Tragic Fate of a U-Boat Commander

From Kusch's "Merry-go-round."

Review by Bill Doughty––

Imagine a young artist, heartsick about his nation’s suicidal embrace of autocracy yet called to serve in the military, in a job he admired and excelled in as a patriotic duty. “Joining the navy had been Oskar’s dream ever since he was a little boy.”

Now picture that young man as a German submarine captain in World War II, successful but persecuted for talking down his overlords, especially Adolf Hitler. Oskar Kusch’s principled stand would see him arrested and put on trial for rejecting “the Nazi leadership ideology, practices, and propaganda.”

The story of what happened to Kusch is artfully told by Eric C. Rust in “U-Boat Commander Oskar Kusch: Anatomy of a Nazi-Era Betrayal and Judicial Murder” (Naval Institute Press; 2020).

Rust has strong bonafides to tell this story. A native of Lübeck, Germany, and veteran of the Bundesmarine, Dr. Rust is a professor of history at Baylor University; his father was a submariner for Germany in World War II, and his mother was the widow of a submarine captain killed in the war.

Rust gives us a real feel for submarine duty and the (universal) life of a submariner, for example the CHENG:

“On any submarine, no matter its type, size or nationality, a competent chief engineer was then and remains today key to the boat’s safety, survival, and any successes in combat. Simply understanding and handling the complex technical equipment could be a daunting task. The engineer’s know-how and calm self-control was especially in demand when the boat was diving or surfacing and in keeping its desired trim under all circumstances by manipulating the boat’s fuel tanks, diving cells, and hydroplanes. Given the ever-lurking danger of a sudden attack from the air, U-boats had to dive frequently and fast. For a Type IX boat like U-153, from the moment of the order to dive until the boat was completely under water, ideally no more than 35 seconds were to elapse. Every crew member had to carry out his pre-assigned duties fast and with absolute precision: clearing all personnel from the bridge and the antiaircraft weaponry platforms; flooding the living cells; lowering the angle of the hydroplanes; turning off the diesels and switching to the battery-powered electrical motors for underwater propulsion; shutting airtight all hatch covers and values through which water might otherwise enter the boat; and rushing as many men as possible through the long passageway to the forward torpedo compartment to accelerate the momentum of the dive.”

It is no environment for anyone with claustrophobia or paranoia. And it's no place for back-stabbing subordinates.

Kusch salutes aboard U-154.

In that cramped and sometimes deadly environment, shipmates often develop deep and trusting relationships. They can speak openly about their dreams, fears, and opinions. “The U-boat arm was notoriously forgiving and generous in tolerating idiosyncrasies among its officer and men as long as these did not diminish the combat eagerness and readiness of their boats, or worse, involved cowardice, treason, or desertion.”

But in Kusch’s case, he removed a portrait of Hitler from the officers’ mess (replacing it with a picture he created of a schooner); he also openly criticizing ”the Führer” and his policies. Officers serving with Kusch reported him to authorities, and he was arrested. Rust makes a convincing case that Kusch did not demonstrate cowardice or lack of aggressiveness, even in the face of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz’s desperate kamikaze-like strategies as “Germany’s war effort was failing spectacularly.”

Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz meets with Adolf Hitler in the Führerbunker in 1945.  Hitler named Dönitz as his successor before committing suicide.

Some of Kusch's apocalyptic art was created while he was in prison.

Referencing historian-author Dieter Hartwig, Rust paints a devastating portrayal of Dönitz:

“The picture that has emerged from (Hartwig’s) inquiries reveals Dönitz as a cold and calculating opportunist, a strategic dilettante with a limited grasp of modern technology, and above all as a many exercising a slavish subservience to Hitler and his ideology. Any admiration for Dönitz’s ‘people skills’ vis-à-vis his U-boat men must be balanced against the grand admiral’s perfect willingness to sacrifice them after 1943 to an overpowering Allied supremacy at sea when his earlier concept of a ‘tonnage war’ had lost every meaning or prospect for success –– something Kusch’s experience richly confirmed at the time. The same disdain for human life and suffering governed Dönitz’s directives to abandon shipwrecked enemy sailors to their fate as a desirable measure to weaken Allied manpower resources.”

Rust also describes Germany’s failing totalitarian cause in the final months of the war, “None of the miracle weapons promised by the Nazi propaganda machine had ever materialized.”

