The Pramuka Movement of Indonesia (), officially the Praja Muda Karana Scouting Movement (), is the national scouting organization of Indonesia.
Scouting was founded in the Dutch East Indies in 1912, and Indonesia became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) in 1953. Its membership is compulsory for students. It has 21,599,748 members (as of 2011), making it the world's largest Scout association.

The organization was established on 14 August 1961 as a part of the late Sukarno government's attempt to create a Scouting-like movement "freed from (the influences of) Baden-Powell", a goal largely reversed under the succeeding Suharto government. August 14 is celebrated as Pramuka Day to honour the organisation's first public parade in 1961, wherein independence hero Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogyakarta was appointed as the first Chief Scout of the GPI.

With the 2013 education curriculum in effect, it is compulsory for all Indonesian students to join the scout movement as scouting is officially one of the study units in the curriculum. This contributes to the movement's recognition as the world's largest.

Unlike other Scouting organizations the GPI uses a full military salute instead of the usual Scout sign and salute, honoring the fighting youth of the foundational organizations that formed the GPI for their service during the long Indonesian National Revolution (1945–49).

Etymology
The name Pramuka was derived from the acronym of "Praja muda karana", (Sanskrit: young people willing to work). But before this abbreviation was established, the word was originally proposed by Hamengkubuwono IX from the Javanese term  (pronounced /pramukɔ/; lit. "front line soldier"). In W.J.S Poerwadarminta's 1939 Javanese Bausastra Dictionary, pramuka means pangarep or lelurah, which means "leader". The Pramuka word in Indonesia is currently often used as a term for scouting.

History

Colonial Period

Scouting came to Dutch East Indies in 1912, as a branch of the Nederlandse Padvinders Organisatie (NPO, Netherlands Pathfinder Organisation). After the oubreak of World War I had its own large quartier, it was called the Vereeniging Nederlandsch Indische Padvinders (Association of Dutch Indies Pathfinders). Other Scouting organizations were established by the Indonesia Scouts in 1916. As the Dutch East Indies, Indonesia had been a branch of the Netherlands Scout Association, yet Scouting was very popular, and had achieved great numbers and standards.

The Scouting organisation initiated by Indonesians was the Javaansche Padvinders Organisatie; established at the initiative of S.P. Mangkunegara VII in 1916.

As scouting organizations sprung up, scouting became inline with the national movement. Scouting organizations that sprung are the "Padvinder Muhammadiyah" which in 1920 changed its name to "Hizbul Wathan" (HW); "Nationale Padvinderij" founded by Budi Utomo; Syarikat Islam established "Syarikat Islam Afdeling Padvinderij" which was later changed to "Syarikat Islam Afdeling Pandu" and is better known as SIAP, Nationale Islamietische Padvinderij (NATIPIJ) established by Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB) and Indonesisch Nationale Padvinders Organisatie (INPO) established by Pemuda Indonesia.

In 1923, the Scouting movement in Indonesia gained ground by the full establishment of the (Dutch) Nationale Padvinderij Organisatie (NPO) in Bandung. In Jakarta, the Jong Indonesische Padvinders-Organisatie (JIPO) was established in the same year. These two forerunner organisations of scouting in Indonesia merged into one, named the Indonesische Nationale Padvinderij Organisatie (INPO) in Bandung in 1926. Outside Java, West Sumatran religious school students founded El-Hilaal scouting in 1928.

The desire for unity for Indonesian scouting organisations at that time appeared to begin with the formation of PAPI, namely "Persaudaraan Antara Pandu Indonesia", a federation of Pandu Kebangsaan, INPO, SIAP, NATIPIJ and PPS on 23 May 1928. This federation could not last long, due to the intention of fusion, as a result in 1930 the Kepanduan Bangsa Indonesia (KBI) was founded by figures from Jong Java Padvinders / Pandu Kebangsaan (JJP / PK), INPO and PPS (JJP-Jong Java Padvinderij); PK-Pandu Kebangsaan). PAPI later evolved into the Central Body of the Indonesian Scouting Fraternity (BPPKI) in April 1938.

Between 1928-1935, the Indonesian scouting movement emerged, both with a national and religious mindset. scouts with a national mindset can be noted as Pandu Indonesia (PI), Padvinders Organisatie Pasundan (POP), Pandu Kesultanan (PK), Sinar Pandu Kita (SPK) and Kepanduan Rakyat Indonesia (KRI). Meanwhile, those who follow the religious mindset founded Pandu Ansor, Al Wathoni, Hizbul Wathan, Indonesian Islamic Scouting (KII), Islamitische Padvinders Organisatie (IPO), Tri Darma (Christian), Indonesian Catholic Scouting (KAKI), Indonesian Christian Scouting (KMI).

In an effort to foster unity, the Central Board of the Indonesian Scouting Fraternity (BPPKI) planned an "All Indonesian Jamboree". This plan underwent several changes both in the time of implementation and the name of the activity, which was later agreed to be replaced with "Perkemahan Kepanduan Indonesia Oemoem" abbreviated as PERKINO and held on 19-23 July 1941 in Yogyakarta.

After Independence
When Indonesia became an independent country, there were more than 60 separate Boy Scout and Girl Guide organizations. Most were directly affiliated with some certain political parties or social groups. And there was one national organization - the People's Scouts (Pandu Rakyat Indonesia), founded on 27–29 December 1945, just almost half a year since independence, in its 1st Congress in Surakarta. Attempts were made to unify all Scout organizations into one. The fact that Indonesia is made up of many islands made administration and supervision difficult, and the Japanese occupation caused some twenty separate Scout organizations to spring up, and it took time for them to coalesce.  In September 1951, in a Jakarta conference, the People's Scouts, recognized by the Ministry of Education twice in 1947 and 1950 as the official Scout organization of the young nation, and the other 12 of the stronger Scout and Guide organizations nationwide met and decided to found a federating body to satisfy national and international needs. Representatives of these organizations decided that the time had come to merge into one national organization for Indonesian Scouting and Guiding.

With their cooperation, the Ikatan Pandu Indonesia (Ipindo, Indonesian Scouting Union) came into being. Government approval of Ipindo was granted on 22 February 1952, and President Sukarno consented to become patron of the unifying and correlating National Scout Council. With the formation of Ipindo, Indonesia became a full member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1953 as an organization of its Asia-Pacific Region. In 1955 the Ipindo hosted the country's first Scout Jamboree in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

With the beginning of the Guided Democracy period came a period of unification of all Scout and Guide organizations into one.  On 9 March 1961, in the State Palace of Jakarta, in the presence of Ipinido representatives and those of other organizations, President Sukarno gave his blessing for the unification of Indonesian Scouting and Guiding into one national organization. With the April 1961 decision to merge the Fadjar Harapan Pioneer movement organization (founded in 1959) into Ipindo and other organizations, the establishment of a single Scout Movement organization in Indonesia called "Gerakan Pramuka" was officially completed.

On 20 May 1961, President Sukarno signed a presidential regulation formally declaring Gerakan Pramuka as the official Scout and Guide organization in Indonesia and official heir and successor to the legacies of the former Scout and Guide organizations of the republic, inheriting thus Indonesia's membership in WOSM from Ipindo. On 30 July, at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta, the GPI was officially launched as the country's national co-ed Scouting and Guiding organization on the basis of the existing organizations in the republic.

Gerakan Pramuka is a former member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, having left WAGGGS and added the girls' program to WOSM also in 2002.

After Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX, other Indonesian recipients of the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, include Abdul Azis Saleh in 1978, John Beng Kiat Liem in 1982 and retired Lieutenant General Mashudi in 1985.

Gerakan Pramuka was made into a compulsory extracurricular activity in 2013 with the adoption of Kurikulum 2013, the Indonesian school curriculum of 2013. Despite that, schools, especially elementary schools, have made Pramuka into a compulsory extracurricular activity long before this policy.

