A Q&A with VDH on World War II

Summary

Podcast Summary: A Q&A with VDH on World War II

Title: The Victor Davis Hanson Show
Host/Author: Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler
Episode: A Q&A with VDH on World War II
Release Date: June 17, 2025

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Introduction: Special Episode Amidst Health Recovery
Timestamp: [00:00 - 05:45]

In this special episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, co-host Jack Fowler explains that Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) will be undergoing surgery and recovering during the upcoming week. To ensure continuity, Fowler has gathered questions from the Victor Davis Hanson fan club on Facebook, focusing primarily on World War II topics. The episode is humorously dubbed "Sinus Recovery One."

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1. Hitler’s Strategic Delays at Dunkirk
Timestamp: [05:45 - 11:55]

Question: Why did Hitler delay his pursuit of the Allies for three days during Dunkirk, allowing them to retreat and regroup in Britain? Could he have capitalized on this to finish off the retreating forces?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"He could have finished them off, but we have to remember that he invaded on May 10, and the bulk of the army groups came through the Ardennes—a rugged territory. Exhausted from months of fighting, the German forces were worn down by mid-June. Additionally, the French had certain advantages, including superior tanks like the Char B and effective anti-aircraft defenses. With over 300,000 troops at Dunkirk and the Luftwaffe losing significant strength, Hitler underestimated the potential for a successful evacuation. Goering misjudged the Luftwaffe's capability to prevent the evacuation, leading to a strategic oversight."
— [05:55]

Hanson elaborates on the logistical and tactical exhaustion of German forces, the resilience of the French, and the critical role of the weakened Luftwaffe in allowing the successful evacuation of Allied troops.

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2. The Dunkirk Film: Accuracy and Criticism
Timestamp: [12:02 - 13:16]

Question: Did you watch the recent "Dunkirk" movie, and what are your thoughts on its historical accuracy?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"I did like it, although I criticized it for lacking strategic or tactical analysis. Unlike traditional war films that might feature generals with maps or Churchill strategizing, 'Dunkirk' took an impressionistic approach, focusing more on individual vignettes rather than the broader military operations."
— [12:14]

Hanson appreciates the film's portrayal of personal experiences but notes its departure from detailed strategic narrative.

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3. The Role of Blimps in World War II
Timestamp: [13:16 - 15:48]

Question: What was the role of blimps in World War II, particularly in submarine warfare?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"There were two main uses for blimps during the war. First, cable blimps maintained thick metal cables over cities like London and Manchester, disrupting German bombers by creating a 'forest of cables' that could tear apart incoming aircraft. Second, blimps were employed in anti-submarine warfare. Equipped with radios, they patrolled the Atlantic to locate and report German U-boats, enhancing convoy safety. These efforts were significant enough that modern political discussions about Greenland echo the strategic importance it held during the war."
— [13:38]

Hanson highlights the innovative defensive uses of blimps and connects historical strategies to contemporary geopolitical discussions.

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4. British and French Response to Soviet Invasion of Poland
Timestamp: [21:36 - 23:35]

Question: Why didn’t Great Britain and France declare war on Stalin’s Soviet Union when it invaded Poland shortly after Germany’s invasion?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"There were two primary reasons. First, since World War I, France and, to a lesser extent, Britain aimed to avoid a two-front war by not allying with the Soviet Union. The atrocities committed by Stalin, such as the Great Famine in Ukraine and the purge of Russian officers, were widely known and made these democracies hesitant to join forces with the USSR. Second, they believed that the alliance was merely transactional and that any cooperation would be short-lived. This miscalculation led to the Soviets opportunistically advancing in Eastern Europe without facing opposition from the Western Allies."
— [21:36]

Hanson discusses the ideological and strategic reservations that led Britain and France to distance themselves from the Soviet Union, ultimately impacting the early stages of World War II dynamics.

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5. Hypothetical Scenario: Patton Invades Russia
Timestamp: [23:35 - 33:33]

Question: What might have transpired if General Patton had succeeded in invading Russia towards the end of World War II?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"Invading Russia would have stretched American forces thin against the vast Soviet military, which outnumbered the U.S. forces significantly. The logistical challenges, combined with harsh weather conditions and the formidable Soviet tank armies, would likely have led to severe losses. Politically, it could have reignited tensions earlier between the U.S. and the USSR, potentially derailing post-war alliances and accelerating the onset of the Cold War. Moreover, Patton’s aggressive strategies might have provoked domestic and international backlash, undermining the delicate balance achieved through wartime cooperation."
— [24:33]

Hanson evaluates the military and geopolitical ramifications of such an aggressive move, emphasizing the potential for increased conflict and strained alliances.

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6. Recommendations for Post-World War II History Resources
Timestamp: [39:59 - 44:15]

Question: Can you recommend books or documentaries that provide a comprehensive understanding of post-World War II history, including the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Cold War?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"For the Vietnam War, Marc Moyer's three-volume history offers a revisionist perspective, utilizing translated Vietnamese Communist archives to provide a nuanced view of the conflict. Regarding the Korean War, Wick Murray’s works, particularly 'The Coldest Winter,' offer detailed accounts of air battles and strategic operations. David Halberstam’s journalistic approach in 'The Coldest Winter' provides an engaging narrative of the war's progression and its enduring impact."
— [39:59]

Hanson recommends in-depth scholarly works that challenge traditional narratives, offering readers a more comprehensive and multifaceted understanding of these complex conflicts.

