There’s a local braying ass of a politician running for re-election on the usual “I love me some Jesus and fetuses and flags and puppy gods and family… heaven to me would be havin’ corn on the cob with my wife and kids and Jesus and then all watchin’ a fetus wave his first flag” ticket. He’s pro-war and one of his comments (between folksy scenes of walking in cornfields- in rolled up shirt sleeves of course) is “I’ve studied our hist’ry, and we’re a great nation cause we take risks… people usin’ extreme caution never became great Americans” or some nonsense to that effect.
For a letter to the editor I’m writing I’m trying to get some “extreme caution” moves that turned out well.
BATTLE OF MIDWAY- lots of accusations and arguments as to how competent or incompetent Spruance was, but one thing seems pretty certain. His staff and even the enlisted men practically begged him to pursue the retreating Japanese fleet after their aircraft carriers were sunk and all but called him cowardly to his face for not pursuing. Later it was learned what Spruance may or may not have suspected then: if he had pursued he would have sailed straight into an ambush by a really pissed off and looking for blood Yamamoto and the undamaged reinforcements of the Japanese navy, the already seriously damaged American fleet and shot-to-hell airplanes would have probably been decimated. As was he pulled back, Yamamoto had to turn back, and Midway was the turning point in the war in the Pacific.
Unfortunately I can think of more times when NOT being cautious resulted in disaster than when being cautious provably was for the best.
ALAMO- 180 of us, old fort with some major exposed spots, outnumbered 25:1 by the advancing army- may or may not be able to get reinforcements through that… I say let’s risk it.
BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN- An obvious one- Custer threw caution to the winds but it didn’t result in a triumph pulling Sitting Bull down Madison Ave.
Any more you can think of for either category? Doesn’t have to be military.
ETA: I just realized I made a typo and wrote puppy gods instead of puppy dogs… but I like the imagery so well I’ll leave it alone.
The obvious one is the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US military wanted JFK to go all Dr Strangelove all over Cuba, which would have started WWIII for certain.
I think the war of 1812 could have gone a bit better (i.e. not happened), really the only thing it proved is that given the right conditions we could beat the British Army’s “B” Team in a single handpicked isolated battle.
You could really make a legitimate case either way for the Civil War.
Overall though, I think he’s right, and not just in that stupid “Well DUH if history was different America wouldn’t be exactly the same” way. America was founded and developed on risks at best, and from extreme bouts of luck and good leadership counteracting our recklessness at worse (for Chrissake half of our colonial economy was smuggling against the wishes of the most powerful nation in the world for a while). I mean I disagree with what he’s trying to GET at (I disagree with the war and such), but I think overall in the past we’ve been lucky enough to have what seem like entirely bad ideas, either in hindsight or at the time, work in our favor.
1860: South Carolina adopts a “wait and see” attitude, in the reasonable expectation that the US government won’t waste resources on a fort that protects a harbor in somebody else’s county.
1929: Investors realize the risk of buying stock on margin in a market where the invested amount already exceeds the actual value of the industrial base it’s financing.
1953: Dylan Thomas decides to let those 18 whiskies hit bottom before hoisting number 19.