"U-boot" by Ferrer Dalmau (NHHC)

In this fascinating book we get a love story of Kusch and his beautiful fiancé, Inge von Foris. We get samples of Kusch’s remarkable art, much of it produced in prison. We learn of a wild joke involving brown-shirted Nazis told by Kusch (“Question: What do the German people and a tapeworm have in common? Answer: Both are surrounded by a brown mass and are in constant danger of being killed.”). We discover U-boat strategy failures along the East Coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico. We read a heartbreaking letter from Kusch to his father, written just before Kusch’s murder by firing squad.

Rust reveals a “spineless naval brass” unwilling to stand up to “the totalitarian character and ideological infiltration of Germany’s military justice system in World War II.”

According to Rust, "Kusch encouraged the midshipmen in their capacity as future officers, to form their own opinions, to seek and speak the truths at all times, and not to allow their views to be influenced by manipulated propaganda trash. He wanted to "broaden his men's perspectives on history and politics."

Kusch’s tragedy provides lessons for all sailors, leaders, and citizens as an example of what can be done in the face of totalitarianism and autocracy.

“How does one balance patriotic duty as a soldier in a democratic state with the demand that carrying out orders and engaging in military actions should be accompanied and tempered by an ever-active and well-trained conscience? Does Oskar Kusch’s legacy not invite every soldier for all times to come to ask: Are my actions ethical and right? Am I a good comrade? Is my behavior in line with the highest principles of a free and tolerant society? Are the orders I am carrying out just and compatible with the lessons learned from that terrible struggle against totalitarian regimes in the 1930s, 1940s, and others since?”

The life of Oskar Kusch shows us that ethical patriotism is an art to be cherished. His death illustrates the need to learn lessons of the past. Rust's book is a study in core values and is a relevant part of history needed for the present and future.

Kusch illustrated his own impending death by firing squad. Today, Kusch is revered in Germany for his principled stand against Nazi totalitarianism.

‘Lend Me Your Ears’ Not Fears

Prime Minister Winston Churchill shakes hands with President F. D. Roosevelt after conferring aboard USS Augusta (CA-31), off Newfoundland, Aug. 9, 1941.

By Bill Doughty––

Last February in an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, author of “Rage,” President Donald Trump said he knew the COVID-19 virus was a serious threat, but “I wanted to always play it down; I still like playing it down.” To justify minimizing the COVID-19 pandemic threat to the public, Trump claimed that Churchill and FDR also downplayed threats so as not to panic their citizens.

Trump’s claims led me to read what Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt actually said. Their greatest speeches are found in William Safire’s “Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History” (W.W. Norton; 1992).

Safire showcases Churchill’s address to Parliament of May 13, 1940. Hitler and Nazism presented an existential threat to the people of Great Britain. Churchill warned of “a monstrous tyranny never supposed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.”

Safire reflects on Churchill’s truth-telling “to pound home the period of stress and sacrifice ahead.” Churchill said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.”

Heroic evacuation from Dunkirk at the end of May and first week of June, 1940.

Churchill called for “united strength.” That is exactly what he got later that month with the heroic evacuation of 340,000 British soldiers from Dunkirk retreating across the English Channel, thanks to hundreds of military and civilian ships and boats.

Safire shows how Churchill spoke the truth about the retreat; Churchill called it a “colossal military disaster.” But Safire notes how the venerated leader balanced truth-telling “with an expression of confidence that the New World –– that is, the United States –– supported by surviving British seapower, would ‘step forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.’”

Churchill did not play the threat down. He inspired citizens to steel themselves and “never surrender.”

Sir Winston Churchill visits USS Randolph (CVA-15) Oct. 26, 1958. (NHHC) 

Using strong imagery such as a Nazi “invasion,” “originality of malice,” “aggression,” “malignancy,” and “brutal and treacherous maneuver,” Churchill gave what may be the most inspiring speech in Western history:

“We shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, ride out the storms of war, outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary, for years, if necessary, alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. that is the resolve of His Majesty's Government, every man of them. that is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and their need, will defend to the death their native soils, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength, even though a large tract of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule. We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle…”

By contrast, Trump told Americans COVID was a “hoax,” that it would “disappear,” and "This is a flu; this is like a flu,” even after telling Bob Woodward he knew it was different and “deadly.” At the same time, Trump spreads panic about a “rigged election,” attacks on “suburban housewives,” a free press as "enemies of the people," and god-hating, gun-confiscating Democrats, among other falsehoods.

