“I think the biggest problem we’ve got in the country is people don’t study history any more. People who go to school in high schools and colleges, they tend to study current events and call it history. … There are just too darn few people in our country who study history ….” Donald Rumsfeld. Interview with Plum TV, Vail. Colorado. 3 March 2006.
“There’s never been a popular war. … You can’t name a popular war. There isn’t such a thing.” Revolution, Civil War, “Same thing in World War II… Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most hated people in the country and he was President of the United States. He was Commander-in-Chief. He did a terrific job,” the Secretary added.
Ariana Huffington takes it from there: “Only trouble is, it’s completely bogus history. A brief fact check reveals that public support for WW II never slipped below 75 percent, even though more than 200,000 Americans had been killed by mid-1945. As for the public’s “hatred” of FDR, the facts tell a very different story: Roosevelt’s approval rating during the war never fell below 66%, and his disapproval rating never climbed above 25%.” Read all about it, including charts and graphs, at Huffington Post and A Tiny Revolution.
Rumsfield better hope his theory continues, otherwise generations to come will learn what a buffoon he was.
was the following hard-hitting question:
Q I should be talking more about things like this wonderful week here in Vail.
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this is also part of the problem. not just idiots like rumsfeld spewing such nonsense, but the same media that he criticizes earlier in the interview not calling him to task on his ridiculous statements.