Christine,” a public affairs officer, and CAPT Hansen, officer in charge of Navy embedded training teams, posted these comments to my review of The Kite Runner in May. In a few words they say so much -- about religion, father-son relationships, diverse viewpoints and book recommendations for families when loved ones are deployed -- above all, putting things in context:

I don't know if these are universal, but before I left, people recommended "Lone Survivor," which is Marcus Luttrell's account of the battle that killed the rest of his Seal team in the mountains of Afghanistan. Also recommended were A Thousand Splendid Suns and Three Cups of Tea. I'll confess that I've only gotten to Lone Survivor myself (I read The Kite Runner awhile back), but the others are on my list.

I'm a huge reader -- my Kindle is my prized possession here, right behind my laptop. I don't watch a lot of television, and I haven't even looked at the 300gb of movies I brought with me. Instead, I read a lot of fluff -- pure escapist nonsense. Some of it with more literary merit than others. I do like to read the books that I learn something from, but it's also important to have the fun reads.

Christine

========================================

Your comment wrapped up Kite Runner like the crib notes of a good book report. I like the way that you tied up the analogies for me. The book was riveting for me on two personal paths - spiritual and relational. It was interesting to reflect on my adherence to and divergence from my religious beliefs. Seeing the son attempting to be himself and please his father, whom he respected immensely brought me to reflecting on my relationship with my father, growing up, and my relationship with my son.

The Thousand Splendid Suns is even more poignant regarding the place of women in Afghan society.

Both books are must reads to get prepared for a deployment here. The service member must remember though that people are individuals. Although there is societal adherence to Islam, there is some variation as to how conforming people are just as in the U.S. people profess one religion or another, but live varying degrees of it.

Three Cups of Tea is recommended for those deploying too. It is much more positive than the other books mentioned here. Spouses and loved ones remaining behind should read Three Cups so that they have something positive to contemplate in the absence of their service member.

Dennis M. Hansen

OIC NAVY ETT

Other perspectives...

From Tikrit, Iraq a friend wrote to me that folks he knows are reading escapist books like Twilight and Clash of Kings. He said in an email, “We just read the books people send us.” Graphic novels are a hit with some of the Americans serving there. Speaking of Twilight, I heard on a podcast last week that, with the U.S. economy in a downturn, romance novels are back in vogue.

Like Christine said, fun reads are important too.

Back at my office in Hawaii, my colleagues and I sometimes talk about books around the watercooler, where a co-worker suggested reading Lionel Trilling. I checked out Trilling’s Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning and found a fascinating thinker. Trilling’s decades-old essays were well worth dusting off and examining. He dissects T.S. Eliot, George Orwell, Mark Twain and Hemingway, among many others.

Mark Twain could help readers escape and learn... Was he America’s greatest writer?

Does Taiwan Rhyme with Ukraine?

Review by Bill Doughty––

In “War and Peace in the Taiwan Strait” (Columbia University Press, 2022), Scott L. Kastner examines the likelihood of conflict in Asia. However, readers may find themselves thinking about the actual war in Europe. More about that in a moment…

Kastner’s well-researched book considers the possibility that the People’s Republic of China will take military action –– in the form of a military blockade or outright invasion –– against the democratic citizens of Taiwan (a country which has has been, in reality, an independent nation since 1949).

Kastner presents a brief history of the formation of Republic of China after the civil war of 1949, including Taiwan's flirtation with autocracy and martial law and eventual full embrace of democracy. Then he gets to the heart of his thesis: that there is a balance between sovereignty and reunification, with “status quo” as the fulcrum keeping peace, and with ambiguous options clouding an uncertain future.

The power balance in the region, he notes, has changed in recent years as China’s economy and military have grown –– along with nationalism. “Although the balance of power has clearly shifted in Beijing’s favor, attempting to seize and occupy Taiwan would still represent a highly risky and costly undertaking that might fail spectacularly.”

