Author: Roger D. McGrath (Roger D. McGrath)

If you think political correctness is a recent phenomenon in America, then the longtime promulgation and perpetuation of distortions and falsehoods concerning the Tuskegee Airmen should disabuse you of such a notion. The very creation of the group was an attempt by President Franklin Roosevelt to showcase blacks in the war effort, which was dominated...

Many Americans today are left aghast at Adm. William F. Halsey’s admonition to U.S. forces in the Pacific: “Kill Japs.  Kill Japs.  Kill More Japs!  You will help to kill the yellow bastards if you do your job well.”  Yet those who fought through the island campaigns fully appreciated Halsey’s words, realizing the only way...

The “Battle of Los Angeles,” or the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, occurred during the early morning hours of February 25, 1942.  It has been portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s 1979 slapstick comedy 1941, starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.  The farcical movie is about all younger generations today know of the Battle of Los Angeles...

Early in June, James Arness died.  Everyone thinks of him as Matt Dillon, the brave and incorruptible town marshal of Dodge City in the television series Gunsmoke.  I think of him as the father of one of my childhood friends and as one of the last actors in Hollywood to have fought in World War...

Recently, a younger acquaintance of mine, an actor on stage and screen, mentioned with disgust the circus-like atmosphere that pervaded the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife.  I noted that early on in the trial, Judge Lance Ito simply lost control of the proceedings, and the “Dream Team” of defense attorneys...

Like most kids I loved reading about Americans who rose from nothing to greatness.  When I got to college and encountered my first left-wing history professor, I learned that Horatio Alger characters were pure myth—except I had already read and heard about dozens of them.  One of my favorites was Jumpin’ Jim Gavin, the heroic...

Though he beat Jack Demp­sey decisively the two times they met in the ring, was undefeated as a heavyweight, and retired as heavyweight champion, Gene Tunney is often forgotten when today’s era of fight fans or others discuss the greatest heavyweights.  Political correctness doesn’t allow us to forget black champions such as Jack Johnson, although...

A friend recently sent me an e-mail with a link to YouTube.  A click took me to a tribute to Col. Bob Howard, broadcast by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams upon Howard’s death just before Christmas 2009.  Howard is one of our most decorated heroes, his courageous and brilliant acts in combat worthy of...

Every history textbook has a paragraph or more devoted to Crispus Attucks, who, besides being half black and half Indian and one of those killed in the Boston Massacre, was of little historical significance.  Nearly everything else said about him is a matter of speculation.  In these same textbooks there is no mention of Timothy...

The Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud is generally portrayed as someone who chewed up the U.S. Army in battle after battle.  He was, in the words of one author, “the first and only Indian leader in the West to win a war with the United States.”  This conclusion is based on the Army’s decision to...

Nearly everyone knows that in 1927 Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, lifting off from a field on Long Island and touching down in Paris 33 hours and 3,600 miles later.  He instantly became an American hero of proportions never before seen.  He was termed “Lucky Lindy,” but luck...

Take up the White Man’s burden— The savage wars of peace— Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. The havoc wreaked by the Haitian earthquake reminded me of Rudyard...

The first “paper & stick” model airplane I ever made was a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.  I painted it in the color scheme of the famed Flying Tigers, including the shark’s mouth on the cowl and air scoop.  Mine was powered not by a 1040 horsepower V-12 Allison but by a rubber band that I wound...

A sequel to Dances With Wolves is reportedly scheduled for release in 2011.  Not only did Dances create a romantic American Indian who never existed, it reversed the roles of the Sioux and the Pawnee.  This kind of thing has been going on for hundreds of years, beginning with various European writers who, far removed...

I recently saw a video clip of a television talk-show host calling President Truman a war criminal for authorizing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I have heard others make similar comments.  During the late 1960’s it became almost de rigueur on college campuses for professors to argue that the bombs were unnecessary, that...

As the 20th century drew to a close lists of the century’s greatest figures in various fields of endeavor appeared regularly in newspapers and magazines.  Revealing that memories were short, the lists tended to be dominated by figures of recent vintage, especially in the sports world.  This is probably a consequence of the ephemeral nature...

Few Americans today know of Peleliu, a speck of an island in the southwest Pacific.  A part of the Palau group of the Caroline Islands, Peleliu is only six miles long and two miles wide.  It lies 550 miles due east of the Philippines in splendid isolation.  Covered with dense green vegetation and surrounded by...

Little did I know that when I entered junior high I would be confronting red-diaper babies.  These kids were intellectually sophisticated and well educated.  They told me many things that were contrary to my instincts.  Having little knowledge of the subjects they addressed so adroitly, I was at a loss to respond.  One of them...

Frank Gallop’s 1966 spoof recording, “The Ballad of Irving,” left most people laughing heartily.  (“He came from the old Bar Mitzvah spread, / With a 10-gallon yarmulke on his head. / He always followed his mother’s wishes. / Even on the range he used two sets of dishes.”)  What nearly no one knew then and...

Ed Ramsey never aspired to be a hero.  He was only 12 years old when his father committed suicide.  He was a natural-born hell-raiser; bootleg whiskey and fighting were his passions.  His mother thought the Oklahoma Military Academy might salvage him.  He loved horses and all things martial.  The academy had both. Ramsey thrived at...

I was recently visiting with an old Marine Corps buddy, Ralph Willis, at his home on California’s central coast.  At 86, he is one of the fortunate few who are still alive to describe their experiences fighting the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II.  Ralph put down some of his memories in My...

Before a new documentary series on World War II by Ken Burns even aired on PBS, there was controversy.  Mexican-American organizations complained that there was no episode that focused solely on their people.  Burns responded by adding a segment devoted to Mexican-Americans.  Nonetheless, the same groups complained that the additional material was not enough.  I...

Now that the youngest of our World War II veterans, with but a few exceptions, are in their 80’s, I fear that, as they die, memory of them will die also.  While teaching history in college for more than 30 years—15 of those at UCLA, where a single class could have more than 400 students—I...

For several years now, professional baseball has been pouring millions of dollars into developing black players.  Evidently, the number of black players, at least American blacks, has been in decline.  NASCAR is funding programs to develop black drivers after fielding complaints that the sport is too white.  Similarly, the NHL now has a “Diversity Program”...

By the 1950’s, professors at our universities were teaching American history, “warts and all.”  By the late 60’s, it was mostly warts.  Now, it is all warts, all the time. The Japanese have taken a different tack.  They have sanitized their history, especially their actions during World War II, and only in response to pressure...

Since at least the late 60’s, there has been an effort in academe and in Hollywood to make all cultures morally equivalent.  More recently, there has been an effort to make “indigenous cultures”—whatever that means—morally superior to Western civilization.  I was thinking of all this when I read an interview with Clint Eastwood that appeared...