Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 21, 2014 How history looked 60 years ago Dreams are strange. Recently, I was half-asleep and wishing I could find a copy of “History’s 100 Greatest Events” by William A. De Witt, illustrated by Samuel Nisenson. I thought it might be a great book to go over his- tory with my grandchildren. Picture my delight when I was stacking up the books my wife bought at the recent Glen Rock Public Library sale and there it was! I called out to my wife and told her how happy I was and how clever she had been to buy that book. She seemed bemused. When I showed her the book she said she had not bought it. The books in the box of purchases con- sisted of children’s books about Pocahontas, the founding fathers, famous composers, and cute animals. I remembered buying a second copy of “History’s 100 Greatest Events” about 20 years ago. How it got into that box remains a mystery. The first reference is to Moses and the Ten Command- ments: “He brought into the world a moral influence that has penetrated every part of the globe.” The biographical data is a paraphrase of Exodus. In the 60 years that have passed, some scholars have cited the colossal explosion of the volcano Thera near Crete as having touched off the 10 plagues of Egypt in a way that confirms the events leading up to Passover. Buddha also receives a respectful biography. Confucius, though not a religious leader so much as a Chinese public moralist, was also given a page. Jesus receives two pages that amount to reverential awe. Since the book was published, the Shroud of Turin has provided startling evidence that something miraculous happened just after the crucifixion, and analysis of scribal penmanship indicates that the Gospels were written before the end of the First Century -- not transcribed several cen- turies later as in the secular scientific theory in 1954. The next chapter describes the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews, and ends with a single sentence about the establishment of Israel in the middle of the 20th century. Mohammed, as the book spells his name, is treated somewhat more warily, though the author points out that abuse of his original ideas was also a factor so that many of his heirs lived “largely on plunder and discriminatory taxa- tion of conquered peoples.” The book does reflect a certain pro-American bias. The American Revolution gets 10 pages, starting with Paul Revere’s Ride, which the author concedes was not very important since Revere got caught and escaped early in his ride and the ammunition he was trying to protect was cap- tured. Napoleon gets two pages, as does Simon Bolivar. Oliver Cromwell is not mentioned at all. Neither is Otto von Bis- marck. The author does not seem to lack integrity. In the pas- sage on “Darwin and Wallace Papers Stir Linnaean Society over Evolution” he dares to mention Alfred Russel Wal- lace who wrote Darwin a letter that arrived in 1858 and then arrived in England in 1860 to find Darwin had dis- covered “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” - - terms Darwin never used before he read Wallace’s letter. The author adds: “The Darwinian theory...seemed to fail to explain any change beyond the range of existing variation beyond the range of existing variation...Most of the muta- tions observed didn’t seem to be of any particular survival value.” In other words, De Witt, who elsewhere reports on the mechanical aspects of science very effectively, had the gall to suggest as late as 1954 that Darwin’s theory had not been proved. Conversely, Louis Pasteur, never got into the book, not even the index. Rudolf Virchow never got in either. The many scientists listed are associated with the gaso- line engine, radio, the flying machine, and television. The authors would appear to have been born just before the turn of the 20th century, too young, perhaps, to remember when diphtheria and syphilis were incurable and tuberculosis was largely so. The first airplane, incidentally, is today credited to Gus Whitehead, an American born Gustaf Weisshaupt in Bavaria, by Jane’s record books, generally considered the most authoritative in the field. Whitehead had witnesses. The Wright brothers had the sense to bring a movie camera, but that was revealed long after 1954. World War I is responsibly described as mutual fault, with the Germans as much to blame as the Russians or Austrians. The Treaty of Versailles is seen as a diplomatic disaster. The U.S. colonization of the Philippines, the author admits, following the Spanish-American War, led to “severe postwar fighting with the Filipinos, who had been led to expect immediate independence.” The Pearl Harbor chapter includes a couple of priceless couplets. The author wrote, “Although later controversial evidence indicated that radar equipment had picked up the approach of the Japanese planes, the warning was disre- garded. Always condescending toward the Japanese up to that point, Americans suddenly had no way to show their innate sense of superiority -- so long resented by Orien- tals.” Japan’s actual declaration of war on Dec. 7, 1941, dropped off a few hours late because the typists were too drunk to get it through the machine a half-hour before the attack, cited a century of Anglo-Saxon bullying as a pretext. The same year “History’s 100 Greatest Events” hit print, Rear Admiral Robert Theobald’s “The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor” disclosed that the White House had read the trans- lated diplomatic code and knew the Japanese embassies had been ordered to burn their records and break up their decoding machines. “This means war,” Franklin D. Roosevelt told Harry Hopkins. Washington failed to warn the Pacific Fleet, in a way that was either moronic or very suspicious. De Witt, to his credit, left the door open to further investigation. De