To: Neocon who wrote (56492 ) 9/30/1999 3:15:00 PM From: E Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Re "misspeaking." [Bolding is mine. E]Reagan's America, by Garry Wills:When the first bombs were dropped on Pearl Harbor, there was great segregation in the military forces. In World War II, this was corrected. It was corrected largely under the leadership of generals like MacArthur and Eisenhower... One great story that I think of at the time, that reveals a change was occurring, was when the Japanese dropped the bomb [sic] on Pearl Harbor there was a Negro sailor whose total duties involved kitchen-type duties... He cradled a machine gun in his arms, which is not an easy thing to do, and stood on the end of a pier blazing away at Japanese airplanes that were coming down and strafing him and the [segregation] was all changed. three years after the war, but Reagan shook his head and said he did not believe them. Later, he repeated his conviction that the story was true to Lou Cannon, significantly saying, "I remember the scene. It was very powerful." Where did he remember the scene from? He was not at Pearl Harbor. No such combat footage exists, that I know of, or could exist -- how would it "tell" you that the black had done nothing but kitchen duty? Reagan is remembering a movie he saw, or an image he created cinematically in his own mind, perhaps using scenes like that from 'Air Force,' 1943, where John Garfield, as a grounded turret gunner cradles his machine gun and shoots a Japanese plane out of the sky."
