Leyte at 75, The World Wonders

Review by Bill Doughty

Was "Bull's Run" Halsey at fault in the Battle of Leyte Gulf? Was MacArthur's massive ego a factor? How did fatigue influence the outcome of the battles? And did fake news possibly prolong the war for Imperial Japan?

These are a few of the ongoing questions explored in Thomas J. Cutler's latest book, "The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75: A Retrospective" (Naval Institute Press, 2019).

In ten insightful essays along with archival material from the United States Naval Institute, this work adds new reflections on what James D. Hornfischer calls "the greatest upset victory of our Navy and also one of the most embarrassing moments." Hornfischer writes:

"We can find reason to criticize the conduct of most of the high command in this battle, from Admiral Halsey, who failed to communicate clearly with his colleagues as he went north in pursuit of the Japanese carriers, to Admiral Kinkaid, who hung his fate on the unverified assumption that Halsey was watching his back, to Admiral Nimitz who gave Halsey in the first instance excessively flexible operational orders that permitted him to abandon his 'cover and support' mission in favor of offensive action. Underlying all of this was the unfortunate divided command structure that placed the Seventh Fleet under General MacArthur, who required all messages to and from the Third Fleet be relayed through his headquarters at Manus, thousands of miles away, causing critical delays. But the final legacy of the Battle off Samar should be one of appreciation and inspiration, not recrimination."

Nevertheless, Halsey's ghost – and in one chapter his own recounting – hovers throughout this book. Why did Halsey abandon his station and chase after part of the Imperial Japanese fleet? Was he justified but wrong in his judgment? Was he duped?

Halsey's contemporaries and historians in the past 75 years mostly conclude his actions in the battle were a "mistake," an "unfortunate decision," and "overly aggressive."

Kurita

Historians, both American and Japanese, also evaluate the actions of IJN Admiral Takeo Kurita, who appears to have misjudged his enemy and departed the scene prematurely. In this volume of essays, Cutler and other authors examine the effects of fatigue and lack of sleep on Kurita's and even Halsey's actions.

Justifying Kurita's decision to retreat, his chief of staff Rear Adm. Tomiji Koyanagi wrote in USNI's Proceedings in 1953 (included in this book), "A night engagement against our exhausted forces would undoubtedly have been disastrous for us." Koyanagi extolls the fighting acumen of U.S. Navy forces, explains Japanese strategies and tactics, and chalks up some of the outcomes to luck and chance.

In the essay "Halsey's Decision," author Trent Hone notes, "Halsey and his subordinates were tired":

"They had been at sea almost two months. TF 38 began supporting the invasion of the Palaus on 31 August with strikes on the Bonins and Yap. Strikes against the Visayas followed. In mid-September, large-scale attacks on the Philippines convinced Halsey that plans for the invasion of Leyte could be accelerated; they were, but this left little time for rest or to absorb lessons. From 9 to 17 October, TF 38 struck Formosa, the Ryukyus, and targets in the Philippines. The assault on Leyte immediately followed. By the evening of 24 October, Halsey had been 'without sleep for nearly two days.' The Third Fleet had kept the pressure on the Japanese, but the admiral and his men were fatigued with the effort. This made it more likely that they would default to established plans, fall into entrenched habits, and fail to respond creatively to Japanese moves."

Imperial Japan's battleship Musashi under attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Along with dry assessments of the planning and conducting of the battle, we get piercing personal recounts by warfighters as well as the cinematic prose of historians Hornfischer (author of "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors") and Cutler. Here's some of Cutler's assessment, republished from Naval History, October 1994, putting the battle in context in his essay "Greatest of All Sea Battles":

"The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the biggest and most multifaceted naval battle in history. It involved hundreds of ships, nearly 200,000 participants, and spanned more than 100,000 square miles. Some of the largest and most powerful ships ever built were sunk, and thousands of men went to the bottom of the sea with them. Every facet of naval warfare – air, surface, subsurface, and amphibious – was involved in this great struggle, and the weapons used included bombs of every type, guns of every caliber, torpedoes, mines, rockets, and even a forerunner of the guided missile.But more than mere size made this battle significant. The cast of characters included such names as Halsey, Nimitz, MacArthur, even Roosevelt. It introduced the largest guns ever used in a naval battle and a new Japanese tactic that would eventually kill more U.S. sailors and sink more U.S. ships than any other used in the war. It was the last clash of the dreadnoughts and the first and only time that gunfire sank a U.S. aircraft carrier. It was replete with awe-inspiring heroism, failed intelligence, sapient tactical planning and execution, flawed strategy, brilliant deception, incredible ironies, great controversies, and a plethora of lessons about strategy, tactics and operations."