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7. The Engagement of Supermarine Spitfires with V1 Rockets
Timestamp: [44:08 - 47:36]

Question: Did Supermarine Spitfires genuinely intercept and alter the course of German V1 rockets during the war? How was this achieved given the speed of the rockets?

Victor Davis Hanson:
"Yes, Spitfires were able to intercept V1 rockets effectively. By 1944, the Spitfire’s speed had reached approximately 400 mph, allowing pilots to catch up with the V1s during their gradual dives. Instead of solely relying on machine guns or cannons, some Spitfire pilots physically engaged the rockets by maneuvering their wings to knock the rockets off course, causing them to go out of control before reaching their targets. This method was risky but proved to be a successful countermeasure against the V1 threat."
— [44:15]

Hanson explains the tactical ingenuity employed by Spitfire pilots to neutralize the V1 rockets, highlighting the adaptability and skill of Allied air forces.

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8. Rapid Technological Advancements During Wartime
Timestamp: [47:36 - 51:26]

Victor Davis Hanson:
"World War II spurred unprecedented advancements in military technology. Within a few years, tanks, aircraft, and naval vessels saw significant improvements in firepower, armor, and speed. For instance, tank gun calibers increased from 8mm to 88mm in German models, and aircraft like the P51 Mustang surpassed earlier fighters in performance. The war effort necessitated continuous innovation, with engineers working tirelessly to enhance existing weaponry and develop new technologies, leading to the formidable military capabilities seen by war’s end."
— [47:36]

Hanson emphasizes how the exigencies of war accelerated technological development, leading to rapid enhancements in military hardware and engineering prowess.

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Conclusion: Reflections on Military Innovation and Legacy
Timestamp: [51:06 - 52:29]

Victor Davis Hanson:
"The generation of World War II veterans, characterized by their technical expertise and relentless work ethic, were instrumental in achieving military successes. Their legacy is a testament to the power of meritocracy and dedicated engineering. However, today’s societal shifts and diversity in the workforce may present challenges in replicating such concentrated excellence."
— [51:06]

Hanson reflects on the unique combination of talent, dedication, and societal factors that contributed to the Allied victory, pondering the implications for modern military and technological developments.

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Closing Remarks
Timestamp: [52:29 - End]

Jack Fowler thanks listeners for their questions and encourages them to join the Victor Davis Hanson fan club on Facebook. He also promotes his own newsletter, Civil Thoughts, available at civilthoughts.com. The episode concludes with a note emphasizing the upcoming appearance of a healthier Victor Davis Hanson on future episodes.

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Notable Quotes:

1. On Hitler’s Delay at Dunkirk:
   "He could have finished them off, but we got to remember that he invaded on May 10, and the bulk of the army groups came through the Ardennes."
   — [05:55]

2. On British and French Strategy:
   "There were a lot of people in Britain that said, don't ally with these people [Soviets]."
   — [21:36]

3. On Patton’s Potential Invasion of Russia:
   "The idea that Patton was going to take off with a bunch of Sherman tanks and fight these huge tank armies with Stalin and T34s and Katushkas was just crazy."
   — [30:17]

4. On Technological Advancements:
   "What we really excelled at was nautical engineering. By 1943, we were turning out North Carolina battleships, Iowa class battleships, Essex carriers—turning out the best of everything."
   — [47:36]

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This detailed summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights shared by Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler during their Q&A session on World War II, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of the episode's main points.

Transcript

[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

We'll see. Okay, I'm trying to get an ekg. I was just notified that my EKG is a year old. I've got to do something.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, we better chop chop it then so you can hit the EKG store in Selma.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I know I've got a number of.

[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

The thing that drives me every day as a dad is Dariana. We call him Day Date for short. Every day he's home hungry for something, whether it's attention, affection, knowledge, and there's this huge responsibility in making sure that when he's no longer under my wing that he's a good person. I want him to be able to sit back one day and go, we worked together. We did a good job.

[Unknown]

That's dedication.

[Jack Fowler]

