The Hoover Institution and the Charge of the Light Brigade

In the posting "The Hoover Institution Library" there was no suggestion that Hoover become a peacenik institution. Let me recall "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson about the 1854 battle in the Crimean War. There is a similarity between that war and the US intervention in Vietnam and now in Afghanistan. The British intervened in a war between two sides in a distant country about which they knew little. The Light Brigade obeyed an order to charge and did so bravely, even though the order was clearly a blunder. It was almost annihilated. The argument as to who was to blame raged for years, like Vietnam.

For Tennyson the men were heroes:
"Not tho' the soldier knew some one had blundered,
Their's not to make reply, their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the Valley of Death rode the six hundred".

A Hoover Institution devoted to peace would have an important military component, but without the ignorant and reckless bravado which sends men to their death uselessly. It would study all the implications of war and peace, and include as well geographers, area specialists, political scientists, economists, and international lawyers, all focusing on Hoover´s central mission of promoting peace. This mission should be borne in mind as the Hoover personnel is renewed.

Ronald Hilton - 10/22/01