Cutler offers a humble introduction to this volume, revealing his personal interest in the battle and acknowledging the flexibility of history as new information and assessments come forth. "No historical topic is ever beyond further insight and interpretation," he writes.

Nimitz presents Halsey with gold star in lieu of a fourth award of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal aboard USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Sept. 28, 1945.

Near the end of this collection we see how each side believed they were operating with divine inspiration. In the case of Imperial Japan, commanders operated "with confidence in heavenly guidance" and believed encountering U.S. Navy ships was a "heaven-sent opportunity." Meanwhile, Nimitz said U.S. ships were saved by "nothing short of special dispensation from the Lord Almighty." Assured of having God on their side, Imperial Japan had begun sending kamikaze ("divine wind") pilots on suicide missions.

In his essay from the Proceedings archives (March 1951) "Leyte Gulf: The First Uncensored Japanese Account" we read James A. Field Jr.'s Orwellian aspect of the war as reported in Japan:

"Following the arrival of American occupation forces in Japan, restrictions on accurate reporting of the course of the war were removed. It was obviously important to set the record straight and to explain to the Japanese public how such an unsurpassed series of victories had led to such utter defeat. It was important not alone for academic reasons of historical accuracy, but also as a vital step in the re-education of the Japanese, and as an object lesson in what happens when a people permits totalitarian control of all sources of information."

Aboard USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55). (MCSN Zachary Pearson.)

The lessons of the Battle of Leyte Gulf carry to our century despite the evolution of sea control, air power and naval warfare.

As Hornfischer concludes in is essay "The Tin Can Sailors are Gone: What Naval History Loses with the Passing of the World War II Generation," "A nation rises to the level of the stories it tells about itself."

The well-respected and passionate Thomas J. Cutler has put together a compelling collection of then-and-now stories, assessments and analyses. This Naval Institute Press book is another highly recommended edition for anyone interested in World War II and especially the Pacific War.

This month and for much of this year, USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet areas of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. Sailors of USS Leyte Gulf are underway as part of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ABECSG) deployment in support of maritime security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th, 6th and 7th Fleet areas of responsibility. With Abraham Lincoln as the flagship, deployed strike group assets include staffs, ships and aircraft of Carrier Strike Group 12 (CSG 12), Destroyer Squadron 2 (DESRON 2), USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) and Carrier Air Wing 7 (CVW 7); as well as Alvaro de Bazan-class frigate ESPS Méndez Núñez (F 104). 

Naval Gazing: 'Sailing True North'

DC2 Reginald Selgren looks out at the horizon on the flight deck of USS Stockdale (DDG 106) while underway in the Pacific Ocean. (MC3 Abigayle Lutz)

Review by Bill Doughty

The deck of a ship provides a platform to simultaneously contemplate eternity and look within to understand our place in the universe.

"... any sailor can walk out on a rolling deck at night and stare at the distant point where the sky meets and sea and recognize that we are merely the smallest part of a huge and diverse universe that stretches forever unto the mind of God, and which will last far beyond the age of human beings. This combination of attributes – the endless vision of eternity dangling before our eyes – creates a deepening of character in the best of sailors ... and deepen our own characters."

Adm. James Stavridis, USN (ret.), brings us aboard with short biographical stories in "Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character" (Penguin Press, 2019). The bios and stories illustrate key character traits: creativity/innovation, resilience, humility, balance, honesty, empathy, justice, decisiveness, determination, and perspective.

Stavridis poses with instructors at the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center in 2018. (Lt. M. Stroup)

Contemplating "great deep waves" and endless stars above and over the horizon provides perspective through deep reflection. 

Stavridis laments shortened attention spans and constant distractions in recent years that prevent us from reflection and true awareness. The antidote: reading, thinking and learning – reflection.

We can see the future and understand the present by looking into the past as well as the horizon. 

Through personal anecdotes and stories from history, Stavridis teaches about how to achieve a good character and practice good leadership.

Reagan, Lehman and Rickover in 1982.

He compares humble Rear Adm. Grace Hopper with irascible Adm. Hyman Rickover and offers a powerful story of Rickover's confrontation of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman and President Reagan in the Oval Office. Sometimes exemplary (and often flawed) character traits are illustrated in sea stories about such diverse figures as Themistocles, Zheng He, Sir Francis Drake, Mahan, Zumwalt and Nimitz ("In so many ways he was the greatest of the Navy's admirals").