A key to preventing war, many analysts believe, is deterrence, predicated on the strength of the economy and military of the United States, which is committed to maintaining peace and cooperation on the global commons.

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said recently, “As long as we remain number one, then we will deter the war that people worry about, a great power war between China and the United States.”

Kastner writes:

“The U.S. Navy has announced numerous transits through the Taiwan Strait over the past few years, including several by guided missile destroyers; these high-profile transits could also indicate some strengthening of U.S.-Taiwan security ties. The frequency of transits has varied considerably over time, however, and long-term trends (at least over the past decade and a half) are ambiguous. Transits occurred on average 5.5. times per year from 2007 to 2010, increased to nearly 10 per year from 2011 to 2016 on average, and dropped to 4 per year from 2017 to 2018, before increasing sharply in 2019 and 2020. On the other hand, the recent uptick in transits is notable, and it is worth highlighting as well that U.S. officials have begun to announce these transits on a regular basis –– whereas in the past they typically went unannounced.”

Kastner also examines the commitment by the U.S. Congress and American presidents to supporting Taiwan's security. (This book was apparently published just before former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s notable visit to Taipei last year.)

Kastner notes, “U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned in April 2021 that it would be ‘a serious mistake for anyone to try to change the existing status quo by force.’”

Still, XI and Communist China threatens invasion by force if the One-China policy is not realized. While Kastner contends “war is not inevitable,” he has an ominous observation:

“Were armed conflict to occur in the Taiwan Strait, at its root would be an intractable sovereignty dispute that has persisted since the end of the Chinese Civil War. In its current manifestation, the dispute centers on Taiwan’s status: whether Taiwan should be considered part of China now, and whether it should be formally unified with mainland China in the future. The PRC views itself as the sole legal government of China, Taiwan as part of China in principle, and formal unification as an important national goal. While Beijing has embraced a policy of ‘peaceful unification,’ it has refused to renounce the use of force and has explicitly threatened to go to war if Taiwan were to formally declare its independence from China, be occupied by foreign forces, or delay –– indefinitely –– negotiations over formal unification. In Taiwan, even though individuals have widely divergent views on cross-Strait policy, and even though the two major parties differ considerably in their approach to China, there nevertheless exists wide agreement that Taiwan (or the ROC) is a sovereign state, and there is very little support for near-term unification with the PRC.”

Kastner concludes ominously, “Absent a dramatic change in circumstances, then, there is little prospect for the two sides peacefully resolving the underlying dispute.”

Does Taiwan rhyme with Hong Kong?

The citizens of Taiwan see what is unfolding in Hong Kong –– as China cracks down on democracy and independence there. They want no part of the loss of freedom they see there and in Tibet, another formerly autonomous region, as a result of China's political system, management, and control.

In Hong Kong, new PRC laws allow interference in the judicial system and schools. Independent newspapers and voices are shut down. Security officers patrol the streets. "The undercutting of autonomy in Hong Kong sends an especially troubling signal to Taiwan given that Beijing also calls its proposed formula for Taiwan "one China, two systems."

Does Taiwan rhyme with Korea?

In North Korea, “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong-un threatens ethnically identical South Koreans. Kastner compares the U.S. promise to support Taiwan with the “iron-clad” commitment to defend the Republic of Korea if attacked by autocratic Communist North Korea, as happened in 1950.

[Recently, the world learned that North Korea, which is still supported by China, is providing weapons to Russia’s Wagner Group in support of Putin’s war of terrorism in Ukraine.]

Does Taiwan rhyme with Ukraine?

In Europe, Putin kills and terrorizes the people of Ukraine despite their same ethnicity.

Just as the PRC sees Taiwan as critical to its expansion throughout Asia, Putin sees Ukraine as a strategic bulwark against the West and his revanchist goals in Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party observes Ukraine and sees how Putin’s war continues to backfire: instead of an easy takeover, he has lost tens of thousands of soldiers; instead of weakening NATO and the West, he has strengthened the free world’s resolve; and instead of reunification, he is causing deep rifts within his own country.