Find out [e-mail] brought to you by the U.S. department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm all duded up today. Victor had a very important meeting earlier today. Sometimes I have important meetings. So the folks at the Victor Davis Hansen fan club who sent questions, thank you so much. So many came in. We're going to record today one episode. Well, actually we're going to record two episodes. This episode will be heavy on World War II questions. And the first question I have, Victor, is from Terry and Marshall and they took your second World wars course at Hillsdale and. But they have questions about Dunkirk and what Marshall writes. What puzzles me though, is why Hitler delayed his pursuit of the Allies for three days, allowing them to retreat and regroup in Britain. Couldn't he have finished them off right there? Did he make other timing mistakes? So there's two questions. Could he have finished them off and did he make other timing mistakes?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He could have finished them off, but we got to remember that he invaded on May 10, and the bulk of the army groups came through the Ardennes. It's not the Sierra, but it's rugged territory. And they had been fighting from May 10th all the way into June 10th, 15th, and they were exhausted. They had been on the. And they had. Everybody thinks the French had folded, wasn't quite that easy. They had certain advantages. They had the Dewand fire aircraft that was comparable. They had the Char B tank that had a better gun than the Germans, and they killed about 25,000 Germans, the French army that collapsed. So my point is they were pretty tired when they got to Dunkirk. And then they were looking at this thing and it was much larger than the D day beachhead of 180,000. It was over 300,000 people. There were French there and mostly British. And they said to themselves, oh, my God, this is a huge army. And the other thing was that the Spitfire Hurricane fighter force in charge of defending the homeland had been kind of wiped out and lost about 40% of its strength over that month fighting over France, where they had only 10 to 15 minutes of actual operation time. And if they bailed out, they were captured. So Goering came to Hitler and he said, the Panzers are exhausted. They can't go anywhere. We have air parity or supremacy. If they tried to remove from the beaches, the Luftwaffe will wipe them out. They're trapped and they can't get out. Let me let my Luftwaffe get the credit. And they went to the, you know, von Rensted and all the other people and said, oh, okay, they're not going to go anywhere. So they didn't think they could go anywhere. And Gurin's point was that they were. The next idea was to invade England, Britain. And they thought that one of the ways they could do this was to bring out the British fighter force, because if the Luftwaffe was bombing this trapped army, they would have to send out all the Hurricanes and all of the Spitfires. At this point, the BF109 was vastly superior to the Hurricane and it was comparable to the Spitfire. But they had already established bases in that month on French soil that were being. So that was kind of like their home base. So it was a mixture of a. They thought they weren't going to go anywhere. Nobody thought they were going to send a flotilla of private boats. Nobody thought that Britain would invest half of their fighter strength key to protect them from being bombing in a few weeks to defend these people. And Guring always had bad judgment and he did this again and again. I'll give you one other example. During the Stalingrad entrapment of late 1942, there were key moments where Paulus could have broken out and met Monstein and the relief force. And Hitler of course said, no, no, we're not going to let them out. They're going to fight for the last and they'll probably survive. But he also was told by Goering, don't worry, we can supply them by air. And he couldn't. So he was a cocaine addict and he was morbidly obese. After Dunkirk, Hitler lost K but he gave. It's hard to think of one. He had been a hero in World War I and been one of the original members of the Nazi party. So Hitler had a lot of respect for him, but he was incompetent. That was a bad decision. But I don't think anybody thought that the British Navy would be able to send the whole flotilla of the civilian fleet and the British Navy and get them all out.

[Jack Fowler]

Was that Victor seat of the pants or was there any evidence that there was some kind of strategic file plan File?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they had a general idea that each of the private. I mean they announced it on the radio. But there had been since 1939, September. There had been not mobilization but the Home Guard had started to form that people knew that they might be contacted if there was an emergency. And as it was kind of tragic because the French fought heroically as a kind of a shield to get the British back out. And they wanted them to stay, of course, because they said, you know what this is with our army that hasn't fallen yet. We still have 400,000 people and we have our equipment and maybe we can make a ring and like we did in World War I and we can save a salient or something. And the British said, no, we don't have any other army. We're going to. If we lose this army, we have nobody to reinforce people in North Africa. We, as it was, they lost all their equipment. And some people have argued that might have been too bad because it was mostly by German standards, obsolete. So it was a miscalculation. I think that was Marshall and Terry Sorensen, right? Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

I don't know.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think that's my wonderful doctor of 30 years. Yeah, he was from Reedley, California. He was a brilliant guy. He is a brilliant guy and he kept me running for 30 years. He'd seen everything. Every time you had something. You go in. Hey, Doc, I got this big swollen thing on my elbow. Hey Doc, I'm really dizzy. I got this white patch on my head. Doc. I did well, vicar, this is what it is. And then bang, bang, bang. He diagnosed it, gave you the suitable pharmaceutical or specialist visit and he was just wonderful. So actually I can think that all my health problems started happening after he retired.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was a wonderful doctor and a wonderful person too. He and his wife. He had been a student of my mom's sister, my aunt, Marshall Sorensen. So I'm very happy. I think that's from him.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, I have a blimp.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There's not very many Marshalls and Terry's in the world.

[Jack Fowler]

I bow to your wisdom. Who doesn't? I have a blimp question coming up, but very quickly to some. Some sum up Dunkirk. Did you, did you like the movie? Did you see Dunkirk came out a few years ago?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I Did you like it? I did. There was that. There were all these. Didn't. I criticized it a little bit because it gave you no strategic or tactical analysis of what was happening. Usually a director would have as a prop or a lead in. He would have a general with a map showing here's what we are. Or you would think the British admirals would be looking over there on the beach and say here are the Germans are. This is what's going to happen. Or Churchill would have a little talk with Admiral Pound and say, okay, what, what's the chance? But they didn't have any of that. But they had these vignettes of that pilot, you know, who.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Who landed on the beach or the guys that are in that shell of a ship with a machine gun. So it was. That was the same guy that did the Batman movies, wasn't it? The director, Lloyd, may have been Nicholas. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

After John Ford. I'm lost.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I think it was the director. But I liked the movie. Although it was more. Put it this way, it was impressionistic rather y than a traditional narrative of what happened.