Among the character traits that seem to really set the good apart from the bad are humility, justice, empathy and honesty. "Truth matters for us all," Stavridis writes, "but especially for leaders whose decisions shape the world. Character that is built around a respect, really a veneration, for the truth is the sort of character to have."

As for empathy, this trait when conducted – like gazing at the horizon from a ship's deck – helps us get out of our own skulls, escape the notion that we are the center of world. In that context, Stavridis introduces us to the "brilliant and memorable" speech by David Foster Wallace, delivered at Kenyon College in 2005, "This is Water."

Wallace calls for valuing lifelong education, caring for others, and awareness in living "life BEFORE death." Wallace demands we question what we worship and be open to new ideas. "Blind certainty," had says, is "a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up."

"If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings."

Obviously, Stavridis is open to inspiration from diverse sources in order to overcome our personal default settings. 

Two of Stavridis's mentors, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, testify at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sept. 22, 2011. (PO1 Chad McNeeley)

"True North" reveals the author's mentors Adm. Mike Mullen, Gen. Colin Powell, and secretaries of defense Bob Gates and Leon Panetta. We read profiles on Adm. Bill McRaven and Adm. Michelle Howard, and we get quotes from Coach John Wooden, Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde.

Wilde's quote, by the way, is a found haiku:

"We are all in the

gutter but some of us are

looking at the stars"

Stavridis offers a wealth of books in his "selected bibliography and further reading." 

"True North" is worth a place on any sailor's bookshelf and is recommended for anyone interested in what it takes to lead an examined life as a good leader.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed.

Warfighter Poetry

Wavell

Review by Bill Doughty

Marine Corps General James Mattis, who resigned as Secretary of Defense at the end of last year, enjoys reading poetry. He says one of his favorite collections is an anthology compiled by British Field Marshall Viscount A.P. Wavell, "Other Men's Flowers" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1945), touted by the publisher as "perhaps the best collection of verse for men that has ever appeared."

Wavell served as Viceroy of India. His yearning for the days of the Empire and even romantic references to the Crusades and imperial conquest can be cringeworthy, yet he also highlights songs of love, calls to courage, paeans to virtue and deep appreciation of nature and beauty.

Two chapters in this collection, Good Fighting and The Call of the Wild, feature a number of poems for warfighters and mariners.

Sea Fever
by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

Masefield

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

From The Song of Honor
by Ralph Hodgson

The song of sailors every one
When monstrous tide and tempest run
At ships like bulls at red,
When stately ships are twirled and spun
Like whipping tops and help there's none
And might ships ten thousand ton
Go down like lumps of lead –

Next ... This anonymous song-poem is a bit hard to read in its original dialect, but the meanings are clear in describing the dangers of sailing wooden ships. There have been slightly different versions published, including some put to music; this is Wavell's version.



Sir Patrick Spens
by Anonymous

I. The Sailing

The king sits in Dunfermline town
drinking the blude-red wine,
"O whare can I get skeely skipper
To sail this new ship o' mine?"

O up and spak an eldern knight,
Sat at the kings right knee;
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That ever sail'd the sea."

Our king has written a braid letter,
And seal'd it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.

"To Noroway! to Noroway!
to Noroway o'er the faem!
The king's daughter to Noroway
'Tis thou must bring her hame."

The first line that Sir Patrick read
A loud, loud laugh'd he;
The neist line that Sir Patrick read
The tear blinded his e'e.

"O wha is this has don this deed
And tauld the king o' me,
To send us out, at this time o' year,
To sail upon the sea?

‘Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet,
Our ship must sail the faem;
The king’s daughter o' Noroway,
'Tis we must fetch her hame.’

They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn
Wi' a' the speed they may;
They hae landed in Noroway
Upon a Wodensday.

II.  The Return

"Mak ready, mak ready, my merry men a'l
Our gude ship sails the morn."
"Now ever alack, my master dear,
I feir a deadly storm.

"I saw the new moon late yestreen
Wi' the auld moon in her arm;
And if we gang tae sea, master,
I fear we’ll come to harm."

They hadna sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud,
And gurly grew the sea.

The ankers brak, an the topmast lap,
It was sic a deadly storm;
An the waves cam owre the broken ship
Till a' her sides were torn.

"Go fetch a web o' the silken claith,
Another o' the twine,
And wap them into our ship's side,
An let nae the sea come in."

They fetcht a web o' the silken claith,
Another o' the twine,
And they wapp'd them round that gude ship's side,
But still the sea came in.

O laith, laith were our gude Scots lords
To wet their cork-heel'd shoon;
But lang or a' the play was play'd
They wat their hats aboon.

And mony wis the feather bed
That flatter'd on the faem;
And mony was the gude lord’s son
That never mair cam hame.

