The Tragedy of Patton a Soldier's Date With Destiny by Robert Orlando

Author:Robert Orlando
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Humanix Books

CHAPTER FIVE

The Puppeteers

On and off the battlefield, Patton was a force to be reckoned with. Yet the very qualities that made Patton a successful battlefield general—unflinching nerve, audacity, and fearless candor—were the same characteristics that made him a nuisance when the fighting was over. This paradox, of course, is the tragic certainty of any antihero.

On the ground, Patton was a formidable asset for the Allies, a hard-charging war machine feared and admired by his men and his opponents. In the war rooms and central command, however, these same qualities made Patton a liability. He lacked diplomacy, and his actions bordered on insubordination. His reputation for clashing with authority climbed the chain of command from Ike to Marshall and others, including Roosevelt.

For all his bravado and sense of destiny, in the greater context Patton would be constrained time and again by the military apparatus to which he was devoted. As leading military historian Dennis Showalter surmised, Patton was “merely a saxophonist” in the big band that was the Allied command structure. Throughout the war, his sense of destiny would be thwarted and defined by the orchestrations of the decision makers—the puppeteers.

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