[Jack Fowler]

Right. It's not the longest day by any stretch. Victor, interesting question from Carl here. What was the role of blimps In World War II? My dad flew in the. In the K2 and mentioned the depth chargers and the 50 caliber guns. Submarines feared them. I never heard of anything related blimps in World War II. Is that news to you?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There were two uses. One were cable blimps. So they had big thick metal cables on them and they had them all over the skies of London, Manchester, etcetera. So. And they were. It was very hard at night to see them. So when the German bombers came through, it would be like a forest of cables. And the blimp wasn't the purpose. The purpose was to keep the cable suspended and it would tear apart a plane and that it was kind of effective. The other was for submarine warfare. And that was the idea that there was a open spot in the Atlantic where American aircraft from the east coast and British aircraft, both from Britain and also from Scotland couldn't get out there. Even Greenland. And one of the things they did was they had people in blimps with radios and their idea was to go through and locate when they saw a sub come up, locate and text the location. So the Germans were. They were afraid of anything that they. That could see them. This is kind of. There's a tangential aside when Trump keeps talking about Greenland. Greenland, Greenland. He's really channeling the status of Greenland from April 1940 to May 1945. For five years, you see, there was no Denmark. It had been conquered in six hours. So this huge continental size island peninsula like Greenland on the North American Way on the edge of North America was essential for Americans to grab it before the Germans did and use it as a base to attack the U boat fleet and ensure the safety of the convoy in the North Atlantic of the Canadian American convoys. And it was independent. The United States ran it. It's not so crazy what Trump is basically saying. You know, they couldn't protect it in World War II and if we hadn't gone in there and taken it, it would have been in Commie hands or German hands. And maybe it's. They can't do it again. So it's kind of. There was a backstory to that that made.

[Jack Fowler]

That's a. It's a very legitimate backstory.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. Yeah, there is about Alberta too. Everybody thought he was crazy about the 51st straight state. And there's a what a poll. 50, 50. The people of Alberta would like to be either independent or part of the United States.

[Jack Fowler]

There's some very red areas in western Canada. Hey, Victor, we're going to look at the declaration of war and we're going to do that when we come back from these important messages.

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[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, there was two reasons why that but in the 1930s it had been central to France and to a lesser degree Britain to repeat the World War I strategy that you had to have an ally on the other side of Germany so they'd have a two front war. And that was pretty the problem they were having with Stalin and Russia was they were starting to hear information about the great famine in Ukraine and they were starting to hear things about the show trials and they were starting to hear things about the wipe the murdering of 30 or 40,000 Russian officers and.

[Jack Fowler]

So they Polish officers, right?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, no, these were Russian officers. Later it would be Poland when the war started. But before the war he wiped out the entire senior command of the Red Army. So there was A lot of people in Britain that said, don't ally with these people. And there were a lot of people in France that said, said, they saved us in World War I and they've got a huge army. So the idea was when they were shocked and they'd seen what Stalin did in the Spanish Civil War, the anarchists, I mean, the communists were pretty awful. Even though they were allied with the democracies against the so called.

[Jack Fowler]

Orwell wrote about it, homage to Catalonia.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And they were pretty awful. So they always thought that at some point that alliance would break up. So when they heard that right before Poland, just seven days before the war started, Stalin had cut a deal. They thought, well, it's just. It's just sort of contingental, transactional. So Stalin wants part of Poland, which is now Western Ukraine, and he wants the Baltic states. Well, why get in a big world war with both of them? Because they're the two greatest powers in Europe and maybe they'll turn on each other if we just sort of ignore what's. And that's exactly what happened. So there was some logic to it.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay, this is a groovy question because of the name of the person who submitted the question. She writes, my husband Vaughn, who is more of a history buff than I am, asks, what do you think would have happened if Patton had got his way and gone into Russia? I wish you a fast recovery and successful surgery. VDH Sincerely, Victoria Hansen Hunter. Yes, and she's from. She's from, I think the Central Valley. So Victoria question has a question for Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Is it S E N or S o n? It's S O N. Maybe she was from Selma High School. S E N are Danes. S O N S are Danes when their brain's blown out. Okay, that's what people used to say about us.

[Jack Fowler]

All right, Patton gets to Russia.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

What happens once you say the. Just the last part of the question again? I want to make it.

[Jack Fowler]