O lang, lang may the ladies sit,
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the strand!

And lang, lang may the maidens sit
Wi' their gowd kames in their hair,
A-waiting for their ain dear loves!
For them they’ll see nae mair.

Half-owre, half-owre to Aberdour,
'Tis fifty fathoms deep;
An there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet!

W. E. Henley presents this paean to honor, courage and commitment:

Invictus
by W. E. Henley

Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbow'd.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Wavel's collection is awash in melancholy, including pain of love, loss and death. He includes one of my favorite poems, Poe's Annabel Lee.

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

As a young officer Wavell faced combat on front lines in both South Africa and India. During World War I he fought in the Second Battle of Ypres, losing an eye. In WWII, as a senior officer, he commanded from headquarters and helped lead the fight "against the powers of darkness," Italian Fascists and German Nazis, in the Middle East and North Africa.

For "Flowers" he selected this excerpt from Henry IV to show the tension between the front-line warfighter and staff officer. "The feeling between the regimental officer and the staff officer is as old as the history of fighting," Wavell writes.

The Staff Officer
from Henry IV, Pt. I, Scene 3
by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare

My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took't away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk'd,
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
Out of my grief and my impatience,
Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,
He should or he should not; for he made me mad
To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
Of guns and drums and wounds,--God save the mark!--
And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.

Many of the poems in this collection are from Robert Browning and Rudyard Kipling. In my opinion, Kipling's poetry is often clunky and over-the-top, but his poem If the exception. Direct and relatable, it's timeless and timely, especially for our leaders today.

If
By Rudyard Kipling

Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

In a seeming concession to his wife, in light of the male-centric, traditional choices of poems and poets, Wavell includes this poem by John Masefield – published in 1902 in "Salt Water Ballads." Wavell notes, "This is a favourite of my wife's, learnt and included at her request."



Vagabond
by John Masefield

Dunno a heap about the what an' why,
   Can't say's I ever knowed.
Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky,
   Earth's jest a dusty road.

Dunno the names o' things, nor what they are,
   Can't say's I ever will.
Dunno about God—he's jest the noddin' star
   Atop the windy hill.

Dunno about Life—it's jest a tramp alone
   From wakin'-time to doss.
Dunno about Death—it's jest a quiet stone
   All over-grey wi' moss.

An' why I live, an' why the old world spins,
   Are things I never knowed;
My mark's the gypsy fires, the lonely inns,
   An' jest the dusty road.

The final chapters – Ragbag and Last Post – offer some powerful verses, including John McCrae's In Flanders Fields, as well as these gems:

Gordon

Man's Testament
by Adam Lindsay Gordon

“Question not, but live and labour
   Till yon goal be won,
Helping every feeble neighbour,
   Seeking help from none;
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
   Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
   Courage in your own.”

Housman

Here Dead Lie We
by A.E. Housman

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
   To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
   But young men think it is, and we were young.

Wavell ends his book with a humble inclusion of his own verse. "At the end of my garden of other men's flowers, outside the gate, I have put this little wayside dandelion of my own."

Wavell's muse, Giampietrino's Madonna of the Cherries

Sonnet for the Madonna of the Cherries
by A.P. Wavell

Dear Lady of the cherries, cool, serene,
Untroubled by the follies, strife and fears,
Clad in soft reds and blues and mantle green
Your memory has been with me all these years.

Long years of battle, bitterness and waste,
Dry years of sun and dust and eastern skies,
Hard years of ceaseless struggle, endless haste,
Fighting ‘gainst greed for power hate and lies.

Your red-gold hair, your slowly smiling face
For pride in your dear son, your king of kings,
Fruits of the kindly earth, and truth and grace,
Colour and light, and all warm lovely things –

   For all that loveliness, that warmth, that light,
   Blessed Madonna, I go back to fight.



Wavell concludes, "A blessing to you, my Lady, and to all beautiful things that help us to forget the dreariness of war."



Thank you to Gen. Mattis for his suggestion of this thought-provoking collection of warfighter poetry. A reminder that wisdom comes not only from knowledge and information, but also from reflection and inspiration. Happy Birthday, United States Marine Corps!

Civil War 2020 in 'Hateland'?

Fort Hood first responders use a table to move a shooting victim, Nov. 5, 2009. (1SG Jon Soucy)

Review by Bill Doughty

Ten years ago, Nov. 5, 2009, U.S. Army psychologist Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in the name of hate and his faith. Daryl Johnson mentions Hasan, along with dozens of other deranged hate-filled killers, in "Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America's Extremist Heart" (Prometheus Books, 2019).

