THE PENTAGON — A Department of Defense spokesman announced this week that the Army will be reactivating the 23rd Americal Division, most famous for its role in the Vietnam War. The division will be stationed at Fort Ho Chi Minh, currently under construction near Jackson, Miss.I would think that Fort Võ Nguyên Giáp would have been more accurate, but a lot fewer people would have gotten the joke.
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Fort Ho Chi Minh will join such installations as Forts Lee, Stewart, Benning, Hood, Bliss, Polk, Bragg, and A.P. Hill, all of which bear the names of soldiers responsible for the deaths of thousands of American fighting men and women in attacks on the United States.
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4 comments:
Yeah, amazing that so many U.S. forts are named after traitors who led armies that shot at United States soldiers. Shall we set up a Fort. Rommel and Fort Tojo next?
I didn't think Bliss and Stewart were Confederates.
Seems like Bliss is Lt. Col. William Wallace Smith (died 1853, U.S. Army( and Stewart is Gen. Daniel Stewart (Revolutionary War).
That being said, the point is valid. However, I would suggest, that naming a post after a Confederate figure is somewhat different than a figure from a different county that fought against the U.S. If the Confederate figure was a good and couragous leader without some of the baggage, like Confederate General Joesph E. Johnston, it seems a little more "reasonable". However, if we are dealing in absolutes, it's wrong.
So where is Ft. John Walker Lindh?
Or, for that matter, Ft. Benedict Arnold? Is there a degree of treason that we accept?
I suspect that if the Brits had prevailed in either the Revolutionary War or the Re-Do in 1812-15, there wouldn't be a school anywhere named after Washington, et al.
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