What do you think would happen if Patton had gotten his way and gone into Russia?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, the problem with that is everybody got the background of that is Patton was authorized or active with 3rd Army. Remember, he was kept out of the D Day landing. So a month, almost a month and a half, really. He was given the third army at the end of July and it just was phenomenal. It was supposed to go the wrong direction. It was supposed to go west and take Brittany, the Peninsula and Shakura Brest. But he just said, I only need two divisions to do it. So then he lit out eastward. And that was not what he was supposed to do. But he did not just do something that was ad hoc. He did something magnificently. So he was traveling more and more and more and more territory. Faster, faster, faster than was the first army army of General Hodges or the Canadian Britain under Montgomery. And if you look at the map, he was the furthest, most from Berlin. So if you looked at his trajectory, it was the longest and it would give. It would lead you to Prague, not Berlin. So everybody said, he's on the right. That's not supposed to happen. That is not supposed to happen. He was supposed to go and get breast and then he was supposed to be holding action slow and protect the flank. He said, blank the flanks. I've got air power. And he worked with Pete Quisetta, who was a brilliant fighter general. And anyway, he got all the way that looked like by September. And he kept saying, I got to go, I got to go, I got to go the unforgiving minute. Because once it gets cold, my Shermans have narrow tracks. They're going to be slipping in the mud and the snow and the Germans are going to have housing and we're going to be sleeping out in the snow and the days are going to get really short and we won't have air power that's covering us and our troops will not be equipped. He predicted pretty much what happened at the Ardennes and the Bulge. So they drained his supplies to supply the Market Garden fiasco. That was a terrible thing to do. But her question is, well, once they recovered from the Bulge in January and February and March and April, Patton got across in March as they all did the Rhine. And then he went wild and gobbled up territory and they got to the Elbe River. They could have taken Berlin, but that was not part of the deal. Ike said, what would be the point? And Patton said, I think you're going to regret that later on. Because he was thinking geostrategically. And Patton knew that the Germans would have surrendered Berlin to the British and the Americans. And he knew that they would fight to the death against the Russians. So the idea that, well, we're going to lose all these people taking Berlin wasn't quite factual. We could have broken our deal with Stalin and taken Berlin, but then the question is, what would have happened after that when the Russians started to break their agreements almost immediately. What I mean by that is they occupied Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and they lived, liquidated the non communist parts of those coalitions. And it was pretty clear by the end of the war they were going to be a big problem. And we had this army In Europe, about 2 million. The problem with that is that The Russians had 12 million. They had over 400 active combat divisions. They had, thanks to us, they had better tanks than we did. They had better artillery than we did, and they outnumbered us four or five to one. So the idea that Patton was going to take off with a bunch of Sherman tanks and fight these huge tank armies with Stalin and T34s and Katushkas and these massive mobile artillery programs, it was just crazy. And there was. The other problem was there was a sizable. This sounds familiar. There was a sizable number of naive people in the United States who were leftists, New Deal to the left of the New Deal. And there were strong aficionados of Russia, and they thought that he was a great ally and he'd saved us, and he had rehabilitated their communist fides. And now we were friends with the communists. And so I think a lot of people would have said, oh, wait a minute. We went over there and fought, and now we're fighting our allies after we've lost all these people. I'm tired of what. Why would we fight our allies in Patton's argument? Well, we went over there to free Eastern Europe. We were told Poland in particular is where it all started from Nazism. And what did we do? We freed it from Nazism. Then we turned it over to something worse or as bad, totalitarian Soviet. So we've got to correct that. And that was why he was relieved of command. Remember, in the peacetime army of Occupation, they put him in a fake division. That was record keeping to write a history. And Eisenhower didn't like him. He said that he saved Patton. It wasn't Eisenhower that saved him. Bradley hated his guts. It was George Marshall who said, ike, you do what you want with Patton after he slapped the two incidents in Sicily. But if you asked me, I would more or less give him a stern lecture, put him on ice for a while, but you've got to get him into the European campaign and then his. You wouldn't believe this because Patton was far right, but probably his biggest supporter was fdr. And that was an old aristocratic tie between Patton's wife, who was very, very wealthy, pharmaceutical fortune. And they had known the Roosevelt families way back, and she went and lobbied for her husband.

[Jack Fowler]

I just saw a clip of Patton's granddaughter meeting some members of the 3rd Army. Obviously, they're 100 years old. Have you ever met any of his family members?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I have. 10 years ago. A wonderful man, Jack Littlefield. He was a Big investor. He had a private tank collection and it was like number fourth largest in the United States. And he was a polymath. And I went there for maybe 10 years and we have a program with Colonel Lieutenant Colonels that are up for promotion on. They can choose the Hoover Institution every year. There were four of them. H.R. mcMaster was one, Chris Gibson, the congressman was one. And they had me take the four over to Jack Littlefield's Woodside. He died and his widow sold it off. But it was just incredible. They had every imaginable tank there. And on one occasion Jacques asked me if I would lecture on the tanks. Not that I knew as much as he did. He knew every little. And anyway, there was a grandson of George Patton, a wonderful guy. Patton's son was a three star general in Vietnam. And there was a Robert Patton. I think he wrote the Fighting Pattons. It's kind of a weird book about the family going back to the Civil War. But it was almost kind of critical about the Pattons. There was some controversy because he was sort of a philander. And his daughter, you know, he had two daughters. One of them was promised to be married to John J. Pershing and he backed out of it. He was kind of a playboy after his tragic death of his children and wife in a fire. But he broke it off. But they were very loyal to him, the two patent daughters and the wife and the son idolized his father.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay. Awfully cool.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was very trumpy in character. He had. Bernie was larger than life. But he was very, very talented. And I think over the years once the Marshall, the George Marshall Bradley Eisenhower Army War College archives, mop lobby or whatever you'd call it, that had a lock hold on a lot of the papers and the interpreter. Once that moved on, then the Ladislaw Fargo and some of the other Martin Bloomson, the people who had been empirical and actually looked what Patton did and not what he said, he started to be rehabilitated. Carlo d' Este wrote a great biography of Patton.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, anyone of a certain age loves the movie too, which, how accurate it was I don't know.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But the problem with that movie was that it was accurate. But the problem problem was that General Bradley was a consultant on it. So the Carl Malden figure that's sort of the wise guy and calm down George and I, you know, that is all crazy.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It would have been much better had they showed that Bradley was always talking behind Patton's back to Eisenhower and trying to get him fired. Bradley was always better person in the sense of his character. He didn't. He didn't. He wasn't excessive with alcohol or profanity or womanizing, but he had just a fraction of the military genius of Pat.

