A Tribute to Sgt. Henry Gunther

Pointless Sacrifice [The Daily Reckoning] November 11, 2022 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( A Tribute to Sgt. Henry Gunther - American forces attack a village three hours before the war ends… so they can take baths… - The last American soldier to die on Nov. 11, 1918… - Then Brian Maher shows you why fools are much more dangerous than traitors… [QUICK! Count how many pennies you see]( [Click here for more...]( Here’s why: If you missed out on making a fortune with cryptocurrencies, the recent crash has finally given you your chance to scoop up cryptos for pennies on the dollar. Literally. Because there’s a cryptocurrency quietly preparing to conquer the marketplace… and it’s trading for 96% below its all-time high. In fact… … it’s trading for the number of pennies you counted above. Get your hands on this bargain crypto while you can. Find out how to make up to an 8,788% return with crypto by 2025. [Click Here Now]( Annapolis, Maryland November 11, 2022 Editor’s note: Today is Veterans Day. In honor of our nation’s veterans, we pause to recall once again the sad, neglected history of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918. [Brian Maher] BRIAN MAHER Dear Reader , 104 years ago today — at the 11th month, 11th day and 11th hour — the guns went quiet on the Western Front… And the white doves of peace took wing. Today we turn from the hurly-burly of the present. We turn from the world of manna, from the election, from the Bitcoin exchanges and the rest. Instead we reflect upon that morning of Nov. 11, 1918, so many years distant — a neglected chapter of history. It is a tale of waste. It is a tale of tragedy. It is a tale of ambition. That is, it is a tale all too human... By 5 a.m. on Nov. 11, official word came down. Hostilities would cease at 11 a.m. The news went immediately fanning out across the Western Front. It would ultimately reach the remotest switch trench. The long, homicidal nightmare, beginning in August 1914, was ending — to the relief of all. More accurately, to the relief of most… Not all were so eager to spike the guns and lay down the rifles that morning. Who were these recalcitrants? And why their reluctance? Historian Joseph Persico: Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment, and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion. Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing, boss of American forces— for example — considered the armistice terms far too lenient. He was hot to teach the hell-sent Hun “a lesson.” Thus Black Jack and his glory dogs reached for their lesson planners, grabbed the chalk and took to the blackboard… They chose to invade German positions that morning — clear through to 11. Not until the referee blew the whistle would they call a halt. One divisional commander promised court-martial for any artillery chief who hadn’t emptied out his entire magazine by 11. They were claw-mad for battle. Near 8 a.m. the furious assaults commenced… American forces took a severe trouncing crossing the River Meuse that morning — a river they could have conquered unmolested had they only waited until 11. Meantime, men of the 89th Division were ordered to seize the pinprick village of Stenay. Why? So the men could bathe. That is correct — so the men could bathe. The village housed public bathing facilities. And the 89th’s senior officer decided his grimy men should take the waters of the charming French village. You may not believe it. Yet that was the explanation on offer. The attack commenced. Perplexed and disbelieving German gunners attempted to wave off the marauding Americans: “Der Krieg ist vorbei!” But the men of the 89th steeled their nerves, lowered their chins and advanced, as if proceeding into sheets of hail… The reluctant Germans responded as they must. The war ended three hours later. Yet 61 men of the 89th would not see it. Another 304 would take their baths in a hospital… where they licked their needless wounds. We hazard all 365 would have happily waited until 11:01 that morning — when the baths would have been theirs for the asking. In all: At least 320 Americans fell dead that needless and crimson morning of Nov. 11, 1918. More than 3,240 suffered grievous wounds. Why the needless bloodspilling… when peace was but hours away? Careers hung in balance. As did ambition… Recall the divisional chieftain who condemned 61 of his men to the grave that morning so that others might bathe — a certain William Mason Wright. This human gem received promotion to Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Army after war’s end. He could claim the distinction, after all, of capturing the final American objective of the war. A less gaudy distinction fell to a young man under this man’s command that morning of Nov. 11, 1918. We refer here to Sgt. Henry Gunther, aged 23 years, of our former city of Baltimore. This poor fellow was the last allied fatality of that fateful morning — and of the Great War itself. His time of death: 10:59 a.m. [IMAGE 1] The United States Army was so decent as to decorate Sgt. Gunther for “exceptional bravery and heroic action that resulted in his death one minute before the Armistice.” Yet true decency would demand a formal apology from the same United States Army. True decency would demand a formal apology, that is, for ordering Baltimore’s Sgt. Henry N. Gunther, aged 23 years, needlessly into battle that morning… True decency would demand a formal apology, that is, for placing this man’s life beneath the career ambitions of a Gen. Wright — the subsequent Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Army. You deserved far better, Sgt.Gunther. You deserved a chance in life… the chance denied you that morning of Nov. 11, 1918… One minute before the doves flew. Below, we show you why the American entry into WWI was a foolish idea — with devastating consequences for much of the world. Read on. Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing editor, The Daily Reckoning [Over 62 And Collect Social Security? Take Action Immediately!]( [Click here for more...]