Safire’s nearly 1,200 page collection includes Churchill’s warning of an autocratic “iron curtain” descending on Europe. Churchill told the truth to the public, both British and American, about Cold War threats of “war and tyranny” and “poverty and privation.”

At President Truman’s invitation, Churchill gave a memorable speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946, calling for “sinews of peace” and power of a free democracy. His call for “free unfettered elections” rings loud and clear in 2020.

“All this means that the people of any country have the right, and should have the power by constitutional action, by free unfettered elections, with secret ballot, to choose or change the character or form of government under which they dwell; that freedom of speech and thought should reign; that courts of justice, independent of the executive, unbiased by any party, should administer laws which have received the broad assent of large majorities or are consecrated by time and custom.”

Prior to the Cold War and WWII, the United States and the rest of the world faced another existential threat: the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Americans the truth in his first inaugural address, calling himself, in effect, a wartime president: “I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems,” FDR said.

Roosevelt told the truth about telling the truth:

“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

In that fearless (and fear-less) speech nearly 87 years ago Roosevelt acknowledged the causes of the depression, including unbridled greed of “self-seekers.” He asked Americans to embrace American values of selflessness over selfishness.

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing.”

According to Safire, FDR’s “general promise to do something –– to stop the drift and reverse direction –– coupled with the steel in the speech of the imposition of ‘discipline’ into the chaos, and the vigor of the voice heard on radio, had an electric effect on popular opinion. The bold tone and buoyant delivery encouraged people parched for hope.”

It is clear both Churchill and FDR were not afraid of panicking their populace. They placed the health and safety of people above elections, immediate profits, and stock markets. They were great unifying leaders in a time of need who spoke honestly and with integrity. They did not downplay threats. They offered hope in the face of fear.

(President George W. Bush honors William Safire with the 2006 President Medal of Freedom Friday, Dec. 15, 2006, at the White House. Bush said the former White House speech writer and newspaperman is "a voice of independence and principle, and American journalism is better for the contributions of William Safire." White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

‘Biography of Resistance’

Review by Bill Doughty

Viruses and bacteria are different but can be interconnected. As the world races for a vaccine and an effective treatment for COVID-19, we have to be alert to the possibility of other types of pandemics, including the possibility of one caused by bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 

Fortunately, brave men and women dedicate their lives to discovering how bacteria evolve and we can protect ourselves. But we must remain humble in our persistence to understand the nature of disease and how to prevent and fight outbreaks.

“Bacteria cares not at all for the politics of nations or the egos of scientists, and in its unrelenting drive to endure, it cares not at all for the timelines of human beings,” H. Muhammad Zaman writes in “Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens” (HarperCollins; 2020).

Zaman traces the history of antibiotics from ancient history, starting with Hippocrates and Maimonides, through Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Klebs, Pasteur, Gram, Kitasato, and Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming through World War II, when British bacteriologist Dr. Mary Barber discovered penicillin-resistant bacteria in London in 1946.

Albert Schatz

Zaman features other Nobel laureates Albert Schatz, who discovered streptomycin; Paul Ehrlich, whose “magic bullet” hypothesis paved the way for chemotherapy; and Joshua Lederberg, who discovered bacterial conjugation.

In remarkably readable standalone chapters, Zaman tells the story of the evolution of understanding of disease and resistance. Brigadier General George Sternberg of the U.S. Army, was an early explorer of the cause of disease from bacteria microbes in the late 1800s. He worked in the shadow of Louis Pasteur, nearly simultaneously making similar discoveries.

In September 1918, Lieutenant Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, future president of the United States, signed a proclamation shutting down all schools, parks, theaters and other places of congregation as one hundred Bostonians a day died from the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (misnamed the Spanish flu). That pandemic a century ago would kill more than 50 million people worldwide. It provides an insight into the interconnectedness of viruses and bacteria.

“While the world remembers the Spanish flu as the killer, most people didn’t actually die of the viral disease. They died of complications due to pneumonia, a bacterial infection. The flu virus weakened the immune system, providing an opportunity for the pneumonia bacteria to enter and thrive. In the absence of antibiotics to kill the bacteria, pneumonia proved to be a death sentence.”

