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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (514490)	12/22/2003 1:38:14 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

Interesting that you should mention John Wayne, there are two matching portraits of him above my mantle. Greetings from Dallas, JW * * *

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (514490)	12/22/2003 7:56:26 PM
From: DavesM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

re:"Gold, I don't think we gave them smallpox on purpose any more than we shortened John Wayne's life" I agree. Though, I believe that a British Officer during the French and Indian war did or proposed such a thing. I believe, that a few years later, American Revolutionaries suffered greatly from a smallpox epidemic that raged thru their ranks. "...The Americans soon learned they could scarcely battle two enemies at once---smallpox and the British. The disastrous experience of the siege of Quebec in 1775, when smallpox ravaged up to one-third of the assembled Americans..." washingtonmonthly.com Washington went so far as vaccinating his entire army, when they wintered at Valley Forge (which made miserable conditions even more miserable). "By the winter of 1777 (the winter of Valley Forge), Gen. George Washington made a momentous decision to inoculate all new recruits and finally halt the pestilence's progress. The inoculation campaign had to be conducted with great secrecy. Though it would protect soldiers in the long run and decrease fear of enlistment, it would also incapacitate large numbers for weeks at a time, rendering the Continentals vulnerable to assault. Ultimately, however, it became clear that the spread of smallpox through the ranks presented a graver threat to the army---and would kill more individuals---than the Redcoats. Recruits were quarantined in camps and inoculated before being sent out to fight..."