Founding Organizations
By the time the GPI was founded in 1961, the following organizations helped in its formation:

 Ikatan Pandu Indonesia (Ipindo)
 Fadjar Harapan
 Persatuan Kepanduan Puteri Indonesia (PKPI)
 Persatuan Organisasi Pandu Puteri Indonesia (POPPINDO)

Programme

The Pramuka Movement incorporates both boys and girls. It is an educational movement through Scouting activities, the education being directed toward a new, just, peaceful and prosperous Indonesian community based on the national ideology. Activities of the boys and girls are conducted separately from one another. They have joint activities whenever possible and necessary. Management of the Scout Movement is carried out by the National Quarter (Kwartir Nasional or Kwarnas).

Education for young members is carried out through activities to achieve General Skill Requirements (Syarat Kecakapan Umum/SKU) and Special Skill Requirements (Syarat Kecakapan Khusus/SKK) (merit badge system) towards achieving Garuda Scout.

To achieve the goals of Scouting, activities are carried out on the group and national level. Routine activities are focused on the development of character, patriotism, physical fitness, skill and intelligence of the Scouts themselves which are very important for their future life. Activities of the special troops are organized in order to develop specific personal interest and talent and enable them to serve the community with the knowledge, ability and skill he/she have learned.

The Scouts take an active part in community development service projects. They take an active part in combating illiteracy. The success of the campaign against illiteracy in one province, gained the Scouts worldwide recognition and won them a UNESCO award.

The Scouts also participate in the drive to improve health and nutrition in the community, especially children under five years of age. Acting as extension workers, they practice how to raise cattle, fish, breed hens and grow vegetables.

Membership badge
The Scout emblem incorporates the seed of the coconut palm, a common native Indonesian plant and all parts of which are used in Indonesian everyday life, symbolizing the philosophy of a true Scout, who must make him or herself useful in all aspects of life. The seed form represents the growing spirit, physical toughness, adaptability, and high aspiration of the Scout. The logo is in maroon. The logo is the basis of the wider membership badge, which also incorporates the star, rice paddy and cotton from the national coat of arms Garuda Pancasila.

Age groups

Gerakan Pramuka is divided in two major educational groups: the member section and the adult section. The first is divided in further age-groups with different educational systems, the second provides the leaders and supports the younger members.

The officially recognized age-groups are:
 Cub Scouts ("Pramuka Siaga")  ages 7 to 10, or equal to elementary school's 1st-3rd grade, consists of:
 Siaga Mula
 Siaga Bantu
 Siaga Tata
 Scouts ("Pramuka Penggalang") – ages 11 to 15, or equal to elementary school's 4th-6th grade and junior high school's 7th-9th grade, consists of:
 Penggalang Ramu
 Penggalang Rakit
 Penggalang Terap
 Rover Scouts ("Pramuka Penegak") – ages 16 to 20, or equal to senior high school's 10th-12th grade, consists of:
 Penegak Bantara
 Penegak Laksana
 Venturer Scouts ("Pramuka Pandega") – ages 21 to 25, or equal to academy/university students.
 Adult members – ages 26 and older

A much younger level, Beaver Scout ("Pramuka Prasiaga"), exists in some provincial Scout Councils since it was started in Central Java in 2010 but has been a recognized part of the GPI movement with a growing following. It is made up of children ages 4 to 7 or equal to the kindergarten level.

Awards
Activities are mainly carried out to achieve advancement through the Syarat kecakapan Umum (SKU) or Advancement Badge and Syarat Kecakapan Khusus (TKK) or Merit Badge system. The highest rank in each age group is Pramuka Garuda (Eagle Scout).

Rover and Venture Scout Special Unit
In Pramuka, there are Rover and Venturer Scouts Special Units called Satuan Karya (SAKA). In those units, the Rovers and Venturers are able to learn various skills to be specialist that are useful for their future careers as well as to provide services to the community. There are ten different units:
 Law Enforcement Special Unit (Saka Bhayangkara) -  in coordination with the Indonesian National Police and the Civil Service Police Units
 Air Mindedness Special Unit (Saka Dirgantara) -  in coordination with the Indonesian National Armed Forces and the Ministry of Transportation
 Sea and Maritime Special Unit (Saka Bahari)  - in coordination with the Indonesian National Armed Forces, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
 Health Care And Services Special Unit (Saka Bakti Husada) - in coordination with the Ministry of Health
 Population And Family Planning Special Unit (Saka Kencana/Saka Keluarga Berencana) - in coordination with the Ministry of Health
 Plantation And Agriculture Special Unit (Saka Taruna Bumi) - in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture
 Forest Preserver Special Unit (Saka Wana Bakti) - in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry
 Homeland Defense Special Unit (Saka Wira Kartika) - in coordination with the Indonesian National Armed Forces
 Tourism Guides Special Unit (Saka Pariwisata) - in coordination with the National Police, Civil Service Police and the Ministry of Tourism
 Education and Culture Special Unit (Saka Widya Budaya Bakti) - in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Culture
 Environment Special Unit (Saka Kalpataru)  -  in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry
 Information and Communications Technology Special Unit (Saka Telematika) - in coordination with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Scout Promise (Tri Satya)

On My Honour, I promise that I will do my best to:
 Fulfill my obligation to God and the Republic of Indonesia, and to obey Pancasila
 Help other people and get involved in community building
 Obey the Scout Law.

Scout Law (Dasa Darma)

 Believe in God the Almighty (Takwa Kepada Tuhan Yang Maha Esa)
 Preserve nature and love each other (Cinta Alam dan Kasih Sayang Sesama Manusia)
 Be an affable and knightly patriot (Patriot yang Sopan dan Kesatria)
 Be obedient and collegial (Patuh dan Suka Bermusyawarah)
 Help others with compliance and resilience (Rela Menolong dan Tabah)
 Be diligent, skilled and cheerful (Rajin, Terampil, dan Gembira)
 Be provident and simple (Hemat, Cermat, dan Bersahaja)
 Exercise discipline, be brave and faithful (Disiplin, Berani, dan Setia)
 Be accountable and trustworthy (Bertanggung Jawab dan Dapat Dipercaya)
 Have purity in thoughts, words and actions (Suci dalam Pikiran, Perkataan, dan Perbuatan)

Councils
Gerakan Pramuka operates and maintains 34 province-level territorial councils (kwartir daerah) each corresponding to provincial borders and a National Council or Headquarters (Kwartir Nasional) for top-level staff and employees.

National Special Scout Jamborees
A National Special Scout Jamboree is held every five years for disabled Scouts. The seventh National Special Scouts Jamboree was held in 2007, in East Jakarta. The first jamboree of this sort to be held in Indonesia was in 1972.

Controversies
In July 2017, the Indonesian government suspended support for Gerakan Pramuka Indonesia after Chairman of the Scout National Quarter (Kwarnas) Adhyaksa Dault expressed support for Hizb-ut Tahrir, as Hizb-ut Tahrir is against Indonesia's legislative foundation of Pancasila, an ideology based on a multi-faith democracy. Financial assistance was suspended pending clarification from Adhyaksa Dault over his presence at a Hizb-ut Tahrir rally in 2013 and interview to a Hizb-ut Tahrir videographer expressing "Caliphate is the teaching of the Prophet. If God is willing, with or without our help, the caliphate will rise. Our ways may be different but our goal is the same. That is why I'm here. We keep making small changes. We have to make big changes. World order must be changed. We must impose sharia."

International units in Indonesia
In addition, there are American Boy Scouts in Jakarta linked to the Direct Service branch of the Boy Scouts of America, which supports units around the world. There is also group from British Scouting Overseas which support scouting at British School Jakarta.

See also
Bung Tomo
Hamengkubuwono IX, former vice president and founder of the GPI
Paskibraka

References

Further reading
 Scouting 'Round the World, John S. Wilson, first edition, Blandford Press 1959

External links

 Pramuka.id, official news website of the Pramuka Movement

Scouting in Indonesia
World Organization of the Scout Movement member organizations
Youth organizations established in 1961
Articles containing video clips

Gerakan Pramuka Indonesia


Katamanso War also known (Battle of Dodowa) was a war that several tribes united with the British, fought and prevented Ashantis from dominating the coast in 1824. Numerous tribes in the Gold Coast such as the Fantes, Ga, Akyems, Adas were led by the British army to fight the Ashantis. It is classified as one of the "Anglo-Ashanti Wars" according to historical evidence at the National Archives.

