Edwin C. Anderson

A very good potted history of the birth of the country the world knows as The United States of America. It is presented and reads like a series of lectures that might be presented to high school students or interested adult discussion groups. I thought the Epilogue was brilliant and some selected quotes from it follow:
"We are warned that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are destined to repeat them....
"History is the study of the operation of human arrogance, greed, lust for power, self-deception, and self-delusion; ......
British historian I. R. Christie charges Britain's defeat in our War for Independence to British politicians and their insatiable craving for adulation and love of applause..... the English ministers were terrified by the threatened loss of their American colonies, believing that if this should occur, England would be reduced to the status of a minor power......
"Two centuries later, America, itself now the strongest military nation in the world, became obsessed by the fear that it's security depended on the domination of a small, distant land ..... America invaded Vietnam with less justification, but with the same motives.......
"McNamara analyses the causes of American failure in Vietnam, some of which are summarized as follows:
. We misjudged the South Vietnamese and exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people.
. We exhibited profound ignorance of the history, culture and politics of the people in the area and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
. We failed to recognize the limitations of modern, high technology military equipment in confronting unconventional, highly-motivated people's movements.
"In our War for Independence we rejected government by a foreign nation and demonstrated the power nationalism to inspire a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values........
"The 20th Century gives no evidence to suggest or confirm that political leaders have gained wisdom or insight greater than that of prior generations. More than 2,000 years ago, Plato wrote that governments will be wise and just when kings become philosophers and philosophers become kings.
"We wait."
This was written and published in the 1990s. Since then we have Afghanistan and Iraq to think upon; also our own 2021 January insurrection.… (meer)