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artists in times of war 17 January 04
Section: article
Categories: Mention
Just finished reading the book artists in times of war by Howard Zinn.
As a follow-up to my 13 January entry below on The Last Samurai I would like to quote from this book, and include a couple of links:
Another little thing about the Mexican War, which might make [a] movie a little more interesting, is the story of some of the deserters. A lot of the people who volunteered in the Mexican War did so for the same reason that so many of the poor and working-class people volunteer for the military today. It’s not that they are imbued with the idea of going to war; they’re just desperately poor and they hope that their fortunes will improve as a result of enlisting. During the Mexican War, some of these volunteers were recent immigrants, many of them Irish. A number of these Irish immigrant soldiers, as they watched what was being done to the people of Mexico, deserted and went over to the Mexican side. I don’t know how many of you know about it; maybe in New Mexico people know more about this, in fact I’m sure people in New Mexico know more about this than people in other parts of the country. They formed their own battalion, fighting with the Mexicans, which they called St. Patrick’s battalion (which became the San Patricio battalion), and this becomes an amazing event in the Mexican War.
(pp 73/74)
The San Patricios:Mexico’s Fighting Irish>>
For comparison, here is the version of The Texas State Historical Association>>
Another example in Zinn’s book:
In many ways, it [the Philippine War] was a precursor of the Vietnam War, if you look at the atrocities committed by the American army in the Philippine Islands. Now that’s a story that has never been told, though it would not accrue to military heroism or to the glory of the United States to tell that story. There were black American soldiers in the Philippines, who soon began to identify more with the Filipinos than with their fellow white Americans. They were very conscious of the fact that while these black soldiers were fighting to suppress the Filipinos, they also were hearing from back home about the lynchings and race riots that were taking place in their hometowns. They were hearing about black people being killed in large numbers—and here they were, fighting against colored people, against non-white people, for the United States government. A number of black soldiers deserted and went over to fight with the Filipinos.
(pp 75/76)
- Title: artists in times of war
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