History
The Ashanti King or Asantehene (Osei Yaw Akoto) at that time, furious at the Ga-Adangbe for aiding the Fantes in the Battle of Nsamankow of 1824, proposed to punish them. He decided to pursue them, even if they escape into the belly of kanfra (a small flat fish).

On 7 August 1826, the war began also known as the "Battle of Dodowa". However he met a coalition of other indigenous forces allied with the Ga-Adangbe of Prampram, Ningo and Ada people under their Monarch King Tackie Kome. British, Dutch and Danish forces all together not more than 60, aided in the war with new weapons after an attack on Cape Coast in July 1824. The Asantehene amassed an army of 40,000. An alliance of British with Ga-Adangbe, Fanti, Denkyira, Akwamu and Akyems at Katamanso near Dodowa faced the Ashanti army. The Akyems were led by the Okyehene, Nana Afia Dokuaa, the only woman ruler of a major state. But the allied forces fought gallantly and overcame the Ashanti Army with a devastating victory which paralyzed the Ashanti Empire and was a factor in the loss of its former glory. This contributed to the British power and prestige rise on the coast. The Ashantis held their position for nine hours (6 AM to 3 PM).

Effects of the war
The effects of the war included:
 Smooth trading activities with less fear of invasion.
 Unity of Ga-Adangbe.
 Accra became famous and their influence spread.
 Foreign countries and strangers traded with the coast for commercial purpose.

Historical facts
The King was made to swear an oath as the 'ka ntam' (Akan for swear), 'na su (Akan for cry) = Corrupted into Katamanso.

The hair style worn by the Asante women called Gyese Nkran', (except Akra), vulgarized as Densinkran, was introduced to mourn the Asante dead in the Katamanso war.

References

History of Ghana

Katamanso War


Eric Russell Bentley (September 14, 1916 – August 5, 2020) was a British-born American theater critic, playwright, singer, editor, and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame, recognizing his many years of cabaret performances.

Biography
Bentley was born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of Laura Evelyn and Fred Bentley. Bentley attended University College, Oxford, where his tutors were J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis; he received his degree in English in 1938. He subsequently attended Yale University (B. Litt. in 1939 and PhD in 1941), where he received the John Addison Porter Prize. Bentley taught History and Drama during the 1942 summer session at Black Mountain College, as well as from 1943 to 1944.

Beginning in 1953, he taught at Columbia University and was a theatre critic for The New Republic. He became known for his blunt style of theatre criticism, and was threatened with lawsuits from both Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller for his unfavorable reviews of their work. From 1960 to 1961, Bentley was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor at Harvard University.

Bentley was one of the preeminent experts on Bertolt Brecht, whom he met at the University of California, Los Angeles as a young man and whose work he translated extensively. He edited the Grove Press issue of Brecht's work, and recorded two albums of Brecht's songs for Folkways Records, most of which had never before been recorded in English.

In 1968, he signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

His play The Red, White, and Black was produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1971 in collaboration with the Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Division. Beginning in 1975, Andrei Serban directed multiple productions of Bentley's translation of Brecht's Good Woman of Setzuan at La MaMa, with music by Elizabeth Swados. The 1975 production was followed by a production in 1976 and another production in 1978. The Great Jones Repertory Company also took the show on tour to Europe in 1976.

Bentley was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1969. That same year, he made his homosexuality public. In an interview in The New York Times on November 12, 2006, he said he was married twice before coming out at age 53, at which time he left his position as the Brander Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature at Columbia to concentrate on his writing. He cited his homosexuality as an influence on his theater work, especially his play Lord Alfred's Lover, based on the life of Oscar Wilde.

He won an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre from the American Theatre Wing in 2006 and a Robert Chesley Award in 2007.

Bentley became an American citizen in 1948 and had been living in New York City for many years at the time of his death. He turned 100 on September 14, 2016.

Bentley died at his home in Manhattan on August 5, 2020, at the age of 103.

Selected works
He wrote numerous books of theatre criticism. In addition, he edited The Importance of Scrutiny (1964), a collection from Scrutiny: A Quarterly Review, and Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968 (1971). His most-produced play, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947–1958 (1972), was based on the transcripts from the House Un-American Activities Committee collected in Thirty Years of Treason.

Books (theatre criticism)
 1944: A Century of Hero Worship
 1946: The Playwright As Thinker
 1947: Bernard Shaw
 1948: The Modern Theatre
 1953: In Search of Theater
 1956: What Is Theatre?
 1964: The Life of the Drama
 1971: Thirty Years of Treason
 1972: Theater of War
 1981: Brecht Commentaries
 1987: Thinking About The Playwright

Plays
1967: A Time To Live & A Time To Die (published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.)
1972: Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947–1958
1979: Lord Alfred's Lover (collected in Monstrous Martyrdoms, 1985)
1979: Wannsee, a Tragi-Comedy (published in The Massachusetts Review Vol. 20, No. 3)
1985: H for Hamlet
German Requiem (collected in Monstrous Martyrdoms, 1985)
Round One (published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.)
Round Two (published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.)
"The Sternheim Trilogy" containing The Underpants, The Snob, & 1913 (published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.)

Discography
The following are recordings done by Bentley for Folkways Records.

1961: "Bertolt Brecht before the Committee on Un-American Activities: An Historical Encounter"
1963: "A Man's A Man by Bertolt Brecht"
1964: "Songs of Hanns Eisler"
1965: "Bentley on Brecht: Songs and Poems of Bertolt Brecht"
1965: "Bertolt Brecht's The Exception and the Rule"
1968: "The Elephant Calf and Small Comments on Large Themes"
1968: "Bentley on Biermann: Songs and Poems of Wolf Biermann"
1970: "Eric Bentley Sings The Queen of 42nd Street"

References

External links
"Columbia fetes American theater legend Eric Bentley"
"Eric Bentley at 90" in The New York Times
Bentley discography on Folkways Records
Eric Bentley singing "Ballad on the Poet François Villon"
Bentley's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections

1916 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English non-fiction writers
American centenarians
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male non-fiction writers
American tax resisters
American theater critics
American LGBT dramatists and playwrights
American gay writers
Black Mountain College faculty
Columbia University faculty
English centenarians
English emigrants to the United States
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male non-fiction writers
English tax resisters
English LGBT dramatists and playwrights
English gay writers
British theatre critics
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Gay academics
Gay dramatists and playwrights
Harvard University faculty
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Men centenarians
Writers from Bolton
Writers from New York City
Yale University alumni
Alumni of University College, Oxford

Eric Bentley


Thomas Stephen Szasz (April 15, 1920 – September 8, 2012) was a psychiatrist and academic. He was a libertarian. In 1961 Szasz's third and most well known book, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct, was published. Szasz died when he was 92.

Early life
Szasz was born in Budapest in Hungary to Jewish parents. He grew up speaking German and Hungarian. He also spoke French. In 1938 Szasz moved with his family to the United States. He studied medicine at the University of Cincinnati. However, he was more interested in politics and philosophy. In 1956 Szasz became a professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York in Syracuse.

Szasz's arguments
Szasz was a heretic in psychiatry. This means that his opinions were very different to the ideas generally accepted within psychiatry. He said that psychiatry is a pseudoscience. He compared it to religion. In Schizophrenia: The Sacred Symbol of Psychiatry, Szasz argued that schizophrenia is a symbol that is 'worshipped' by psychiatrists in the same way that Christians worship Christ. He said that mental illness is not an illness of the brain but "problems of living".  People described Szasz as being 'anti psychiatry'. In response to this Szasz wrote a book called Antipsychiatry: Quackery Squared. He believed that mental hospitals are like prisons.

He argued that "death control", or the right to killing oneself, is a human right like birth control. However, he was against euthanasia by the state. Szasz did not believe that drug addiction is a disease. Instead, he thought that it is a social habit. He thought that drugs should be made legal.

Szasz was an atheist.