[Jack Fowler]

Isn't it interesting they named the tanks after him, right?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There's a Patton tank. Yeah, there is. It was used, I think it was the M46 and M55. It was used in the Korean War and they used it in Vietnam until it was a good tank. And there were people in the Marine Corps that wanted to keep it. They didn't like the Abrams, but after World War II, and the Sherman was a really underrated tank. There were certain things about the Sherman that were very advantageous, but because it didn't have the gun or the protection of the German or Russian tanks, the Americans said, we're never gonna, this is never gonna happen to us again. And they came out with a Pershing and then a patent tank that were pretty good. And then the Abrams was dominant. Yeah, I think it is today.

[Jack Fowler]

Bradley's not a tank. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

A armored transport, but it has a gun on it.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay, well, Victor, we have time maybe for one more question for you, maybe too quick, and we're going to do that when we come back from this important message. We'll return to our program shortly. But first, a critical financial alert you need to hear. The dollar reset that currency experts have warned about for decades just shifted into overdrive. And the warning signs are impossible to ignore. Central banks are hoarding gold at unprecedented rates, while global powers coordinate to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. This isn't temporary market volatility. History shows that when nations reach this level of coordination, a massive reset inevitably follows. Gold isn't overpriced at record highs. It's the dollar that's rapidly losing its 80 year global dominance. Meanwhile, central banks have purchased over 1000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years. This isn't just economic policy. It could be the early stages of complete monetary restructuring. And that's why American alternative assets created the Dollar Reset Survival Kit that shows you exactly how to position your retirement savings before this historic transition accelerates and potentially receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To jumpstart your protection strategy, call H8332, USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com Protect your wealth before it's too late. People are right to be frustrated with the cost of health care. Prescription drugs in America cost more than they should and more than almost anywhere else in the world. And that's why President Trump's new executive order to lower drug prices is such a big deal. It's smart, long overdue, and puts patients, not corporations, first. But while that change is being rolled out, let me tell you about a pharmacy that's not waiting around. All Family Pharmacy is stepping up now offering 20% off all medications through June 30th. So you can stock up and stay prepared. Whether it's ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, methylene blue, antibiotics, or just your daily prescriptions. They've got over 200 essential meds, no insurance needed. They work with licensed doctors in all 50 states. To get your prescription and ship it right to your door, go to allfamilypharmacy.com Victor and use the code Victor20. That's Victor20. To save 20% today, this is what health care should be affordable, accessible, and back in your hands again. That's allfamilypharmacy.com Victor use the code VICTOR20. The dollar reset currency experts have warned about for decades just shifted into overdrive. And the warning sign are impossible to ignore. Central banks are hoarding gold at unprecedented rates. This isn't temporary market volatility. History shows that when global powers coordinate to replace a reserve currency, a massive reset inevitably follows. Gold isn't overpriced at record highs. It's the dollar that's rapidly losing its 80 year global dominance. Meanwhile, central banks have purchased over 1000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years. This isn't just economic policy. It could be the early stages of complete monetary restructuring. That's why American Alternative Assets created the Dollar Reset Survival Kit that shows you exactly how to position your retirement savings before this historic transition accelerates and potentially receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To jumpstart your protection strategy, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com Protect your wealth before it's too late. We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen show special episode recording on the 9th. This episode is up on Tuesday, June 17th. We thank the good people of the Victor Davis Hansen Fan Club on Facebook for submitting questions. Victor here's one from Rosemary in Plano and she's she is interested in recommendations for some general history, especially after World War II. Books or documentaries or free online courses. And she writes. Why, says I, I did. You know, she went to school. She's generally our age. I didn't learn about the Korean War, Vietnam War, the Cold War. I picked up some here and there, but I don't really have a good overall knowledge of more recent history. She's been enjoying the discussions and things you do, I assume with Hillsdale on a World War II. But do you have any book that you in particular you like that's maybe about Korea, Vietnam, Cold War?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, on the Vietnam. Marc Moyer is writing a three volume revisionist history. I don't think that's the right word for it. It's trying to look. And he has a colleague who's translated Vietnamese Communist Archives. And it is a look at what actually happened in Vietnam, not just that it was all bad and we lost the war. And his argument is revisionary. I'll just give you a couple examples. So we always are told that William Westmoreland, William Wastes Moreland and Search and Destroy missions. And he makes the argument that they had pretty much destroyed the Viet Cong in the south and that the Phoenix program that targeted CIA had been very successful and most of the war after Tet had been won. And then he looked at other things that were kind of ridiculed. There's always this idea that often Operation Lang, the smart bombing, I think it was called Linebacker, where Nixon bombed during Christmas. Remember, everybody got angry. 72, that was very successful because they had laser guided bombs and they could really target specific targets. And that brought the North Vietnamese to the table. But the old revisionist is that we were very crude. We took in B52s, Operation Rowing, funded, you know, that Rolling Thunder was just horrific. It didn't do any well. And he argues very differently that that had a profound effect. Another revisionist, just to finish, is that we're told that it was a good thing to get rid of Madame Nhu and the early Vietnamese government. Her brother, I'm trying to remember his name. And then we had Kai and then Thu. But the idea that we had Diem assassinated, I think we understood. We claim that we didn't order his assassination, that somebody did it in our name and we were angry about it.

