Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is will trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day, June 6, 1944

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land…

What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms…

By order of

JOHN A. LOGAN,
Commander-in-Chief

I’ve heard that phrase a lot, and I remember working in the Defense industry and noticing a big difference between funding under Presidents Reagan and Clinton.

But is it true? Turns out, mostly yes, in terms of funding National Defense.

I looked at US Defense Spending (Historical Tables, Budget of the U.S. Government, Table 4.1) from 1977 to the present. The data is presented by Federal Fiscal Year, so I associated the President and Congress with the appropriate fiscal year.  For example, President Bush and the First Session of the 110th Congress (Speaker Pelosi and the 2006 Democrats) started the budget process in February 2007 for FY2008 (Oct 1 2007 through Sept 30 2008) . The Fiscal Year 2009 budget (for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1 2008) is currently being discussed in the Second Session of the 110th Congress.

Let’s start with President Carter and the Democratic 95th and 96th Congresses. What I found is that after years of post-Vietnam Democratic cuts, President Carter and the Congress actually increased Defense Spending significantly (7.5%, 11%, 15%, 17.5%). In My (revised) Opinion, Carter is blamed somewhat unfairly for the ‘hollow military’, while prior Democratic Congresses deserve the blame (along with President Ford to some extent). Note that years of cuts had taken their toll on the military.

President Reagan swept in with a GOP Senate and Democratic House for six years: defense spending increased 17%, 13%, 8%, 11%, 8%, and 3%.  Reagan’s last two years and the Democratic 100th Congress saw a 3% and 5% increase. Reagan demanded that General Secretary Gorbachev “tear down this (Berlin) Wall” in 1987; the Wall fell in 1989.

President George H.W. Bush and the Democratic 101st Congress cut defense spending by 2% and 10% (the ‘Peace Dividend’).  Germany was unified in 1990; Soviet Communism collapsed in 1990. Bush and the Democratic 102nd Congress increased defense spending by 9% after the First Gulf War, then cut defense by 3% in his last budget.

President Clinton and the Democratic 103rd Congress cut defense by 4% and 3%, then the 1994 GOP 104th Congress cut defense by 2% then increased defense by 2%. Clinton’s second term and the GOP 105th Congress cut defense by 1% then increased defense by 2%.  The GOP 106th Congress and Clinton increased defense by 8% and 3%.

President George W. Bush got an increase of 14% in his first defense budget, with a GOP House and Democratic Senate (107th Congress). After the 9/11 attacks, Bush and the 107th Congress increased defense by another 17%.  Bush and the GOP 108th Congress increased defense by 12% and 9%, then Bush and the GOP 109th Congress increased defense by 5% and 10%.

I am concerned that a Democratic Congress, with a possible Democratic President, will gut the military just like it was gutted after Vietnam…

For a different view of this topic, the Heritage Foundation analyzed defense spending as a percentage of GDP, and shows that defense spending (at 4% of GDP) is below the 45-year average of 5.5% and well below Vietnam and Cold War levels.

Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in the US than in Mexico.  While some complain that it is just another ‘commercial’ holiday used to sell Corona, I think it is fitting that the US should celebrate the Mexican Victory at the Battle of Puebla, because the outcome of the American Civil War may have been different if the Mexicans had been defeated, and if the French had decided to intervene on the side of the Confederacy.

Napoleon III had dreams of a Second French Empire, conquering Mexico and Central America, and building a Canal across Nicaraugua.  The French, along with the Spanish and English, invaded Mexico in 1861 / 1862. They occupied the port of Veracruz on the pretext of collecting debts repudiated by President Benito Juarez (the Customs House in Veracruz was the main source of revenue for the Mexican Government).   The Europeans gambled that the US, embroiled in the American Civil War, would not be able to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. When Spain and Great Britain realized that Napoleon intended to take Mexico, they abandoned the venture. 

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, May 5, 1862. About 4,500 Mexican soldiers, artillery, and cavalry commanded by Ignacio Zaragoza defended a pair of hilltop forts North of Puebla. The overconfident French, commanded by Charles de Lorencez, attacked the forts with about 6,000 soldiers and artillery. The French assaults were repulsed, and Zaragoza counterattacked, flanking the French and forcing their retreat. Zaragoza’s one-line message to Juarez read, ”The national arms have been covered with glory”.

As a result of Zaragoza’s victory, Napoleon sent about 29,000 soldiers to reinforce the French Intervention. Napoleon installed Maximilian, an Austrian Archduke, as the Emperor of Mexico in 1864. The Mexican Republican Liberals under Juarez (with American arms and aid) tied up the French forces until the end of the American Civil War. In 1865, the USA sent warnings to the French that the Monroe Doctrine would now be enforced (in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s “one war at a time” policy), sent troops to the US / Mexican border, and established a naval blockade to prevent French reinforcement.

The French agreed to withdraw in 1866, Mexican Republican forces defeated Imperial forces, and Maximilian was executed in 1867.

Viva Mexico! Viva Juarez! Viva el Cinco de Mayo!