References

1920 births
2012 deaths
American atheists
Hungarian Jews
Scientists from Budapest
American psychiatrists

Thomas Szasz


General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing  (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I from 1917 to 1920. In addition to leading the AEF to victory in World War I, Pershing notably served as a mentor to many in the generation of generals who led the United States Army during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Lesley J. McNair, George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur.

During his command in World War I, Pershing rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, essentially as replacement units, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, notably in the Battle of Hamel and the breaching of the Hindenburg Line at St Quentin Canal, precipitating the final German collapse. Pershing also allowed (at that time segregated) American all-Black units to be integrated with the French Army.

Pershing's soldiers first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood June 1–26, 1918, and Soissons on July 18–22, 1918. To speed up the arrival of American troops, they embarked for France leaving heavy equipment behind, and used British and French tanks, artillery, airplanes and other munitions. In September 1918 at St. Mihiel, the First Army was directly under Pershing's command; it overwhelmed the salient – the encroachment into Allied territory – that the German Army had held for three years. For the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Pershing shifted roughly 600,000 American soldiers to the heavily defended forests of the Argonne, keeping his divisions engaged in hard fighting for 47 days, alongside the French. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive, of which the Argonne fighting was part, contributed to Germany calling for an armistice. Pershing was of the opinion that the war should continue and that all of Germany should be occupied in an effort to permanently destroy German militarism.

Pershing is the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the highest possible rank in the United States Army. Allowed to select his own insignia, Pershing chose to continue using four stars. After the creation of the five-star General of the Army rank during World War II, his rank of General of the Armies could unofficially be considered that of a six-star general, but he died before the proposed insignia could be considered and acted upon by Congress.

Some of his tactics have been criticized both by other commanders at the time and by modern historians. His reliance on costly frontal assaults, long after other Allied armies had abandoned such tactics, has been blamed for causing unnecessarily high American casualties. Pershing was also criticized by some historians for his actions on the day of armistice as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force. Pershing did not approve of the armistice, and despite knowing of the imminent ceasefire, he did not tell his commanders to suspend any new offensive actions or assaults in the final few hours of the war. In total, there were nearly 11,000 casualties (3,500 American), dead, missing, or injured during November 11, the final day of the war, which exceeded even the D-Day casualty counts of June 1944. Pershing and several subordinates were later questioned by Congress; Pershing maintained that he had followed the orders of his superior, Ferdinand Foch; Congress found that no one was culpable.

Early life

Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri on September 13, 1860, the son of farmer and store owner John Fletcher Pershing and homemaker Ann Elizabeth Thompson. Pershing's great-great-grandfather, Frederick Pershing, whose name originally was Pfersching, emigrated from Alsace, leaving Amsterdam on the ship Jacob, and arriving in Philadelphia on October 2, 1749. He had five siblings who lived to adulthood: brothers James F. (1862–1933) and Ward (1874–1909), and sisters Mary Elizabeth (1864–1928), Anna May (1867–1955) and Grace (1867–1903); three other children died in infancy. When the Civil War began, his father supported the Union and was a sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry; he died on March 16, 1906. Pershing's mother died during his initial assignment in the American West.

Pershing attended a school in Laclede that was reserved for precocious students who were also the children of prominent citizens, and he later attended Laclede's one-room schoolhouse. After completing high school in 1878, he became a teacher of local African American children. While pursuing his teaching career, Pershing also studied at the State Normal School (now Truman State University) in Kirksville, Missouri, from which he graduated in 1880 with a Bachelor of Science degree in scientific didactics. Two years later, he competed for appointment to the United States Military Academy. He performed well on the examination, and received the appointment from Congressman Joseph Henry Burrows. He later admitted that he had applied not because he was interested in a military career, but because the education was free and better than what he could obtain in rural Missouri.

West Point years

Pershing was sworn in as a West Point cadet in the fall of 1882. He was selected early for leadership positions and became successively First Corporal, First Sergeant, First Lieutenant, and First Captain, the highest possible cadet rank. Pershing also commanded, ex officio, the honor guard that saluted the funeral train of President Ulysses S. Grant as it passed West Point in August 1885.

Pershing graduated in the summer of 1886 ranked 30th in his class of 77, and was commissioned a second lieutenant; he was commended by the West Point Superintendent, General Wesley Merritt, who said Pershing gave early promise of becoming an outstanding officer. Pershing briefly considered petitioning the Army to let him study law and delay the start of his mandatory military service. He also considered joining several classmates in a partnership that would pursue development of an irrigation project in Oregon. He ultimately decided against both courses of action in favor of active Army duty.

Early career

Pershing reported for active duty on September 30, 1887, and was assigned to Troop L of the 6th U.S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Bayard, in the New Mexico Territory. While serving in the 6th Cavalry, Pershing participated in several Indian campaigns and was cited for bravery for actions against the Apache. During his time at Fort Stanton, Pershing and close friends Lt. Julius A. Penn and Lt. Richard B. Paddock were nicknamed "The Three Green P's," spending their leisure time hunting and attending Hispanic dances. Pershing's sister Grace married Paddock in 1890.

Between 1887 and 1890, Pershing served with the 6th Cavalry at various postings in New Mexico, Arizona, and South Dakota. He also became an expert marksman and won several prizes for rifle and pistol at army shooting competitions.

On December 9, 1890, Pershing and the 6th Cavalry arrived at Fort Meade, South Dakota where Pershing played a role in suppressing the last uprisings of the Lakota (Sioux) Indians. Though he and his unit did not participate in the Wounded Knee Massacre, they did fight three days after it on January 1, 1891, when Sioux warriors attacked the 6th Cavalry's supply wagons. When the Sioux began firing at the wagons, Pershing and his troops heard the shots, and rode more than six miles to the location of the attack. The cavalry fired at the forces of Chief War Eagle, causing them to retreat. This was the only occasion on which Pershing saw action during the Ghost Dance campaign.

In September 1891, he was assigned as the professor of military science and tactics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, a position he held until 1895. While carrying out this assignment, Pershing attended the university's College of Law, from which he received his LL.B. degree in 1893. He formed a drill company of chosen university cadets, Company A. In March 1892, it won the Maiden Prize competition of the National Competitive Drills in Omaha, Nebraska. The Citizens of Omaha presented the company with a large silver cup, the "Omaha Cup". On October 2, 1894, former members of Company A established a fraternal military drill organization named the Varsity Rifles. The group renamed itself the Pershing Rifles in 1895 in honor of its mentor and patron. Pershing maintained a close relationship with Pershing Rifles for the remainder of his life.

On October 20, 1892, Pershing was promoted to first lieutenant and in 1895 took command of a troop of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments composed of African-American soldiers under white officers. From Fort Assinniboine in north central Montana, he commanded an expedition to the south and southwest that rounded up and deported a large number of Cree Indians to Canada.

West Point instructor

In 1897, Pershing was appointed to the West Point tactical staff as an instructor, where he was assigned to Cadet Company A. Because of his strictness and rigidity, Pershing was unpopular with the cadets, who took to calling him "Nigger Jack" because of his service with the 10th Cavalry.

During the course of his tour at the Academy, this epithet softened to "Black Jack," although, according to Vandiver, "the intent remained hostile." Still, this nickname stuck with Pershing for the rest of his life, and was known to the public as early as 1917.

Spanish– and Philippine–American wars

At the start of the Spanish–American War, First Lieutenant Pershing was the regimental quartermaster for the 10th Cavalry; he fought on Kettle and San Juan Hills in Cuba, and was cited for gallantry. Theodore Roosevelt, who also participated in those battles, said that "Captain Pershing is the coolest man under fire I ever saw in my life." In 1919, Pershing was awarded the Silver Citation Star for these actions, and in 1932 the award was upgraded to the Silver Star decoration. A commanding officer here commented on Pershing's calm demeanor under fire, saying he was "cool as a bowl of cracked ice." Pershing also served with the 10th Cavalry during the siege and surrender of Santiago de Cuba.