[Jack Fowler]

In a church. Of all places.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, of all places. But Mark's argument is that Diem was actually very good and he was winning the war. So if you look at that, I think the third volume is coming out pretty soon. That's something you should look at. And then.

[Jack Fowler]

Trying to remember the two Korea, Anything?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, there's two authors. I know them very well. I wasn't prepared for this question, but he just passed away. He was a professor. Actually, he's a professor at Ohio State. It's called Wick Murray. Excuse me. He wrote Williamson. Murray wrote a lot about the Korean War, especially the air. He was an expert on air power. And it's fascinating about the Communist corridor among the Yalu and Manchuria and the fights between the F 80s and the MiG 15 to get air superiority, which we did get and allowed the B29s to really.

[Jack Fowler]

But they had superior. Were not the Soviet jets at the outset better than what we had in the air?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, that's true. We had the Panther, and then we had this shooting star, the F80. And they were. They looked really sleek. But the Mikoyan MiG 15 was about 50 to 80 miles faster. It could turn better, it could climb better. It had a cannon on it. And then we came out really quickly then with this F86. And that was a heavier, bigger plane. It could dive faster. It had more thrust. It couldn't maneuver as well. But once the Americans learned how to use it, it's kind of controversial. We said that the kill rate was 8 to 1. The Soviets claimed it was 3 to 1. But we did learn after the war that most of those pilots were Russian. They were not North Korean or Chinese. So that was something that came up. I'm trying to remember the. You know, he wrote the Coldest Winter. That's a good account of the Korean War. The guy that was killed in an auto accident on the way to Berkeley. He wrote the Best and the Brightest.

[Jack Fowler]

I'll look it up while you're talking.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, he was a journalist. He got killed in an intersection in East Palo Alto. He was on his way.

[Jack Fowler]

Oh, David Halberstam.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

David Halberstrom. Yes, it was very tragic. A graduate student was driving and they went through a stop sign. He got killed. But he wrote something, I think, called the Coldest Winter. It was kind of a journalistic account of the march up to the Yallow river and then the Million Man Invasion by the Communists and the longest retreat in American military history and Choi San Reservoir and the freezing cold and the Marine Corps and the Army. It was really. It's really good.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, I actually met him once. He was filming a firing line while I was babysitting. Of all people, it's not fair to call him babysitting. Billy Bulger, the. The former president of the Massachusetts Senate and the brother of the infamous Whitey Whitey. Bulger. Hey, Victor, let's close this out with a question that is, I don't know, interesting, but quick, if you don't mind. And it's literally quick. It's from Ed Rowley. I've seen videos of a Supermarine Spitfire flying parallel to and with its wing knocking a German V1 rocket off, off course. Did that really happen? How could a Spitfire catch up with a V1 rocket?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, the Model 8 and 9 by 1944 had a level speed of 400 miles an hour. And what they would do is they would wait for the. This is not the V2, by the way, the intercontinental ballistic. Nobody could stop that. But the V1, the buzz bomb, which was a pulse jet, it had a big, you know, heavy 1500 pounds, I think, of explosive, but. And it had a gyroscope. So they would launch it from Belgium or France and then they would, they would time. It was kind of a terror weapon. It wasn't very accurate, but they could get within the city limits of the place they wanted to hit and then they would had a timer that and a pressure, so when it started to descend, they knew exactly how fast it would go. And it would then indiscriminately hit something in Liverpool or Manchester or something. But a Spitfire, who was. They had them on patrols and what they would do is rather than, you know, try to blow, to shoot them and have them blow up, they would go. And this wasn't the common way of getting with them. The common way was use, using 50 caliber machine guns or a 20 millimeter cannon. But they would, they could catch up to them on the, on the gradual dive and then they would put a wing underneath these short stubby wings of the V1 and turn right or left and flip it. And once they did that, if they could get away and some people got killed trying it, then the thing would gyrate out of control and they would do that before it got near the target. And they were pretty good at it. I think everybody thinks Germany was so much more advanced. But when you look at the Merlin Rolls Royce engine and the improvements of The Spitfire from 1940 all the way to 45, the last version outclassed the F, the Focke Wulf 190. It was a better plane. And the P51 had a Rolls Royce same engine and it was better than the, the FW190. And they updated the BF109 a lot too. That was a very difficult plane to fly. A lot of people got killed because of the landing gear. And everything about it.