One year ago, the world was still hopeful that Putin’s threats, maneuvers, and calls for “unification” would not lead to war despite his previous invasions of Georgia and Crimea. Today, we see Russia’s campaign of terrorism and violence continue as the war nears its one year anniversary.

China must be as surprised as Putin in seeing Ukraine's resolve and the free world’s coalition led by President Biden with the support of the U.S. Congress. So far.

Just this week, the Biden administration authorized sending 30 Abrams tanks to Ukraine; Germany announced it is sending dozens of Leopard 2 tanks.

Does Taiwan rhyme with Finland?

Seeing the parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine becomes clearer through the lens of the history of the Soviet Union, including what happened in the Winter War between the USSR and Finland in 1939 (ten years before Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan). The Soviets invaded ethnically similar Finland, at the same time that Germany did the same to its neighbors in Central Europe.

Citing the conclusions of Stanford’s James D. Fearon, Kastner writes about the dangers of accommodation and appeasement and why a country may choose to “roll the dice” and accept war over loss of territory or independence.

“Fearon suggests the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland can be explained in part by this dynamic, where Finland preferred to fight rather than yield to Soviet demands to cede some small islands in the Gulf of Finland that Moscow viewed as strategically important: here, Helsinki feared that ceding the islands would give the USSR more leverage to demand further concessions in the future, and Stalin presumably couldn’t be trusted to honor a promise not to do so. Leaders in Taiwan will likewise be reluctant to accommodate the PRC by yielding ground on the island’s sovereign status, unless they can be confident that Beijing could be trusted to honor commitments not to take advantage of the increased bargaining power such accommodation would provide. Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons to doubt the credibility of PRC promises in this regard…”

As for the possibility of actual war between China and Taiwan, Kastner admits pessimism but says conflict is not inevitable. He notes the precariousness of Taiwan’s position: unable to declare total independence as a sovereign nation but also unable to appease China, which would risk losing freedom and democracy for its people.

USS Antietam (CG-54) and USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) transit the Taiwan Strait in August 2022. (MC2 Justin Stack)

Prevention of conflict, Kastner says, depends on good communication and information, as well as continued credible commitment to deterrence in the name of peace [to echo Gen. Milley].

“If the United States were to abandon Taiwan,” Kastner writes, “the risk of cross-strait war would likely increase.” There may be no evidence that Mark Twain ever said, “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” But in an unpublished manuscript, “Mark Twain in Eruption,” he did write that “It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.”

In “War and Peace in the Taiwan Strait” Kastner includes a huge section of historical and analytical notes and another lengthy set of references, including Shelley Rigger, Michael Beckley, Jessica Chen Weiss, Qiang Xin, Robert Sutter, Alan Romberg, Russell Hsiao, Richard C. Bush, Thomas J. Christensen, T. Y. Wang, and James D. Fearon, among dozens of other experts.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of analysis in this book of the role and importance of Japan, not to mention other nations such as the Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of the Philippines and as part of the strategic balance in the region. Kastner admits early in his introduction that his work is an overall analysis, not an evaluation of military strategy, weapons systems, or potential PRC planning. Still, for Navy readers this book presents a worthwhile examination of ambiguity and precariousness in the Taiwan Strait.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speak at the eighth Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Jan. 20, 2023. The meeting brought together representatives from more than 50 nations and organizations to determine the best way to get the military capabilities that Ukraine needs to repel Russian forces from their sovereign territory. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders)

Hertling’s Found Haiku, ‘Polished Diamonds’

Review by Bill Doughty––

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling concludes his vital book “If I Don’t Return” with deep reflection and a hope that the advice he offer is received as intended: as a gift to help others.

Much of his advice is reflected in a prayer by General Douglas MacArthur, “Build Me a Son, O Lord.” 