Pershing was commissioned as a major of United States Volunteers on August 26, 1898, and assigned as an ordnance officer. In March 1899, after suffering from malaria, Pershing was put in charge of the Office of Customs and Insular Affairs which oversaw occupation forces in territories gained in the Spanish–American War, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.  He was honorably discharged from the volunteers and reverted to his permanent rank of first lieutenant on May 12, 1899. He was again commissioned as a major of Volunteers on June 6, 1899, this time as an assistant adjutant general.

When the Philippine–American War began, Pershing reported to Manila on August 17, 1899, was assigned to the Department of Mindanao and Jolo, and commanded efforts to suppress the Filipino Insurrection. On November 27, 1900, Pershing was appointed adjutant general of his department and served in this posting until March 1, 1901. He was cited for bravery for actions on the Cagayan River while attempting to destroy a Philippine stronghold at Macajambo.

Pershing wrote in his autobiography that "The bodies [of some Moro outlaws] were publicly buried in the same grave with a dead pig." This treatment was used against captured juramentado so that the superstitious Moro would believe they would be going to hell. Pershing added that "it was not pleasant [for the Army] to have to take such measures". Historians do not believe that Pershing was directly involved with such incidents, or that he personally gave such orders to his subordinates. Letters and memoirs from soldiers describing events similar to this do not have credible evidence of Pershing having been personally involved. Military historian B.H. Liddell Hart wrote that, on the contrary, Pershing's conduct toward the Moros was notable for its "unexpected sympathy," and for the fact that, because of Pershing's conscious effort to interact with and understand them, "he could negotiate with the Moros without the intervention of an interpreter."

On June 30, 1901, Pershing was honorably discharged from the Volunteers and he reverted to the rank of captain in the Regular Army to which he had been promoted on February 2, 1901. He served with the 1st Cavalry Regiment in the Philippines. He later was assigned to the 15th Cavalry Regiment, serving as an intelligence officer and participating in actions against the Moros. He was cited for bravery at Lake Lanao. In June 1901, he served as Commander of Camp Vicars in Lanao, Philippines, after the previous camp commander had been promoted to brigadier general.

Rise to general
In June 1903, Pershing was ordered to return to the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt, taken by Pershing's ability, petitioned the Army General Staff to promote Pershing to colonel. At the time, Army officer promotions were based primarily on seniority rather than merit, and although there was widespread acknowledgment that Pershing should serve as a colonel, the Army General Staff declined to change their seniority-based promotion tradition just to accommodate Pershing. They would not consider a promotion to lieutenant colonel or even major. This angered Roosevelt, but since the President could only name and promote army officers in the generals' ranks, his options for recognizing Pershing through promotion were limited.

In 1904, Pershing was assigned as the Assistant Chief of Staff of the Southwest Army Division stationed at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In October 1904, he began attendance at the Army War College, and then was ordered to Washington, D.C. for "general duties unassigned."

Since Roosevelt could not yet promote Pershing, he petitioned the United States Congress to authorize a diplomatic posting, and Pershing was stationed as military attaché in Tokyo after his January 1905 War College graduation. Also in 1905, Pershing married Helen Frances Warren, the daughter of powerful U.S. Senator Francis E. Warren, a Wyoming Republican who served at different times as chairman of the Military Affairs and Appropriations Committees. This union with the daughter of a powerful politician who had also received the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War continued to aid Pershing's career even after his wife died in 1915.

After serving as an observer in the Russo-Japanese War attached to General Kuroki Tamemoto's Japanese First Army in Manchuria from March to September, Pershing returned to the United States in the fall of 1905. President Roosevelt employed his presidential prerogative and nominated Pershing as a brigadier general, a move of which Congress approved. In skipping three ranks and more than 835 officers senior to him, the promotion gave rise to accusations that Pershing's appointment was the result of political connections and not military abilities. However, several other junior officers were similarly advanced to brigadier general ahead of their peers and seniors, including Albert L. Mills (captain), Tasker H. Bliss (major), and Leonard Wood (captain). Pershing's promotion, while unusual, was not unprecedented, and had the support of many soldiers who admired his abilities.

In 1908, Pershing briefly served as a U.S. military observer in the Balkans, an assignment which was based in Paris. Upon returning to the United States at the end of 1909, Pershing was assigned once again to the Philippines, an assignment in which he served until 1913. While in the Philippines, he served as Commander of Fort McKinley, near Manila, and also was the governor of the Moro Province. The last of Pershing's four children was born in the Philippines, and during this time he became an Episcopalian.

In 1913, Pershing was recommended for the Medal of Honor following his actions at the Battle of Bud Bagsak. He wrote to the Adjutant General to request that the recommendation not be acted on, though the board which considered the recommendation had already voted no before receiving Pershing's letter. In 1922 a further review of this event resulted in Pershing being recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross, but as the Army Chief of Staff Pershing disapproved the action. In 1940 Pershing received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism at Bud Bagsak, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt presenting it in a ceremony timed to coincide with Pershing's 80th birthday.

During this period Pershing's reputation for both stern discipline and effective leadership continued to grow, with one experienced old soldier under his command later saying Pershing was an "S.O.B." and that he hated Pershing's guts, but that "as a soldier, the ones then and the ones now couldn't polish his (Pershing's) boots."

Pancho Villa and Mexico

On December 20, 1913, Pershing received orders to take command of the 8th Brigade at the Presidio in San Francisco. With tensions running high on the border between the United States and Mexico because of the Mexican Revolution, the brigade was deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas, on April 24, 1914, arriving there on the 27th.

Death of wife Frances and daughters
After a year at Fort Bliss, Pershing decided to take his family there. The arrangements were almost complete, when on the morning of August 27, 1915, he received a telegram informing him of a house fire at the Presidio in San Francisco, where a lacquered floor ignited; the flames rapidly spread, resulting in the smoke inhalation deaths of his wife, Frances Warren Pershing and three young daughters: Mary Margaret, age 3; Anne Orr, age 7; and Helen, age 8. Only his 5-year-old son, Warren, survived. After the funerals at Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Pershing returned to Fort Bliss with his son, Warren, and his sister, May, and resumed his duties as commanding officer.

Commander of Villa expedition
On March 15, 1916, Pershing led an expedition into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. This expedition was ill-equipped and hampered by a lack of supplies due to the breakdown of the Quartermaster Corps. Although there had been talk of war on the border for years, no steps had been taken to provide for the handling of supplies for an expedition. Despite this and other hindrances, such as the lack of aid from the former Mexican government, and their refusal to allow American troops to transport troops and supplies over their railroads, Pershing organized and commanded the Mexican Punitive Expedition, a combined armed force of 10,000 men that penetrated  into chaotic Mexico. They routed Villa's revolutionaries, but failed to capture him.

World War I

At the start of the United States' involvement in World War I President Woodrow Wilson considered mobilizing an army to join the fight. Frederick Funston, Pershing's superior in Mexico, was being considered for the top billet as the Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) when he died suddenly from a heart attack on February 19, 1917. Pershing was the most likely candidate other than Funston, and following America's entrance into the war in May, Wilson briefly interviewed Pershing, and then selected him for the command. He was officially installed in the position on May 10, 1917, and held the post until 1918. On October 6, 1917, Pershing, then a major general, was promoted to full general in the National Army. He bypassed the three star rank of lieutenant general, and was the first full general since Philip Sheridan in 1888.

As AEF commander, Pershing was responsible for the organization, training, and supply of a combined professional and draft Army and National Guard force that eventually grew from 27,000 inexperienced men to two field armies, with a third forming as the war ended, totaling over two million soldiers. Pershing was keenly aware of logistics, and worked closely with AEF's Services of Supply (SOS). The new agency performed poorly under generals Richard M. Blatchford and Francis Joseph Kernan; finally in 1918 James Harbord took control and got the job done. Pershing also worked with Colonel Charles G. Dawes—whom he had befriended in Nebraska and who had convinced him not to give up the army for a legal career—to establish an Interallied coordination Board, the Military Board of Allied Supply.

Pershing exercised significant control over his command, with a full delegation of authority from Wilson and Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. Baker, cognizant of the endless problems of domestic and allied political involvement in military decision making in wartime, gave Pershing unmatched authority to run his command as he saw fit. In turn, Pershing exercised his prerogative carefully, not engaging in politics or disputes over government policy that might distract him from his military mission. While earlier a champion of the African-American soldier, he did not advocate their full participation on the battlefield, understanding the general racial attitudes of white Americans.