[Jack Fowler]

The speed of upgrading existing weapons seems remarkable. I wonder if this happened today, how long it would take to upgrade.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, what happens in war is that everybody works an eight hour day in peace or seven hours. And then you go to war and then people start getting, you know, I'm going to work 15 hours, I'm going to take my work home with me. And everybody, the women are going to work men, Everybody gets involved and time is redefined. And so if you look at World War II, if you started the war, the Mark 1 tank, I think it weighed 10 tons, German tank, and it had a machine gun on it. The Mark 2, I think, had a 8 millimeter gun. That was considered. And then the Mark 3 and 4 had a 50 millimeter. And then the standard gun within a year or two was the 75 and 76 millimeter. And then the Germans came out with the best gun of the war, the 88 millimeter they use as a flat gun. But they put it on a Tiger. And then the Pershing came out and the Stalin had a 90 millimeter. That was all in the space. And then the armor went from 1 inch to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 inches even. And it was sloped. The horsepower of the engines doubled, all within three or four years. The same thing with planes. If you look at the first generation P39 Airacobra or the P40 Flying Tiger plane, the one that would be associated with. Or you look at the F4 Wildcat, you'd compare the F4 Wildcat to the F6 Hellcat. Or you look at the P40 compared to even a P38 Lightning, but especially a Corsair or P47 Thunderbolt. It wasn't even close. It was just brilliant engineers staying up all night in Germany and Russia and Britain and the United States. Where we really excelled was in nautical engineering. So you could make the argument that we started comparable to the British Navy. We were smaller in tonnage and number of ships, and maybe behind the Japanese and craftsmanship. But by 1943, we were turning out North Carolina battleships, 44 Iowa class battleships, Essex carriers, heavy cruisers, Gato submarine. We had the best of everything. It was just amazing. The Navy was just on challenge. Yeah, it was the most formidable navy in the world. It was larger in 1945, in May than all the navies put together.

[Jack Fowler]

Viva la meritocracy. Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I was just thinking that the other day I was watching an old movie, remember Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks?

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And I looked at all those guys with their flat Tops, pocket protectors, short sleeve shirts. Some of them had slide rules and to check their computers. And they all had. Had slight Texas accents. And they were just brilliant guys. And I thought, oh, look, they're all white males. This could never happen today. Where are the women? Where are the minorities? Who are these guys? They're racist, they're horrible. And then, you know, they were all brilliant people. Nobody ever says those guys. We don't care what they look like. We don't care what race they were. They were brilliant and they create. We haven't, you know, we haven't been back to the. I don't know if we can go to the moon anymore. All those guys are dead. And I think a lot of their knowledge went with them.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, you've been.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Unless you think that MIT students are much better than they were in the 1970s. Guys like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that, you know, everybody thought Buzz Alden was nuts.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He endorse Trump. I think he's still alive. He's 90.

[Jack Fowler]

He is.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was absolutely brilliant. He had a PhD.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I mean, he did original research and so did Neil Armstrong. They were pilots. And I think, yeah, one of the old, you know, Chuck Yeager and the guys who weren't academic that were World War II veterans in Korean War, you know, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had fought in the Korean War and shot down planes.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think later Aldwin said, well, they bailed out. I didn't kill them. But he had, I think, 10 kills or something. Yeah, they were brilliant pilots. But Chuck Yeager then said they were scientists and physicists and a good pilot, you know, had instinct and natural. But if you were going to be an academic, they knew more. He didn't. He said, they knew more about my plane than I did. They knew everything about it. But that doesn't make a good pilot. You have to be welded psychologically to the plane and have experience. But that generation of Chuck Yeager, Neil, all those guys are just absolutely phenomenal. I don't know.

[Jack Fowler]

All right, Victor, we. We're doing truncated shows.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes.

[Jack Fowler]

Today. So we thank you all the wisdom you shared. Thank the good people who again, who submitted the questions remind you folks to. If you're on Facebook, check out and join the Victor Davis Hansen fan club. If you're on X, Victor's handle, there's at VD Hansen. You want more Victor, you go to his website, the Blade of Perseus. Sign up there and. And as for me, Jack Fowler, I write Civil Thoughts, the free weekly email newsletter that gives 14 recommended readings. I do that for the center for Civil society. Go to civilthoughts.com sign up. I know you're gonna like it. Thanks Victor for all the wisdom you shared. Again, thanks folks for watching, listening and submitting questions. And we will be back soon with a healthier Victor Davis Hansen on the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye Bye. Before we wrap up today's episode, I want to share an important warning about the global economy. The dollar reset that currency experts have warned about for decades just shifted into overdrive. And the warning signs are impossible to ignore. Central banks are hoarding gold at unprecedented rates while global powers coordinate to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. This isn't temporary market volatility. History shows that when nations reach this level of coordination, a massive reset inevitably follows. Gold isn't overpriced at record highs. It's the dollar that's rapidly losing its 80 year global dominance. Meanwhile, central banks have purchased over 1000 tons of gold annually for three consecutive years. This isn't just economic policy. It could be the early stages of complete monetary restructuring. And that's why American Alternative Assets created the Dollar Reset Survival Kit that shows you exactly how to position your retirement savings before this historic transition accelerates and potentially receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To jumpstart your protection strategy, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com today. That's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com. protect your wealth before it's too late.