Fast forward to post-World War II, and the Navy’s Lt. King K. Holmes, an intrepid and fearless scientist, who served with the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

A task group of nuclear-powered surface ships operates in formation in the Mediterranean Sea, June 18, 1964. The ships are the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVAN-65), left; the guided-missile cruiser Long Beach (CGN-9), center; and the guided-missile frigate Bainbridge (DLGN-25), right. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Holmes served aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and did research in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Subic Bay, Philippines, during the Cold War and in the middle of the Vietnam War.

“So during the war, Holmes was stationed on the USS Enterprise, a naval vessel with an illustrious past. The name has been reserved for special ships over the course of U.S, History –– eight American naval vessels have been given this name, beginning with a British ship that the Americans captured in 1775. At the height of the Vietnam War, the name had been given to one of the prides of the U.S. fleet, the first-ever nuclear-powered aircraft carrier deployed in the Pacific. Holmes was assigned to the preventive medicine unit on the USS Enterprise, where the doctors encountered the problem of recurring infections among the sailors.”

Dr. King Holmes

Holmes helped write worldwide guidelines for the treatment of drug-resistant gonorrhea throughout the world. “Through his research, Holmes realized that discovering new ways to prevent the spread of infections was just as crucial as discovering new lines of antibiotics,” Zaman writes. Earlier this year Dr. King Holmes, University of Washington’s Director of Research and Faculty Development and inaugural Chair of the UW Department of Global Health, was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Not surprisingly, many discoveries in fighting disease and disease resistance came during times of war.

“Wars and infections have always accompanied each other. In the twentieth century, infecting among the wounded created a new challenge as drug-resistant infections became a serious issue for the patients and the army medics. These resistant infections were seen by Cutler in the battlefields of Europe during World War II, were investigated by Holmes during the Vietnam War, and had now appeared in their nastiest form during the Gulf War. Indeed, it is one of the points of war. Unquestionably, when invading Iraq, America, like invaders from time immemorial intended to degrade the country’s ability to resist. The bombs dropped, the weapons used, were for the purpose of inflicting harm and trauma. And during occupation and enforced international isolation, the goal, again, was to inflict on Iraq harms sufficient to cause it to behave in ways more aligned with American interests.”

Acinetobacter baumannii in Iraq became known as “Iraqibacter,” first seen in field hospitals and eventually even at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. “It’s considered opportunistic because it doesn’t case a disease on its own, but if there is an existing infection –– pneumonia or an infected wound, for example –– it thrives.” Though the problem is no longer affecting military personnel, it persists within the local population, according to Zaman, a possible residue war.

“But is war the cause of resistance? Or is there just a correlation between the two? No one can do a clean experiment here to find out. The answer is unclear and perhaps always will be. And the bacteria don’t care. Causation or correlation, they are presented with circumstances and enough of them take advantage. They evolve, and evolve toward resistance. However material ascertaining blame and responsibility for the problem is (and for those suffering, having the answer would be profound), for the ever-increasing population of resistant bacteria, it is of no interest whatsoever.”

U.S. Navy Seaman Steven J. Madson, a preventive medicine technician, Task Force Al Asad, tests water from a newly functioning well aboard Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, March 3, 2015. The water sample was tested for PH levels, chlorine levels and bacteria to ensure safety of the water supply. (Cpl. Tony Simmons, USMC)

Among the dozens of heroic scientists and thinkers spotlighted in this book is German Wolfgang Witte, who developed vaccines during the Cold War and who faced down pressure from the Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Witte spoke truth to power about the efficacy of vaccinations against Staphylococcus aureus infections.

“Witte also knew that the Soviets performed unethical clinical trials with its vaccines in orphanages and in prisons, where resistance to TB drugs was particularly high,” according to Zaman. Witte advanced the study of antibiotic resistance in the face of lies of an authoritarian government that tried to control its population with misinformation. Right matters. Truth counts.

Stalinist communism was decidedly anti-genetics and anti-science. Scientists and free-thinkers were persecuted and punished for telling the truth. “But, once more, bacteria don’t care. They obey no borders, harbor no national loyalty, and are always self-preserving, self-advancing, and self-replicating.”