George C. Marshall served as one of Pershing's top assistants during and after the war. Pershing's initial chief of staff was James Harbord, who later took a combat command but worked as Pershing's closest assistant for many years and remained extremely loyal to him.

After departing from Fort Jay at Governors Island in New York Harbor under top secrecy on May 28, 1917, aboard the , Pershing arrived in France in June 1917. In a show of American presence, part of the 16th Infantry Regiment marched through Paris shortly after his arrival. Pausing at the tomb of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, he was reputed to have uttered the famous line "Lafayette, we are here," a line spoken, in fact, by his aide, Colonel Charles E. Stanton. American forces were deployed in France in the autumn of 1917.

In September 1917, the French government commissioned a portrait of Pershing by 23-year-old Romanian artist Micheline Resco. Pershing removed the stars and flag from his car and sat up front with his chauffeur while traveling from his AEF headquarters to visit her by night in her apartment on the rue Descombes. Their friendship continued for the rest of his life. In 1946, at 85, Pershing secretly wed Resco in his Walter Reed Hospital apartment. Resco was 35 years his junior

Battle of Hamel

For the first time in American history, Pershing allowed American soldiers to be under the command of a foreign power. In late June, General Sir Henry Rawlinson, commanding the British Fourth Army, suggested to Australian Lieutenant General John Monash that American involvement in a set-piece attack alongside the experienced Australians in the upcoming Battle of Hamel would both give the American troops experience and also strengthen the Australian battalions by an additional company each. On June 29, Major General George Bell Jr., commanding the American 33rd Division, selected two companies each from the 131st and 132nd Infantry Regiments of the 66th Brigade. Monash had been promised ten companies of American troops and on June 30 the remaining companies of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 131st regiment were sent. Each American platoon was attached to a First Australian Imperial Force company, but there was difficulty in integrating the American platoons (which numbered 60 men) among the Australian companies of 100 men. This difficulty was overcome by reducing the size of each American platoon by one-fifth and sending the troops thus removed, which numbered 50 officers and men, back to battalion reinforcement camps.

The day before the attack was scheduled to commence, Pershing learned of the plan and ordered the withdrawal of six American companies. While a few Americans, such as those attached to the 42nd Battalion, disobeyed the order, the majority, although disappointed, moved back to the rear. This meant that battalions had to rearrange their attack formations and caused a serious reduction in the size of the Allied force. For example, the 11th Brigade was now attacking with 2,200 men instead of 3,000. There was a further last-minute call for the removal of all American troops from the attack, but Monash, who had chosen July 4 as the date of the attack out of "deference" to the US troops, protested to Rawlinson and received support from Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The four American companies that had joined the Australians during the assault were withdrawn from the line after the battle and returned to their regiments, having gained valuable experience. Monash sent the 33rd Division's commander, Bell, his personal thanks, praising the Americans' gallantry, while Pershing set out explicit instructions to ensure that US troops would not be employed in a similar manner again (except as described below).

African American units
Under civilian control of the military, Pershing adhered to the racial policies of President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, and southern Democrats who promoted the "separate but equal" doctrine. African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" units were not allowed to participate with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the war, but experienced non-commissioned officers were provided to other segregated black units for combat servicesuch as the 317th Engineer Battalion. The American Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions were the first American soldiers to fight in France in 1918, but they did so under French command as Pershing had detached them from the AEF to get them into action. Most regiments of the 92nd and all of the 93rd would continue to fight under French command for the duration of the war.

Full American participation

Organization

When General Pershing met General Pétain at Compiègne at 10:45pm on the evening of March 25, 1918, Pétain told him he had few reserves left to stop the German Spring Offensive on the Western Front. In response, Pershing said he would waive the idea of forming a separate American I Corps, and put all available American divisions at Pétain's disposal. The message was repeated to General Foch on March 28, after Foch assumed command of all allied armies. Most of these divisions were sent south to relieve French divisions, which were transported to the fight in Flanders.

By early 1918, entire divisions were beginning to serve on the front lines alongside French troops. Although Pershing desired that the AEF fight as units under American command rather than being split up by battalions to augment British and French regiments and brigades, the 27th and 30th Divisions, grouped under II Corps command, were loaned during the desperate days of spring 1918, and fought with the British Fourth Army under General Rawlinson until the end of the war, taking part in the breach of the Hindenburg Line in October.

By May 1918, Pershing had become discontented with Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force, believing staff planning had been inefficient with considerable internal dissension, as well as conflict between its members and those of Pershing's General Staff. Further, aircraft and unit totals lagged far behind those expected. Pershing appointed his former West Point classmate and non-aviator, Major General Mason Patrick as the new Chief of Air Service. Considerable house-cleaning of the existing staff resulted from Patrick's appointment, bringing in experienced staff officers to administrate, and tightening up lines of communication.

In October 1918, Pershing saw the need for a dedicated Military Police Corps and the first U.S. Army MP School was established at Autun, France. For this, he is considered the founding father of the United States MPs.

Because of the effects of trench warfare on soldiers' feet, in January 1918, Pershing oversaw the creation of an improved combat boot, the "1918 Trench Boot," which became known as the "Pershing Boot" upon its introduction.

Combat

American forces first saw serious action during the summer of 1918, contributing eight large divisions, alongside 24 French ones, at the Second Battle of the Marne. Along with the British Fourth Army's victory at Amiens on August 8, the Allied victory at the Second Battle of the Marne marked the turning point of World War I on the Western Front.

In August 1918 the U.S. First Army had been formed, first under Pershing's direct command (while still in command of the AEF) and then by Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, when the U.S. Second Army under Lieutenant General Robert Bullard was created in mid-October. After a relatively quick victory at Saint-Mihiel, east of Verdun, some of the more bullish AEF commanders had hoped to push on eastwards to Metz, but this did not fit in with the plans of the Allied Supreme Commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, for three simultaneous offensives into the "bulge" of the Western Front (the other two being the French Fourth Army's breach of the Hindenburg Line and an Anglo-Belgian offensive, led by General Sir Herbert Plumer's British Second Army, in Flanders). Instead, the AEF was required to redeploy and aided by French tanks, launched a major offensive northward in very difficult terrain at Meuse-Argonne. Initially enjoying numerical odds of eight to one, this offensive eventually engaged 35 or 40 of the 190 or so German divisions on the Western Front, although to put this in perspective, around half the German divisions were engaged on the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sector at the time.

The offensive was marked by a Pershing failure, specifically his reliance on massed infantry attacks with little artillery support led to high casualty rates in the capturing of three key points. This was despite the AEF facing only second-line German troops after the decision by Erich Ludendorff, the German Chief of Staff, to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line on October 3 – and in notable contrast to the simultaneous British breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line in the north. Pershing was subsequently forced to reorganize the AEF with the creation of the Second Army, and to step down as the commander of the First Army.

When he arrived in Europe, Pershing had openly scorned the slow trench warfare of the previous three years on the Western Front, believing that American soldiers' skill with the rifle would enable them to avoid costly and senseless fighting over a small area of no-man's land. This was regarded as unrealistic by British and French commanders, and (privately) by a number of Americans such as the former Army Chief of Staff General Tasker Bliss and even Liggett. Even German generals were negative, with Erich Ludendorff dismissing Pershing's strategic efforts in the Meuse-Argonne offensive by recalling how "the attacks of the youthful American troops broke down with the heaviest losses". The AEF had performed well in the relatively open warfare of the Second Battle of the Marne, but the eventual American casualties against German defensive positions in the Argonne (roughly 120,000 American casualties in six weeks, against 35 or 40 German divisions) were not noticeably better than those of the Franco-British offensive on the Somme two years earlier (600,000 casualties in four and a half months, versus 50 or so German divisions). More ground was gained, but by this stage of the war the German Army was in worse shape than in previous years.