Citing elements of the prayer, Hertling writes,

“Be strong enough to admit weakness. Be brave enough to face yourself. Hold you head up in honest defeat and lower it in victory. Be selfless, kind, and fair. Seek the truth and laugh often. Choose service over self. Draw out the myriad motivations that live in others. Polish diamonds –– gently, patiently, precisely –– until their brilliance helps others see. Our world needs all of that, from each of us.”

The following “found haiku” (unintended poetic prose revealed in 5-7-5 syllables) are polished diamonds quoted from Hertling’s book:

In his introduction:

In these pages, strength

In values. In character.

In purpose. In love

From a key section, “Make it Matter”:

Don’t delay. Don’t wait.

Don’t count the days. Instead, make

every day count

Regarding the value of the military family’s support back home (from a saying by Martha Summerhayes written in 1866):

I had cast my lot

with a soldier, and where he 

was, was home to me

On the importance of civilian communities’ expressions of appreciation and kindness to deployed service members:

We should all take that

lesson to heart. Make someone

feel better today

After appreciating the “permanence” of death and environmental destruction in the aftermath of combat:

The awareness that

long after war’s end, it is

the loss that endures

On the biggest “diamond” in his book –– finding and embracing humility:

Victory is a

terrible teacher if you

let it flatter you

Humility is a core value for Hertling, especially important for good leaders. “Take your job, but never yourself, seriously,” he advises.

In a very personal insight, Hertling discusses his Christian faith and how prayer helped him early in his life, especially when deployed to Desert Shield and in Desert Storm.

“Over time, my faith has become less about answers and more about the courage to ask better questions,” he writes. “To walk into uncertainty with conviction, not arrogance.”

Curiosity led him to explore other religious scriptures and beliefs.

“My faith now includes mystery –– and mystery requires humility.” [And THAT is a near found haiku.]

Hertling says, “It’s good to be humble enough to learn. To be bold enough to explore. And to be wise enough to know that culture isn’t about comparison. It’s about connections,” he writes. Hertling made lifelong connections wherever he was stationed, including in Germany (right).

Humility. Connections. Honor, Courage and Commitment…

It is impossible to read “If I Don’t Return” without thinking about current chaos in 2026: the War with Iran and suffering of Sailors aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72).; the cruelty by ICE “shock troops” on American streets; ongoing efforts at election interference and other attacks on constitutional democracy; and corruption of the Justice Department, Department of Defense, and the greedy president and his family.

“Humility prevents power from becoming arrogance, wisdom from becoming pride, and strength from becoming cruelty,” Hertling writes. “Humility is not the absence of strength –– it is strength under control.”

Throughout this great book, Hertling not surprisingly quotes a lot of Lao Tzu and Clausewitz, philosophers who have long inspired military leaders. But he also works in some Mark Twain, Epictetus, and even Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, and Yogi Berra.

And, a quote from an episode of the popular show Ted Lasso stands out.

Hertling writes,

“Lasso explains that people often judge too quickly because they think they know enough about someone or something. He mentions a quote he once saw on a wall: ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ The rest of the episode doesn't matter, because that's the best advice for leaders. Curiosity keeps you learning. Curiosity keeps you humble. And curiosity keeps you open to the possibility that the next great lesson may come from the most unexpected source.”

This book is a must-read for any military leader, and in Hertling’s mind that means anyone in uniform. But it also written as a guide for anyone in business, medicine, sports, or other fields.

American hero and Hertling’s friend, retired Admiral William H. McRaven, agrees. His extended blurb reads:

“‘If I Don't Return’ is the story every soldier wants to tell but struggles to put into words. Deeply personal, incredibly moving, and storytelling at its finest! Mark Hertling has written a timeless tale of life as a soldier, a father, and a wartime leader, but this book is about more than combat— it is about how we face life's greatest challenges with faith, wisdom, and gratitude. Everyone who is searching will find something of value in this beautifully written narrative.”

McRaven is, of course, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, who under orders from Commander in Chief President Barack Obama found and killed Osama bin Laden.

Filled with polished diamonds of wisdom, “If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal” by Mark Hertling, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Retired) is published by Ballast Books, 2026.