Along the Amazon in Brazil, Dec. 6, 2017. (MC2 Andrew Brame)

“Biography of Resistance” is not only a great history and biography of inspiring scientists, it is also a travelogue throughout the world: Amazon, Mumbai, Western Australia, Mongolia, Nova Scotia, Norway, Denmark, Tokyo, Niger, and Zaman’s home country of Pakistan. Readers discover natures gifts, miracles, and dangers, including the risks of climate change and human manipulation of the food chain using antibiotics on animals.

Zaman writes this about animal-to-human epidemics and pandemics after periodic reports of avian influenza outbreaks in Asia:

“The public was afraid of new diseases jumping to humans from birds, pigs, and cattle. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) saw an opportunity to make animal health and welfare part of the global debate on antibiotic resistance and became an early advocate of One Health, and so did the world Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The CDC also created a One Health office in 2009. For the next several years, pandemic preparedness became an area of focus, including surveillance, diagnostics, and containment.”

Antibiotic resistance became part of the initiative in 2015, and the world became more aware of the dangers of animal-to-human transmission of disease –– and the likelihood of pandemics –– both viral and bacterial, or both. The future depends on understanding and respecting the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of nature.

The Obama-Biden administration staffed and strengthened a pandemic response office that was virtually dissolved by the Trump-Pence administration in 2018.

Evolution of Herndon at USNA

Review by Bill Doughty––

It’s jarring –– for several reasons –– to read in 2020 about climbing a monument, shoulder to knee, foot to face, shirtless and maskless, with other classmates.

“The Herndon Climb: A History of the United States Naval Academy’s Greatest Tradition” by retired Navy Rear Adm. James R. McNeal and Scott Tomasheski (Naval Institute Press; 2020) is a fun and interesting, you-are-there, look at how class after class of freshmen at the Academy climbed the 21-foot-tall granite obelisk as part of an evolving annual ritual.

Until 2020. The book was published as the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting the world, eventually causing the Naval Academy to cancel the 2020 Herndon Climb and other events, including a public induction and even a public commencement ceremony.

It’s jarring to read what the current plebes and midshipmen are missing in closeness and camaraderie. The Herndon Climb is like a giant sanctioned college prank. The second year class uses 50 pounds of vegetable shortening to grease the monument, and the plebes build a human pyramid and climb atop each other to knock off a “dixie cup” hat and replace it with an officer’s combination cover. It can take hours of sweat, slips, strains, and sprains, “while standing on a footing as unsteady as the deck of a storm-tossed ship at sea.”

May 20, 2019. (Photo by MC3 Josiah D. Pearce)

“The Herndon Climb” is filled with rich history of the tradition and of the Navy, as well as literary references. The authors write of John McCain, “Moby Dick,” Mark Twain, Matthew Fontaine Maury, and James H. Webb, Jr. We read poignant accounts of shipmates Chris Bianchi, Barbara Ives, Josh Williams, Brian Weaver, Karen Halverson, Michael Germand, and Kristen “Dink” Dickmann. The book has great photos and a wonderful first-person feel throughout.

Of particular interest is the evolution of acceptance of women at the academy and as part of the Herndon Climb and the integration required to achieve full equality.

“From the suffragettes of the early twentieth century, who fought and ultimately won the right for women to participate in elections of their government representatives; to the first female members of the Navy, who filled critical noncombat jobs in both world wars; to pioneers like Janie Mines, class of ’80, who as the first black female graduate of the Academy battled against a double dose of discrimination; to more modern times, the struggles and triumphs of women on an unfairly angled playing field continue.”

Strategies and strength are important in conquering the obelisk. “You quickly realize that tightness and closeness are the keys to establishing a strong base at each layer in the human scaffold of plebes.”

“Tightness and closeness” is a metaphor for a successful naval career. As naval officers, the men and women figuratively stand on the shoulders of predecessors. They build a framework of cooperation and collaboration even as they compete for promotion to reach the pinnacle of their potential.

Cmdr. William Lewis Herndon

“When so many of our leaders show little regard for integrity, selflessness, and honor, we need to be reminded of real heroes, like the young women and men and like William Lewis Herndon,” the authors write.

Perhaps most jarring is learning about the namesake of the monument. Commander Herndon was a veteran of the Mexican-American War who was involved in the Navy’s support to the pre-Civil-War Gold Rush and who went down with his ship in a hurricane 163 years ago today, Sept. 12, 1857, after heroic attempts to save passengers, crew and his ship.