Some writers have speculated that Pershing's frustration at the slow progress through the Argonne was the cause of two incidents which then ensued. First, he ordered the U.S. First Army to take "the honor" of recapturing Sedan, site of the French defeat in 1870; the ensuing confusion (an order was issued that "boundaries were not to be considered binding") exposed American troops to danger not only from the French on their left, but even from one another, as the 1st Division tacked westward by night across the path of the 42nd Division (accounts differ as to whether Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, then commanding the 84th Brigade of the 42nd Division, was really mistaken for a German officer and arrested). Liggett, who had been away from headquarters the previous day, had to sort out the mess and implement the instructions from the Allied Supreme Command, Marshal Foch, allowing the French to recapture the city; he later recorded that this was the only time during the war in which he lost his temper, describing the event as "an atrocity".

Second, Pershing sent an unsolicited letter to the Allied Supreme War Council, demanding that the Germans not be given an armistice and that instead, the Allies should push on and obtain an unconditional surrender. Although in later years, many, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, felt that Pershing had been correct, at the time, this was a breach of political authority. Pershing narrowly escaped a serious reprimand from Wilson's aide, "Colonel" Edward M. House, and later apologized.

At the time of the Armistice with Germany, another Franco-American offensive was due to start on November 14, thrusting towards Metz and into Lorraine, to take place simultaneously with further BEF advances through Belgium. In his memoirs, Pershing claimed that the American breakout from the Argonne at the start of November was the decisive event leading to the German acceptance of an armistice, because it made untenable the Antwerp–Meuse line. This is probably an exaggeration; the outbreak of civil unrest and naval mutiny in Germany, the collapse of Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and particularly Austria-Hungary following Allied victories in Salonika, Syria, and Italy, and the Allied victories on the Western Front were among a series of events in the autumn of 1918 which made it clear that Allied victory was inevitable, and diplomatic inquiries about an armistice had been going on throughout October.

President Wilson was keen to tie matters up before the mid-term elections, and as the other Allies were running low on supplies and manpower, they followed Wilson's lead.

American successes were largely credited to Pershing, and he became the most celebrated American leader of the war. MacArthur, however, saw Pershing as a desk soldier, and the relationship between the two men deteriorated by the end of the war. Similar criticism of senior commanders by the younger generation of officers (the future generals of World War II) was made in the British and other armies, but, in Pershing's defense, although it was not uncommon for brigade commanders to serve near the front and even be killed, the state of communications in World War I made it more practical for senior generals to command from the rear.

He controversially ordered the First and Second Armies to continue fighting before the signed Armistice took effect. This resulted in 3,500 American casualties on the last day of the war, an act which was regarded as murder by a few officers under his command. Pershing doubted the Germans' good faith, and most of his contemporaries took the view he expressed to the House Committee on Military Affairs in his testimony on November 5, 1919:

The year of 1918 also saw a personal health struggle for Pershing as he was sickened during the 1918 flu pandemic, but unlike many who were not so fortunate, Pershing survived. He rode his horse, Kidron, in the Paris victory parade in 1919.

Later career

In September 1919, in recognition of his distinguished service during World War I, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to promote Pershing to General of the Armies of the United States, the highest rank possible for any member of the United States armed forces, which was created especially for him.

In 1976, Congress authorized President Gerald Ford to posthumously promote George Washington to this rank as part of the United States Bicentennial; Washington previously held the rank of General in the Continental Army, and wore a three-star insignia; his posthumous appointment to General of the Armies rank and the specific wording of the authorizing statute, Public Law 94-479, of October 1976, ensured that Washington would always be considered the U.S. Army's highest-ranking officer. Pershing was authorized to create his insignia for the new rank and chose to continue wearing four stars for the rest of his career.

In 1919, Pershing created the Military Order of the World War as an officer's fraternity for veterans of the First World War, modeled after the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Both organizations still exist today and welcome new officer members to their ranks. Pershing himself would join the MOFW in 1924.

There was a movement to draft Pershing as a candidate for president in 1920; he refused to campaign, but indicated that he "wouldn't decline to serve" if the people wanted him. Though Pershing was a Republican, many of his party's leaders considered him too closely tied to the policies of the Democratic Party's President Woodrow Wilson. Another general, Leonard Wood, was the early Republican front runner, but the nomination went to Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio, who went on to win the general election.

In 1921, Pershing became Chief of Staff of the United States Army, serving for three years. He created the Pershing Map, a proposed national network of military and civilian highways. The Interstate Highway System instituted in 1956 bears considerable resemblance to the Pershing map. On his 64th birthday, September 13, 1924, Pershing retired from active military service. (Army regulations from the late 1860s to the early 1940s required officers to retire on their 64th birthday.)

On November 1, 1921, Pershing was in Kansas City to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Liberty Memorial that was being constructed there, (now known as the National World War I Museum and Memorial). Also present that day were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of the Belgian Army, Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty of the British Royal Navy, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of the French Army, and General Armando Diaz of the Royal Italian Army. One of the main speakers was Vice President Calvin Coolidge. In 1935, bas-reliefs of Pershing, Jacques, Foch and Diaz by sculptor Walker Hancock were added to the memorial. Pershing also laid the cornerstone of the World War Memorial in Indianapolis on July 4, 1927.

On October 2, 1922, amid several hundred officers, many of them combat veterans of World War I, Pershing formally established the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) as an organization at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. ROA is a 75,000-member, professional association of officers, former officers, and spouses of all the uniformed services of the United States, primarily the Reserve and United States National Guard. It is a congressionally chartered Association that advises the Congress and the President on issues of national security on behalf of all members of the Reserve Component.

In 1924, Pershing became a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was also an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and a Veteran Companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. On January 5, 1935, Pershing was designated a Military Order of the World Wars Honorary Commander-in-Chief for Life.

Pershing served on a committee of the Sons of the American Revolution to establish and recognize Constitution Day in the United States.

During the 1930s, Pershing largely retreated to private life, but returned to the public eye with publication of his memoirs, My Experiences in the World War, which were awarded the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for history. He was also an active Civitan during this time.

In 1940, before and after the Fall of France, Pershing was an outspoken advocate of aid for the United Kingdom during World War II.

In August 1940, he publicly supported the "Destroyers for Bases Agreement", whereby the United States sold fifty warships from World War I to the UK in exchange for lengthy leases of land on British possessions for the establishment for military bases.

In 1944, with Congress' creation of the five-star rank of General of the Army, Pershing was still considered to be the highest-ranking officer of the United States military as his rank was General of the Armies. "In [1799] Congress created for George Washington the rank of General of the Armies ... General [Ulysses S.] Grant received the title of General of the Army in 1866. ... Carefully Congress wrote a bill (HR 7594) to revive the rank of General of the Armies for General Pershing alone to hold during his lifetime. The rank would cease to exist upon Pershing's death." Later, when asked if this made Pershing a five-star general, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson commented that it did not, since Pershing never wore more than four stars, but that Pershing was still to be considered senior to the present five-star generals of World War II.

In July 1944, Pershing was visited by Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle. When Pershing asked after the health of his old friend, Marshal Philippe Pétain – who had headed the pro-German Vichy regime until it was dissolved in late 1942 – de Gaulle replied tactfully that, when he last saw him, the Marshal was well.

Death

On July 15, 1948, Pershing died of coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure at age 87 at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., which was his home after 1944. He lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda and following a state funeral, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. near the grave sites of the soldiers he commanded in Europe. The site is now known as Pershing Hill. George C. Marshall, then serving as U.S. Secretary of State, was in charge of funeral plans.

Summary of service

Dates of rank

Proposed six-star insignia

Assignment history

1882: Cadet, United States Military Academy
1886: Troop L, Sixth Cavalry
1891: Professor of Tactics, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
1895: 1st Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry Regiment
1897: Instructor, United States Military Academy, West Point
1898: Major of Volunteer Forces, Cuban Campaign, Spanish–American War
1899: Officer-in-Charge, Office of Customs and Insular Affairs
1900: Adjutant General, Department of Mindanao and Jolo, Philippines
1901: Battalion Officer, 1st Cavalry and Intelligence Officer, 15th Cavalry (Philippines)
1902: Officer-in-Charge, Camp Vicars, Philippines
1904: Assistant Chief of Staff, Southwest Army Division, Oklahoma
1905: Military attaché, U.S. Embassy, Tokyo, Japan
1908: Military Advisor to American Embassy, France
1909: Commander of Fort McKinley, Manila, and governor of Moro Province
1914: Brigade Commander, 8th Army Brigade
1916: Commanding General, Mexican Punitive Expedition
1917: Commanding General for the formation of the National Army
1917: Commanding General, American Expeditionary Forces, Europe
1921: Chief of Staff of the United States Army
1924: Retired from active military service
1925: Chief Commissioner assigned by the United States in the arbitration case for the province of Tacna between Peru and Chile.

