What would out grandfather say?
RUSSIA INVADING UKRAINE
In the 1930s, aggressive power-hungry leaders went on a violent offensive for land and raw materials. Are we facing another Hitler or Tojo (and Hirohito) who launched us into WWII? What are the lessons learned we can use for today to halt this devastation and growing threat?
PACIFIC THEATER/POLITICS
80 years ago, the United States was thrust into WWII by Japanese aggression and Gen. Rupertus and the Marines soon met Japan on the islands of the Pacific. Now we are seeing another aggressor in that theater, China. Could we find ourselves ensnared in conflicts in this region in the next decade? What are the lessons learned?
CHINA/TAIWAN
China has eyes on Taiwan. To bring her back to “the mother county.” Sound familiar to Putin and Ukraine? China has recently warned the United States over its support of Taiwan and forming an Indo Pacific Strategy or what they see as a Pacific NATO. Is China’s focus on Taiwan and the Pacific going to bring the US and her allies back to the Pacific? If so, what are the lessons learned on re-engineering islands, like on Peleliu?
SCARLET FEVER/COVID-19 In 1929, when our grandfather was stationed in China with the Marines, he lost his 38-year-old wife, 14-year-old son, and 4-year-old daughter in the scarlet fever pandemic that swept China. They were all put in quarantine as was Rupertus. He never got to say goodbye. They all died. He survived. Sound familiar to Covid?
HAITI– While this country was not the focus of this book, in July 1915, President Woodrow Wilson sent 300 Marines to Haiti due to the tremendous instability and assassinations of Haitian presidents in the country at the time. Between 1919 and 1923, Rupertus was there with his family as an inspector with the Guarde de Haiti, and Chief of Police. Fast forward to July 2021, Haitian President Moise was assassinated, and Haiti remains wrought by widespread violence, political turmoil, and devasted by multiple natural disasters. The US sent humanitarian help. What more can be done?
Lesson I’ve learned
Never forget the art of surprise. Never underestimate what people in absolute power will do. We need super bright, engaged leaders of all kinds to come together now to look at the history in these above areas, and apply new knowledge and technology to address and de-escalate threats.
Look back at the surprise attacks like those on December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, on our troops abroad – or when Japan attacked Shanghai and Nanking in 1937 and Germany rolled its tanks into Poland in 1939. What can we learn from them?
How did we get there?
As the days go by, how did we get here?
