Admiration for German Staff officers in WWII

[bmacsys]

Hi, my name is Chris. I wandered into this forum and find it very interesting. Civil too! Ok, war is terrible. Lots of bad things happened in the years 1939-1945 to say the least. Admiring men who make war is anachronistic. The Nazi leadership was for the most part made up of terrible people. On the other hand the Wehrmacht had many Staff Officers whom I read about who I have come to admire. Guderian, Rommel, von Manteuffel, Dönitz, von Manstein. How do others feel about admiring men who fight wars?

[Larry D.]

The great majority from my generation admire them - those from my country and Allied nations totally so, while those from enemy nations only for their professional skills. Since the mid-1960's, American college students have generally been indoctrinated against militarism so their attitude toward the military is considerably different from that of the World War II and early Vietnam generation. The draft had a lot to do with it too. The draft brought together people from all classes and not just the working class. When you have the town football hero from an upper-middle class family who just graduated from Princeton and is now in uniform and off to serve his 2 or 3 years, that breaks class barriers and puts a brand of acceptability on the military. The war in Vietnam changed all that and gave rise to draft dodgers and peaceniks along with a totally changed attitude toward the military. Until then, 90% of Americans were proud of their armed forces and its officers and men. Brilliant staff officers were admired. No longer.

Larry