{"id":1095159,"date":"2021-12-07T15:43:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095159"},"modified":"2021-12-07T15:43:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:43:57","slug":"pinkerton-honor-bob-dole-and-the-greatest-generation-on-this-pearl-harbor-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pinkerton-honor-bob-dole-and-the-greatest-generation-on-this-pearl-harbor-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinkerton: Honor Bob Dole and the Greatest Generation\u00a0on This Pearl Harbor Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpinkerton-honor-bob-dole-and-the-greatest-generation-on-this-pearl-harbor-day%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1095159&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">When Bob Dole ran for president in 1996, he lost by a wide margin, gaining barely more than <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1996_United_States_presidential_election\">40 percent<\/a> of the national vote.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>And yet interestingly, the victor that year, Bill Clinton, was himself held to less than 50 percent of the vote. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So where did the other votes go?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Most of them went to businessman Ross Perot, who ran a quixotic third party presidential campaign, gaining 8.4 percent of the ballots cast. Perot\u2019s \u201996 campaign had little message other than free-floating anti-establishmentarianism;&nbsp;so most of his votes came at the expense of challenger Dole, as opposed to incumbent Clinton. Indeed, given that Perot\u2019s percentage of the popular vote (8.4), was almost identical to Dole\u2019s deficit against Clinton (8.5 percentage points), it\u2019s possible that without Perot in the race, Dole would have won. If so, then there would have been no second Clinton term, and the Arkansan would be remembered as just a slick but unimportant president, sandwiched between two heroes of World War Two, George H.W. Bush and Dole.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19037226\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"37\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19037226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-51583638.jpg\" alt width=\"1514\" height=\"1033\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Robert Dole (R) announces his third bid for the Republican Party\u2019s presidential nomination, April 10, 1995, in Topeka, Kansas. (CHRIS WILKINS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Still, if we\u2019re playing the \u201cwhat if?\u201d game, we can further say that if the epic film <i>Saving Private Ryan<\/i> had come out in 1994, as opposed to 1998, Dole might well have won the presidency in \u201996, Perot or no Perot. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because that Steven Spielberg movie stands as a milestone in the popular understanding of World War Two and in our upward appreciation of the men who fought in it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>(Women were certainly a part of the war effort, in uniform and on the homefront, and yet there were no women in the harrowing opening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hdBEyitJ7Qc\">combat scene<\/a> at Omaha Beach or in any other mission in Normandy.) <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Saving Private Ryan Beach Landing Scene | HD Beach Scene\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xqcSY770aYA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><i>Ryan<\/i> was when the awesome, gruesome reality of World War Two finally came home to Americans, when civilians got a sense of what real combat was actually all about. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To be sure, in the first five decades after World War Two, the men who fought that war were well remembered and applauded, and seven veterans of the conflict\u2014Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bush 41\u2014were elected to the White House.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>And yet the full dimensions of their military achievement and of their sacrifice somehow escaped the popular imagination. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For many Americans, <i>Ryan<\/i> fixed that. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In that same year, 1998, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw published <i>The Greatest Generation, <\/i>which touched on at least some of the same mighty themes; as Brokaw wrote admiringly, \u201dIt is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Around that same time, the works of historian Steven Ambrose gained momentum; one of his volumes was <i>Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler\u2019s Eagle\u2019s Nest<\/i>, which in 2001 was made into a widely watched HBO miniseries.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So we can see: If the warm feelings about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-War-Oral-History-World-ebook\/dp\/B005LXC99G\/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+good+war&amp;qid=1638842736&amp;s=digital-text&amp;sr=1-2\">Good War<\/a> had warmed further a little sooner, Senator Dole might also have been <i>President<\/i> Dole.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19036962\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" readability=\"34\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-19036962\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ph_005_010_001.jpg\" alt width=\"372\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Army Second Lieutenant Robert Dole in his brown dress uniform, circa 1944. (Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But then, of course, nobody ever said that life was fair.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>That\u2019s a lesson of World War Two, a conflict that produced such bitter works of literature as <i>Catch-22<\/i> and <i>The Naked and the Dead, <\/i>both massive best-sellers, both written by combat vets. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In fact, any G.I. of that era knew the bad of the Good War, including such sour and ironic acronyms as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/FUBAR_(disambiguation)\">FUBAR<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/SNAFU\">SNAFU<\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Heck, even the military brass acknowledged these realities; a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Private_Snafu\">Private SNAFU<\/a> was the animated star of more than two dozen training films made from 1943 to 1945.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Dole knew all about the weird, even savage, impact of circumstance in wartime.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Although he wanted to be a doctor, the Army made him an engineer.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Although he hailed from the flat prairies of Kansas, he was assigned to a mountain infantry division.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>And so then he was sent to the Italian campaign in the European Theater of Operations, there to fight in the Alps. Second lieutenant Dole was a long way from the Jayhawk<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;w<\/span>heat fields. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The fighting in Italy is much less remembered than D-Day and the liberation of France and then Germany, and yet nevertheless, that \u201csideshow\u201d still cost the U.S. more than 100,000 casualties\u2014and Dole became one of them on April 14, 1945, less than a month before the end of the war. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19037306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"33\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19037306\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ph_005_008_001.jpg\" alt width=\"944\" height=\"650\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Dole (left) and his childhood friend \u201cBub\u201d Dawson (right) posing in dress uniform circa 1944. (Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_19036546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"37\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19036546\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1146813294.jpg\" alt width=\"1920\" height=\"1351\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">American soldiers of the Fifth Army dashing ashore during the establishment of a beachhead, South of Rome, on the West coast of Italy, in May 1944, during World War II. (STF\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_19036514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"38\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19036514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-450842685.jpg\" alt width=\"1920\" height=\"1539\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. troops of the 5th Army, 1st Division, loading tanks onto land from naval ships during World War Two, prior to the Battle of Anzio, Italy, 1944. (A. E. French\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Returned to stateside, the grievously wounded Dole would spend the next three years in military hospitals.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Such an experience would have a profound effect on anyone, and so it did on Dole.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>As a man with a lot of pain and only one good arm, Dole focused his energy into a funny-yet-cutting wit\u2014as they say, comedians are usually channeling their own pain\u2014and a vaulting ambition for public service.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19037058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"39\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19037058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/005-5.jpeg\" alt width=\"611\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Dole is seen recovering in an Army hospital in 1945. Dole was severely injured in combat. An exploding shell smashed his right shoulder, crushed his collarbone, punctured a lung, and damaged vertebrae that paralyzed Dole from the neck down. Upon his return to the U.S., Dole spent 39 months in hospitals. His condition was so severe that his doctors doubted that he would live. (Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>And that\u2019s how he got himself elected to the Kansas state legislature and then to the U.S. Congress.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>Furthermore, that\u2019s how he become the Republican senate leader for more than a decade, as well as the chairman of the Republican National Committee. And came to be named twice to the national GOP ticket (in addition to his 1996 presidential run, he was the vice presidential nominee in 1976).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Politically, fate wasn\u2019t kind to Dole.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>And yet even if he didn\u2019t reach the pinnacle that he sought\u2014<i>nobody ever said life was fair, and nobody was right<\/i>\u2014he made much of his life, such that he will be honored by lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. A grateful nation can do that much for an unfortunate son who overcome so much bad luck and adversity. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet in the meantime, the hardy few survivors from the Greatest Generation\u2014all of them in their 90s or older\u2014will enjoy much warmth this December 7, the 80th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack that plunged the U.S. into World War Two. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And the rest of us can bask in their stoic dignity and earned glory, even as they typically insist that the <i>real<\/i> heroes were the ones that died, on the beaches, in the jungles, in the skies\u2014or in the burning waters at Pearl Harbor 80 years ago.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19032098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"38\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19032098\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-2660140-1.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"781\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An explosion at the Naval Air Station, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack, December 7, 1941. Sailors stand amid wrecked watching as the USS Shaw explodes in the center background. (Fox Photos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_19032042\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"36\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19032042\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-2660129.jpg\" alt width=\"1024\" height=\"672\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The American destroyer USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, home of the American Pacific Fleet during World War II, December 7, 1941. (Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>There\u2019s not much we can do for these oldsters now, except to assure them that not only will they continue to be cared for, but so also will we always look out for their lost comrades in arms. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of finding the lost, on December 4 it was heartening to see an article in <i>Politico<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2021\/12\/04\/pearl-harbor-80-years-uss-oklahoma-523256\">headlined<\/a>, \u201cHow DNA Solved One of the Final Mysteries of Pearl Harbor.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As the piece detailed, respectful and resourceful Pentagon experts have been using the latest medical science to identify most of the hundreds of sailors who died aboard the U.S.S. <i>Oklahoma<\/i> on that date which will live in infamy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>Originally, the remains recovered from the ship could not be identified and so were interred in mass graves in Hawaii.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>And yet<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>now, all these decades later, forensic technology has so much improved, it\u2019s possible, for example, that the bones of Mess Attendant Second Class Jesus Garcia, killed at 21 aboard the <i>Oklahoma<\/i>, can be identified and properly interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Of course, they haven\u2019t been able to identify them all; once again, life is not fair. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet as a nation, we have the power to make any situation at least a little bit fairer and better.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>We can pledge to do right by the recent memory of Bob Dole, the distant memory of Jesus Garcia, and the memory of all of our heroes, living and dead, from all our wars. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a worthy mission on Pearl Harbor Day and every day. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19025666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"35\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19025666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/obit-bob-dole-lowered-staff-honor-of-senate-majority-leader-bob-dole-of-kansas-flags-fly-breeze.jpg\" alt=\"The Associated Press\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flags lowered to half-staff in honor of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas fly in the breeze at sunrise on the National Mall with the U.S. Capitol in the background on December 6, 2021. (AP Photo\/J. David Ake)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Bob Dole ran for president in 1996, he lost by a wide margin, gaining barely more than 40 percent of the national vote.\u00a0And yet interestingly, the victor that year, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}