( If you’re over the age of 62 and currently collect Social Security, you need to prepare now. Because Biden has given our country the worst inflation in decades – and many warn things will only get worse from here. Worse yet, the Social Security check you receive now may not keep pace with inflation… Which is why, if you don’t act now, you could fall behind in the months ahead. Is your retirement at immediate risk? To get the simple, step-by-step actions to survive inflation... [Click Here]( The Daily Reckoning Presents: The fools are more dangerous than the traitors… ****************************** Wilson’s “Gift” That Keeps on Giving By Brian Maher [Brian Maher] BRIAN MAHER A nation can survive its fools, it has been said — but not its traitors. Yet we begin to suspect the opposite is true. That is, a nation can survive its traitors — but not its fools. That is because a nation’s fools nearly infinitely outnumber a nation’s traitors. Please answer this question: How many traitors roam within your range of acquaintances? Now please answer this question: How many fools roam within your range of acquaintances? If the fools do not exceed the traitors by a count of 1,000-1 we would collapse immediately upon the floor. All evidence we have compiled indicates the ratio of fools to traitors very far exceeds even the 1,000-1 figure we cited. It may indeed approach 1,000,000-1. Being a fool is no crime, of course. We would be rotting behind the bars if it were. Much of the population would be with us — as would our very jailors. Fools nonetheless present dangers. And the damages they work often defy calculation. A fool is a fool, it is true. Yet a fool with a bad idea in his head is a child with a loaded pistol in his hand... Woodrow Wilson, Fool In 1917, after three years of relative neutrality, Woodrow Wilson ordered the doughboys into the trenches. Was Woodrow Wilson a traitor for meddling in Europe’s civil war? We would never suggest it. He may have meant the best in the world. He may have authentically wished to make the world safe for democracy — and by extension safe for America (as well as the large American banks, who had extended the Allies substantial loans). That is, he may have believed the angels were with him. But was he a fool for hurling the nation into a European civil war? Almost certainly. The warring parties had nearly bled themselves white by 1917. Neither side could shatter the other. They would have likely exhausted themselves. They would have likely come to terms and walked away, honors even. “Never again!” they would have cried. But Mr. Wilson dispatched the boys “over there” in 1917. This dispatching shifted the battle tide against the kaiser. And the allies “won” the war. Yet the Versailles Treaty that closed the war to end all wars... spawned the peace to end all peace. The German nation did not consider itself defeated on the field of battle. And why would it? Where were the Allied breakthroughs across the Rhine? Where were the German towns falling one by one to Allied onslaughts? There were none. Reality was this: Germany believed it was signing up for “peace without victory” when it signed at Versailles in November, 1919. It did not believe it was signing for defeat. The European Allies who signed the same document entertained ideas altogether different. They embraced the theory of German defeat. What is more, they embraced the theory that Germany was uniquely responsible for the civilization-wrecking warfare. Thus they yelled for harshest punishments against Germany. These punishments and the German resentments trailing behind them paved the way for Herr Hitler — with all that followed. In brief: Mr. Wilson’s fool crusade failed to make the world safe for democracy. It rather made the world unsafe for democracy by making the world safe for fascism… and communism. Mr. Wilson’s shade remains in favor among today’s overseas interventionists. His ghost has been observed recently in Ukraine, wagging an index finger against isolationism. American anti-interventionists are aware of his ethereal presence. They have countered with a wagging finger of their own, directed towards Mr. Wilson. It is not an index finger — but the middle digit. But to proceed… WWI was coined “The Great War” until an even greater war broke loose 20 years later. This greater war you know as WWII. We must return then to Versailles. Was Woodrow Wilson and his famous 14 Points responsible for the Second World War? All Roads Lead Back to Wilson Here our former colleague David Stockman hauls Wilson into history’s dock. Does David exhibit clemency? No. David instead indicts Wilson for every crime on the calendar: Had Woodrow Wilson not misled America on a messianic crusade, the Great War would have ended in mutual exhaustion in 1917 and both sides would have gone home battered and bankrupt but no danger to the rest of mankind. Indeed, absent Wilson’s crusade there would have been no allied victory, no punitive peace and no war reparations; nor would there have been a Leninist coup in Petrograd or Stalin’s barbaric regime. Likewise, there would have been no Hitler, no Nazis, no Holocaust, no global war against Germany and Japan and no incineration of 200,000 civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nor would there have followed a Cold War with the Soviets or CIA-sponsored coups and assassinations in Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil and Chile to name a few. Surely there would have been no CIA plot to assassinate Castro, or Russian missiles in Cuba or a crisis that took the world to the brink of annihilation. There would have been no domino theory and no Vietnam slaughter, either. Nor would we have had to come to the aid of the mujahedeen and train the future al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Likewise, there would have been no Khomeini-led Islamic revolution and no U.S. aid to enable Saddam’s gas attacks on Iranian boy soldiers in the 1980s. Nor would there have been an American invasion of Arabia in 1991 to stop our former ally Saddam Hussein from looting the equally contemptible emir of Kuwait’s ill-gotten oil plunder — or, alas, the horrific 9/11 blowback a decade later. Nor would we have been stuck with a $1 trillion Warfare State budget today. Does David simplify events? Do we simplify events? Perhaps so. [Military Experts preparing for a “Pearl Harbor Style Attack” on Guam?]( [Click here for more...]( Putin invades Ukraine… China launches rockets over the straits of Taiwan… And as we speak, military experts are warning the US to “Prepare for a Pearl Harbor Style Attack” on Guam. Is the beginning of World War III? [Find Out Here]( A Fool, Not a Traitor We do not propose the 20th century would have remained dull absent Mr. Wilson’s botchwork. The world was — as it always is — to its neck with fools. And these fools would have certainly gotten themselves up to mischief somehow or other. Yet we believe the hottest hells of the 20th century may have been averted had Mr. Wilson simply sat upon his hands in April 1917 — and kept the boys home. But it was not treason that sent Mr. Wilson stumbling into Europe’s war… and the world subsequently into the 20th century’s hells. It was foolishness. “God has a special providence for fools, [drunks] and the United States of America,” said Germany’s Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. But we suspect even God’s providence has its limits… Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Brian Maher] [Brian Maher]( is the Daily Reckoning's Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master's degree in Defense & Strategic Studies. 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