Hasan's hatred was apparently fueled by a feeling of persecution and victimization against his beliefs. He called himself a "Soldier of Allah."

Author Johnson profiles Islamic extremists, black nationalists, white supremacists, Christian Identitarians, Posse Comitatus militia, anti-government right-wing conspiracy believers, and other groups often created in anger, resentment and hate.

Shortly after the Fort Hood attack, Huffington Post published an article by Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Levin wrote that Hasan's case combines issues of ideology, terrorism and mental distress. Levin explored and compared the role of religion to the beliefs of Scott Roeder, a Christian who murdered abortion-provider Dr. George Tiller. Hate-filled killers such as Roeder and Hasan "often self-radicalize from a volatile mix of personal distress, psychological issues, and an ideology that can be sculpted to justify and explain their anti-social leanings."

In "Hateland" Johnson shows how individuals gravitate to and are radicalized by such ideologies. He explains how hate and violence beget more hate and violence. And he investigates whether extreme hate and partisanship could lead to another civil war in the United States.

A memorial stands outside of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center Chattanooga in 2015 to honor  the four Marines and one Sailor who were killed in a shooting at the Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga July 16, 2015. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert/Released)

The book opens and closes with an exploration of three examples of hate from three different perspectives: African-American Micah Johnson, who assassinated Dallas police officers; Islamic-inspired terrorist Muhammad Abdulazeez, who killed four Marines and a Navy recruiter in Chattanooga; and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who murdered nine African-American Christian parishioners in Charleston.

Author Daryl Johnson presents the psychological factors, including a "wall of frustration" that can bring a person's hate to a boiling level. He also shows how radical extremist groups recruit from and within the military.

"A government survey of 17,080 soldiers that found 3.5 percent of soldiers have, in fact, been contacted for recruitment by an extremist organization. There are over two million Americans serving in the military and National Guard, which means extremist organizations have approached more than seventy thousand active duty military. More than twice that number, 7.1 percent, said they knew another soldier who was actually part of an extremist organization."

Micah Johnson, like bombers Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolf (also spotlighted in this book), was an Army veteran.

Maj. Hasan's rampage at Fort Hood illustrates how the internet has been an accelerant to the growth of hate crimes in recent years. That growth was further spurred with the rise of social media.


Six months before Hasan's attack, Ashton Kutcher appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to demonstrate the power of a new social media app, Twitter. Designed to create online communities, bring people together, and achieve positive change, social media –including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – have also helped mainstream extremism and false information among a diverse group of haters.

"But not only were all these extremist actors in play at once, these groups were also re-emerging into a country where politics, media, and even intrapersonal relationships were now processed through a web-enabled, hyper-partisan, outrage-fueled, troll-driven, click-hungry, conspiracy-laced, all-immersive media culture. This time, any actions – even peaceful ones – ricocheted rapidly around the media ecosystem, creating a uniquely American conflagration."

This is a phenomenon affecting not only the United States but also the world. "Like the white supremacists before, (ISIS) effectively hijacked the web to spread violent anti-western rhetoric," Johnson writes. Analytics reinforce the message to each individual.

"More than anything else, perhaps, social media and other online content strive to make every online activity, including radicalization, more convenient, fun and addictive."

Now – with anonymity and no accountability – trolls, hackers, doxers, click-baiters and lulz-chasers create a diet of eye candy that leads to intellectual diabetes. The antidote, of course, is reading, critical thinking and, as trite as it may sound, an appeal to "love and understanding."

If acts of hate and violence lead continually to backlashes – and Johnson shows they do – could that then lead to another civil war in America, particularly if condoned and encouraged among vigilantes by some elected leaders? How does the easy availability of military-grade assault weapons contribute to the threat?

Talk of a possible civil war has increased over the past three years, but Johnson is ambivalent about the possibility of outright war, especially as compared with our Civil War just over 150 years ago.

"Despite all the divisiveness and partisanship, there is no single irreconcilable issue like slavery. Abolitionists saw it as an unforgivable evil. Southerners believed that its destruction would mean tearing apart the entire economic and quasi-feudal cultural and social fabric of Southern life. The nation is much more integrated now, economically and socially. For most people, immigration, abortion, gun control, and other wedge issues have nowhere near the same overall impact as slavery did, particularly in the South."

Perhaps we'll continue to have a sort of Cold Civil War. Most certainly, we now have respected voices of reason from federal civilians and the military, including retired admirals and generals, calling for calm, reason, the rule of law, and a return to character and core values.


CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (July 28, 2015) Pallbearers carry the casket of Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith at Chattanooga National Cemetery. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert/Released)