Honors and awards

Distinguished Service Cross Citation

In 1940 General Pershing was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action leading an assault against hostile Moros at Mount Bagsak, on the island of Jolo in the Philippines on June 15, 1913.

Citation
For extraordinary heroism against hostile fanatical Moros at Mount Bagsak, Jolo, Philippine Islands on June 15, 1913. He personally assumed command of the assaulting line at the most critical period when only about 15 yards from the last Moro position. His encouragement and splendid example of personal heroism resulted in a general advance and the prompt capture of the hostile stronghold.

United States decorations and medals

Note: The dates indicated are the date the award was issued, not the date of action the award is based on.

In 1932, eight years after Pershing's retirement from active service, his silver citation star was upgraded to the Silver Star decoration. In 1941, he was retroactively awarded the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal for service in Germany following the close of World War I. As the medal had a profile of Pershing on its obverse, Pershing became the only soldier in the history of the U.S. Army, and only one of four in the entire U.S. Armed Forces, eligible to wear a medal with his own likeness on it. Navy admirals George Dewey, William T. Sampson and Richard E. Byrd were also entitled to wear medals with their own image on them.

International awards

Civilian awards

Congressional Gold Medal
Thanks of Congress
Distinguished Service Medal, American Legion
Special Medal of the Committee of the city of Buenos Aires
Induction into the Nebraska Hall of Fame (1963)
Honored with a U.S. postage stamp in 1961

Personal life and family
Pershing was a Freemason, a member of Lincoln Lodge No. 19, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Francis Pershing (son)

Colonel Francis Warren Pershing (1909–1980), Pershing's son, served in the Second World War as an advisor to the Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall. After the war he continued with his financial career and founded a stock brokerage firm, Pershing & Company. In 1938, he married Muriel Bache Richards, granddaughter of financier Jules Bache. He was father to two sons who both served in Vietnam War, Colonel John Warren Pershing III (1941–1999) and Second Lieutenant Richard W. Pershing (1942–1968). John Pershing III served in the Army from 1964 to 1967 and Army Reserve from 1967 to 1999. He attained the rank of colonel, and his assignments included special assistant to Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan. Richard Pershing served as a second lieutenant in the 502nd Infantry and was killed in action on February 17, 1968, in Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War.

Nita Patton (fiancée)

In 1917, two years after the deaths of his wife Helen and three daughters, Pershing courted Anne Wilson "Nita" Patton, the younger sister of his protégé, George S. Patton.

Pershing met her when she traveled to Fort Bliss to visit her brother, and he introduced them. Pershing and Nita Patton soon began a relationship; they became engaged in 1917, but their separation because of Pershing's time in France during World War I ended it. Nita Patton never married, while Pershing remained unmarried until he secretly wed Micheline Resco in 1946.

Micheline Resco (second wife)

Pershing had wartime affairs, including one with French-Romanian artist Micheline Resco (1894–1968), and he later expressed regret that he had let Nita Patton "get away". Resco was 34 years his junior and they had known each other and exchanged encoded love letters since meeting in Paris in 1917, where Resco painted Pershing's portrait. In 1946, Pershing secretly wed Resco in his Walter Reed Hospital apartment.

Legacy

Since 1930, the Pershing Park Memorial Association (PPMA), headquartered in Pershing's hometown of Laclede, Missouri, has been dedicated to preserving the memory of General Pershing's military history.
On November 17, 1961, the United States Postal Service released an 8¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Pershing, shown at right.
The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas, is named in honor of Pershing. Carrying the nickname: "Black Jack Brigade"

In popular culture

Film:
Pershing is played by Joseph W. Girard in the 1941 film Sergeant York
Pershing is played by Milburn Stone in the 1955 film The Long Gray Line, which was based on Martin 'Marty' Maher's autobiography, Bringing Up the Brass: My 55 Years at West Point which depicts Pershing swearing Maher into the army.
Pershing is played by Herbert Heyes in the 1955 film The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell.
Pershing is played by Ron Perlman in the 2019 film The Great War.

Television:
The actor Jody McCrea was cast as Lieutenant Pershing in the 1962 episode, "To Walk with Greatness", on the syndicated television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, three outlaws endanger an Indian treaty, as Pershing sets forth to find the men. Frank Ferguson was cast as Colonel Carr.
Pershing is played by Marshall Teague in the 1997 Theodore Roosevelt biographical miniseries Rough Riders, as the commander of the Buffalo Soldiers during the Battle of San Juan Hill.

Literature:
Pershing appears as a character in The Friends of Pancho Villa (1996), a historical novel by James Carlos Blake.
Pershing also appears in Hard Magic: The Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia (2011).
He is mentioned frequently as one of the commanders in Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series in the volumes set during and shortly after the alternate history version of World War I, but his actual appearance is very brief.
He also has a short appearance in the Anton Myrer novel, Once An Eagle.
Pershing is one of the main characters in Jeffrey Shaara's novel To the Last Man.

See also
General Pershing WWI casualty list
M26 Pershing Tank
MGM-31 Pershing Missile
Pershing (doughnut)

References
Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography
Adas, Michael. "Ambivalent Ally: American Military Intervention and the Endgame and Legacy of World War I" Diplomatic History (2014) 38#4: 700–12.
Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace New York, Basic Books, 2002.
Edmonds, James. Military Operations: France and Belgium: 1914-18, London: MacMillan, 1935
Faulkner, Richard S. Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I (University Press of Kansas, 2017). xiv, 758 pp
Goldhurst, Richard. Pipe Clay and Drill: John J. Pershing, the classic American soldier (Reader's Digest Press, 1977)
Lacey, Jim. Pershing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Mordacq, Henri. Unity of Command: How it was Achieved, Paris: Tallandier, 1929 (translated by Major J.C. Bardin, National War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania)
O'Connor, Richard. Black Jack Pershing. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1961.
Pershing, John J., and John T. Greenwood. My Life Before the World War, 1860–1917: A Memoir. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2013.
Pershing, John J. My Experiences in the World War, Volume I New York: Frederick Stokes, 1931
Perry, John. Pershing: Commander of the Great War. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2011.
Smith, Gene. Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing (Wiley, New York, 1998)
Smythe, Donald. Guerrilla Warrior: The Early Life of John J. Pershing (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1973)

Vandiver, Frank E. Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing – Volume I (Texas A&M University Press, Third printing, 1977)
Vandiver, Frank E. Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing – Volume II (Texas A&M University Press, Third printing, 1977)
Weigley, Russell Frank. History of the United States Army (1967)
Welsome, Eileen. The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa: a True Story of Revolution and Revenge. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2006.
Woodward, David R. The American Army and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2014). 484 pages online review
Yockelson, Mitchell (Foreword by John S. D. Eisenhower). Borrowed Soldiers: Americans under British Command, 1918 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008)
Yockelson, Mitchell. Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat at the German Army in World War I'' (New York: NAL, Caliber, 2016)

External links

 Pershing Museum
 New York Times obituary

 Black Jack Pershing in Cuba
 Chapter IV, General of the Armies John J. Pershing, State Funeral, 15–19 July 1948  in The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funeral, 1921–1969  by B. C. Mossman and M. W. Stark, United States Army Center of Military History
  at Nebraska State Historical Society
 Americans Under British Command, 1918 at Borrowed Soldiers

 John J. Pershing Papers at Library of Congress
 John J. Pershing at the World Digital Archive

 The National Society of Pershing Rifles
 The Pershing Foundation

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John J. Pershing