When we look back at the difficulty the Union had with ineffective generals early on (and how it vexed Abe), it might be worthwhile to consider their political leanings – at least in the case of General McClellan, if not others.
McClellan was said to be quite an able military trainer and tactician/strategist, but I have heard it said that perhaps he was timid/delayed in bringing the fight to Lee because McClellan himself, as was the case with most (or many at least) Democrats at the time, did not support the war. I imagine if that were true – that he did not feel the Union had cause to invade the Confederacy – that it would seriously make thoughts of aggression difficult to put into action. Obviously, the Union suffered multiple setbacks, and embarrassment, due to McClellan’s hesitance.
I agree with you about Vietnam – it did not really start with LBJ. But to his credit (in my opinion), he put and kept us there to try to keep the VC from bringing their Communist terror into South Vietnam. That’s one war I’m glad I missed: I would have likely engaged in some pretty heated exchanges with protestors. Believing that Communism is a scourge against liberty (and, really, humanity), I probably would have been behind that particular war effort and would have been disappointed when our leaders withheld any non-nuclear force we were capable of using in order to win and preserve liberty in the South.
(I may be slightly oversimplifying things, but that must have been a pretty trying time for our nation.)
McClellan was extremely conflicted about the war and events surrounding it. While he strongly believed in states rights regarding slavery to the point some members of the Confederacy tried getting him to join their side, he had serious issues with the idea of secession and opted to fight for the union.
Ironically, this internal conflict later played a critical factor in sinking his presidential bid against Lincoln in 1864 as his public repudiation of his party’s anti-war platform was completely at odds with many of his Democratic party supporters and leaders which were heavily influenced by the Confederate sympathizing Copperhead faction. This platform incoherence was furthered by the fact his VP running mate was also known for advocating a complete end of the war.
Problem was, the RVN government was not exactly an example of liberty, with dodgy elections, censorship, etc… Sure, we may have been fighting against a bunch of “bad guys”, but people probably questioned why we were fighting for a different bunch of “bad guys” (or corrupt and incompetent guys).
Just seeng a typical “h*** no” knee jerk reaction to anything proposed by this administration. Sigh. It doesn’t matter what it is – if the proposal had been to put Madison on, the “h*** no-ers” would have found an objection.
Our local grocery store (before it sold out) use to always give 2 dollar bills out. You would be surprise how many people thought they were fake when we used them. Poor Jefferson stuck on a forgotten bill…
When I was young, in Italy, trying to improve my atrocious Italian, I liked talking to and hanging around the kids. I was talking to a group of scruffy 10-year-old boys who were trying to tell me something that I couldn’t understand. They whipped out a 1000 lire note, pointed to the picture of Guiseppe Verdi and broke out into an aria. I never did figure out why they were telling me about Verdi but I thought it was so cool that a group of 10-year-old boys would sing Verdi to a stranger and that the nation’s currency would encourage it!
I like to think of a group of 10-year old boys in, say, Central Park, schooling a stranger about Hamilton and using a $10 bill as a visual aid.
"Stupid waste of money, more so that picking a person based on skin color and/or anatomy is plain wrong. Hve fun attacking me as much as you want… "
It may be a waste of money to change. But if you read your history books, Harriet Tubman was quite a bit more than just her skin color and her sex. She was truly heroic. Who would have deserved it more?
Britain had Darwin on its currency for many years. I cannot see that happening in the US, though I would love to see the outrage on Fox were it to be proposed.
It would appear that some posters on this thread are unaware that there was an actual campaign and petition to put a WOMAN on the $20 bill, and that Harriet Tubman was the eventual winner of a voting process that included many nominations of prominent women, black, white, and Native American IIRC. In addition to her anti-slavery heroics, Tubman was subsequently an active supporter of women’s suffrage. (Let us not forget that after the War men she may have led to freedom could vote, but she could not!)
I am happy to say that I signed the petition and voted in the selection process. The discussion of replacing Hamilton instead of Jackson did NOT come from the campaign, and threatened to derail it. I’m glad the Treasury came to its senses. Hamilton was not a President, but he contributed more to this nation than the largely vile Andrew Jackson ever did.
Now I would love to see them remove “In God We Trust” from the money and return to the original slogan of the United States, E Pluribus Unum.
@Dramadaddy I guess you never read Charles Dickens. In any event, it’s not much better in “capitalistic” Indonesia and Malaysia and the conditions in factories in the Philippines are terrible. Then there is Dubai, where Indians labour in 50C heat and literally die by the score.
@exlibris97 I’m pretty well read. I think my point was that the fate of the peasantry is unchanged regardless of the nominal economic system employed. In Vietnam, tens of thousands died on both sides only to discover that the new boss is the same as the old boss.