He was also an advocate of slavery.

In 1851, just 20 years after Charles Darwin’s voyage of the Beagle and eight years before Darwin’s “Origin of the Species,” Herndon captained his own exploration of the Amazon to carefully document native flora and fauna. “Herndon bemoaned what he perceived as untapped economic potential across vast, sparsely populated regions rich in mineral wealth, timber, and plants with medicinal and food value,” the authors write.

Herndon was a “firm devotee of the principle of ‘manifest destiny,’” who promoted colonization, slavery, and even genocide. From Herndon’s observations:

“Let us suppose introduced into such a country the railroad and the steamboat, the plough, the axe, and the hoe; let us suppose the land divided into large estates, and cultivated by slave labor, as as to produce all that they are capable of producing. And with these considerations, we shall have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that no territory on the face of the globe is so favorably situated … Civilization must advance, though it tread on the neck of the savage, or even trample him out of existence. Throw open the country to colonization, inducing people to come by privileges and grants of land. I am satisfied that in this way if the Indian be not improved, he will at least be cast out…”

Compare that with Darwin’s view at the conclusion of his “Voyage of the Beagle,” published in 1939:

“On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head … I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of; –– nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil.”

We can evaluate Darwin’s and Herndon’s views of the world in the context of history, but we can also analyze their views in the realm of ethics and true morality.

Will the Herndon Monument climb return again to the Academy? Can it evolve?

‘Haiku of Trump’ Explores the Isms

"Hilarious!" –– Mary Roach (author of "Grunt," "Stiff," "Gulp," "Spook," "Bonk," and "Packing for Mars")

by Bill Doughty––

After more than a decade of doing this blog, I took more than a month off to write a book, my first. It’s now available on Amazon Kindle: “Haiku of Trump: The Chasm, Schism & Isms of Donald J. Trump” (Fenwick, 2020; 236 pages; ISBN 978-1-7356866-7-7)

Unintentional haiku are discovered in the public words of the 45th president of the United States from before and during his presidency. The haiku in this collection may not be poetry, but they can be enlightening and entertaining. They reveal the character, personality, and behavior Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump –– as well as his legacy.

“Haiku of Trump" captures Trump's denialism, explaining his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic; authoritarianism, spotlighting his fomenting of racial inequality; charlatanism, revealing his years of corruption; sadism, unveiling his brutality and his enemy list; and narcissism, showing the depth of his pettiness and self-hatred projected onto others.

From Chapter 1, Denialism:

We are getting great

marks for the handling of the

CoronaVirus

(Twitter; 10 May 2020) 

From Chapter 2, Authoritarianism:

And we will assume

control but, when the looting

starts, the shooting starts

(Twitter; 28 May 2020)

From Chapter 3, Charlatanism:

I grab and grab and

grab. You know I get greedy.

I want money, money

(Las Vegas, NV; 23 Feb 2016)

From Chapter 4, Sadism:

Had the honor of
firing Jim Mattis, the world’s

most overrated 

(Twitter; 3 Jun 2020) 

From Chapter 5, Narcissism:

Sorry losers and 

haters, but my I.Q. is 

one of the highest

(Twitter; 8 May 2013) 

“Haiku of Trump” shows how Trump cheats at business, with women, and for Russia –– so he can keep the reigns (his word) of power. He thinks George Floyd is lucky because employment numbers are up. He thinks he looks like the Lone Ranger when he wears a mask. He thinks he's in love for Kim Jong Un. And, he thinks he should brag when he aces a dementia test.

This book is both a best-of and worst-of Trump collection of his views on Barack, McCain, Kamala, Ivanka, Megyn, Vladimir and scores of other people. 

McChrystal got fired

like a dog ... total bust ... known

for his big, dumb mouth

(Twitter; 1 Jan 2019)

Read haiku about walking down a ramp, playing golf, messing with the Post Office, and justifying conspiracies like birtherism and QAnon.

This is a book of humor and horror –– for all “losers and haters.”

In the book's afterword, I explain the inspiration for discovering haiku and compare Donald J. Trump in 2020 to Richard M. Nixon in 1970. Of all the isms presented in this book, the most important is "optimism." Despite fear, division, and existential challenges, we can come together to build a better future.

Currently free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.