Witt expresses his own horror at the A-bomb attacks on Japa- nese civilians, but concedes that most U.S. troops saw it as a life-saver and were not upset at the time. D-Day in Normandy, June 6, 1944, is given credit for Hitler’s downfall. I am a card-carrying anti-communist, but the German army was destroyed at Stalingrad in 1942-43 and at Kursk in the summer of 1943. No Americans fought in either battle. These battles did not make the book. Incredibly, there is no specific mention of the Holocaust. The closest touch is an allusion to the fact that German and Russian forced labor was even worse than the African slave trade. As bad as we sometimes were, both Hitler and Stalin were incontestably worse. Another oddity is a sentence describing the Ku Klux Klan as a necessary response to carpetbaggers pops up in the same article where the author extols Abraham Lincoln’s true greatness against critics of the author’s era. This opin- ion is an anachronism straight out of “Gone with the Wind” if not quite “Birth of a Nation.” (Most of the newspaper editors and professors who reviewed the book’s text seem to have been Southerners born before 1900.) Ulysses S. Grant was not a malicious man, yet the Grant administra- tion put 500 Klansmen on trial after the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and sent 100 to federal prisons because local juries could not interrupt a campaign that was racist, often brutal, and frequently terroristic. School textbooks do not usually mention this, either. The Klan was not nice. The book ends with the “mess” in Korea. The author sees reason for hope in the fact that the United Nations sent troops to help the South Koreans and the Americans defend South Korea from a communist invasion. He cannot be blamed for never having heard of the Taft-Katsura Agree- ment of 1905, in which Theodore Roosevelt gave Korea to Japan, or the Root-Takahira Agreement in 1912, where Theodore Roosevelt gave Japan economic control of Man- churia. The author may also have missed the Cairo Confer- ence of 1943 in which Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek of Nationalist China signed a pledge that Korea would become an independent nation after the defeat of Japan. Instead, Roosevelt, followed by Truman, contrived a boots-on-the-ground Soviet tank and infantry invasion of Korea and the U.S. gave half the country away to the Soviet Union at a time when the United States had a monopoly on the atomic bomb and Russia was more concerned with Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. The communists were probably dumbfounded that we even bothered to fight for Korea. We never had before. If you read between the lines, De Witt not only knew the background of what was happening as of 1954, but told the truth in guarded terms instead of blatantly lying about it like the textbooks approved by various U.S. boards of educa- tion. Public school survivors are astounded when told some of the facts that “History’s 100 Greatest Events” reveals, but will also enjoy a genuine appreciate for the founders of the great religions, the great practical scientists, and the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Another 60 years down the road, we may be ready for this book. Letters to the Editor Backing Scanlan for township committee Dear Editor: Seniors living on fixed incomes in Wyckoff are always concerned about property taxes. Unaffordable property taxes are one of the key reasons seniors move out of town. During his term in office, I have seen Wyckoff Town- ship Committeeman Scanlan’s commitment to ensuring the lowest possible municipal taxes while providing the best possible services for our money. As deputy chair of the Finance Committee, Brian has worked to keep increases in expenses close to one percent less than inflation. Because of his stewardship, the town has been able to deal with the onerous requirements imposed by Trenton for increased payments for pension and health benefits. During Brian’s time in office, Wyckoff has seen great success in winning grants for open space and recreation and for infrastructure improvements. Committeeman Scanlan has proven his ability to serve us well and with integrity over these last five years. That’s why I am wholeheartedly supporting Brian’s re-election this year. Diana DeVito Wyckoff Urges support for Brian Scanlan Dear Editor: Wyckoff Township Committeeman Brian Scanlan is running for re-election. I am writing to encourage Wyckoff residents to support Brian as he seeks a new term. Our family uses Wyckoff Recreation programs and Brian has been a strong advocate for recreation for children at all skill levels. He has worked hard to ensure that Wyckoff citizens, in all age groups, have recreational opportunities. Important in this regard was the opening of parts of our parks to dog walking, and Brian’s efforts to secure Russell Farms as open space. Russell is now used by dozens of resi- dents each day, especially seniors, who welcome the only town park in the Sicomac area. In addition to serving as the liaison to our recreation board, Brian also has many years of experience as a volun- teer, including the position of coach to two dozen Wyckoff Recreation teams. Brian works hard to improve the qual- ity of life for the residents of our town and I will vote for his re-election this year. Please join me in supporting Brian Scanlan for Wyckoff Township Committee. Susan Fuhr Wyckoff Trustee airs views Dear Editor: I was disappointed to learn that the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional School Board used “banked cap” to increase the school budget 3.4 percent. Twenty-four months earlier, the RIH School Board joined 90 percent of the school districts in New Jersey by moving to a November election, which removed the public’s right to vote on the school budget, so (continued on page 21)