The American Spectator

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p> CLASS ACTS br> Re: Jeffrey Lord's The Ex-Ambassador From Jurassic Park : /p>

To Jeffrey Lord's list of men of physical courage who nevertheless failed to understand the nature of the enemy might be added the British Statesman Lord Halifax, who, though his reputation as an appeaser is exaggerated by some, certainly failed to understand Hitler and tried to negotiate up to the last possible minute.

Halifax was no physical coward. He has served as a combat soldier in World War I despite having a weak heart and despite being born with a withered arm and missing hand - men have had movies made about them for doing less.

p>Neville Chamberlain himself was also no coward. In the second volume of his war memoirs Sir Winston Churchill emphasizes his bravery, after he had resigned as Prime Minister, during the bombing of London and his refusal to quit his duties then. He climbed over smoking bomb-rubble to his office each day despite the fact he had been politically humiliated (Churchill, his most trenchant critic was now his chief) but more fundamentally despite the fact that he was dying of a particularly painful form of cancer. "Fortitude of Mr. Chamberlain" is a chapter sub-heading of Churchill's book, and when he died Churchill, always moved by heroism, is said to have wept at his grave. br> -- Hal G.P. Colebatch /p> p> Magnificent article. I'm a class of '58 guy, so did my government service in the US Marine Corps. (Fighter/attack pilot in the old Pappy Boyington Black Sheep Squadron, VMA-214.) My wife and I now live in SW France much of each year and find there very pro-American points of view which do not seem to penetrate Paris, the Upper Westside of NYC, nor most of California. As the leading Grande Dame of our village once said to me, "Kenneth, you must understand, Paris is not part of France. It is, in fact, the capitulation capital of all Europe. When the Germans attacked, Paris surrendered in five days; we here fought the bastards for five years." As many of the French far from the capital feel Paris is not part of their country, I suspect many Americans feel academia is not a part of America either. br> -- Ken McAdams

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