Book Review
Patton -- A Soldier's Life
By Peter Roff, United Press International
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- An old maxim tells journalists and editors to "print the legend" when the story of a man's life grows too large to accommodate the truth. This is a valuable caution where most profiles are concerned, and it is almost the rule for writing about military leaders in time of war.
Historians do not have the same luxury or flexibility. While they must refer to various legends in their presentations, it is the life of a subject, the blemishes as well as the bravado, with which they must be concerned.
When the topic is Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., it is indeed the brave historian who takes up the task of retelling his life for popular consumption.
Historian Stanley Hirshon of Queens College and the City University of New York deserves substantial credit for trying to take on a figure so much larger than life -- and even more for generally succeeding in his book "General Patton: A Soldier's Life."
Patton is a difficult subject for any biographer to tackle but not because of his place in history. It is not that he was the country's greatest general -- most historians would probably agree that honor should be accorded to Virginia's Robert E. Lee, the commander of the army of the Confederacy. Nor was Patton a visionary strategist in the mold of U.S. Grant, whose innovations changed forever the way that wars are fought.
He did not lead the troops in battle during America's greatest single victory. It was George Washington who did that, carrying the day for a new nation at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
Patton was also not America's greatest commander.
History credits George C. Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who
planned and led the American Army to victory in Europe in World
War II, with that distinction.
Yet the fascination with Patton, one of America's most famous
generals, remains, and Hollywood is largely responsible.
The difficulty any biographer has with presenting a balanced picture of Patton's life is that the motion picture about Patton of the same name has so thoroughly shaped the public perceptions of the man that any effort to present a differing view pales in comparison. George C. Scott's Academy Award-winning performance created an image of the general that is almost impossible to change and, in some ways, even outstrips the fame and infamy he enjoyed during the World War II.
The film presents Patton as a flamboyant egomaniac, a believer in reincarnation and consummate political operator who was, nevertheless, a great leader of men who excelled in training and discipline.
Hirshon's portrayal of Patton mirrors the image presented in the movie, but in a balanced fashion that allows readers familiar with the film to expand their knowledge rather than engage in an internal monologue about how the book differs from the movie.
The book flows rather nicely, telling an astounding tail of a man who used his connections and his abilities to shape the development of U.S. armored divisions and who played an undeniably important part in the Allied victory over the Axis powers in Europe.
Though there are many books about Patton, including a widely read collection of his personal papers, Hirshon takes the story of his life to new depths thanks to extensive research into original materials. Too often contemporary biographies of historical figures neglect primary sources in favor of secondary accounts, created a synthesized version of other people's work.
The book is based on a thorough review of private papers and military records, resulting in almost 100 pages of endnotes. Hirshon's research began at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and took him as far as Kings College in England and the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., as well as to the Hoover, FDR, Truman and Eisenhower presidential libraries in search of original documents that tell the story of Patton the man and Patton the solider.
The book is not without its flaws. Hirshon tends to repeat himself in places, most significantly in the way he recounts, several times beginning with the preface to the book, a series of atrocities, some might call them war crimes, committed by troops under Patton's command during the Sicily campaign in July 1943.
These particular incidents are important and, as Hirshon suggests, potentially more significant and worthy of greater condemnation that the "slapping" incidents that brought Patton into disrepute.
The incidents include the killing of German soldiers attempting to surrender and of Italian civilians looting soap from a factory at the hands of U.S. military personnel. Hirshon repeatedly tries to tie these incidents back directly to Patton but it is a great reach -- and now that America knows about the doctrine of "battlefield necessity" that was so prevalent in Vietnam, I doubt that future historians will condemn Patton for the actions committed by troops under his command.
Neither a whitewash nor a hatchet job, "General
Patton: A Soldier's Life" may be that rarest of thinks --
a balanced look at the life of an important and controversial
figure written by someone who wants to relate a tale, not make
a point.
The book at a glance:
"General Patton: A Soldier's Life" by Stanley P. Hirshon
HarperCollins - 826 pages.