Les vainqueurs ont toujours raison

Un précurseur de la guerre génocidaire.

Thomas J. DiLorenzo est professeur d'économie au Loyola College dans le Maryland. Il n'aime guère les figures historiques gonflées à l'hélium. Il a écrit The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, (Three Rivers Press/Random House). Il a de nouveau enfoncé le clou en publiant Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe (Crown Forum/Random House).

Dans une courte tribune publiée par un site internet anarchocapitaliste, il réagit au récent documentaire diffusé par la chaîne History Channel qui transforme la vie du sinistre général unioniste Tecumseh Sherman en conte de fées pour ignorants.

Il est frappant, avec ce nouvel exemple, de constater la distance qui sépare l'histoire des historiens et celle que les publicistes concoctent pour le grand public. Cette dernière mouture se caractérise par le refus de rendre compte des vérités dérangeantes. C'est le cas pour Sherman, qui est intouchable car il a « combattu pour libérer les Noirs », de Churchill, car « il s'est opposé au nazisme », de De Gaulle pour les mêmes raisons et enfin, pour clore la liste, de Lincoln.

Le président Lincoln, que connaît bien Thomas J. DiLorenzo, est un des exemples les plus emblématiques de cette distorsion de la réalité au profit du mythe. Le personnage est devenu un tel symbole des valeurs de la société contemporaine que nul publiciste n'ose rapporter ses véritables opinions sur les Noirs, son projet de les réexpédier tous en Afrique après la guerre civile, son mépris total pour la constitution des Etats-Unis, ses méthodes dictatoriales, etc.

Voici les premiers paragraphes de la tribune de Thomas J. DiLorenzo.

In response to an LRC review of a (Distortion of) History Channel "documentary" on Sherman’s march to the sea by Clyde Wilson, Valerie Protopapas of Huntington Station, New York, took it upon herself to go to the library and research Sherman herself. Sherman’s History Channel image of a heroic and benevolent egalitarian just sounded like, well, like a lie to her. So out of the blue she wrote Professor Wilson (who now describes himself as a recovering academic historian) that "the truth about Sherman and his genocidal beliefs (and tactics) is, like Lincoln’s views on race and slavery, well reported but ignored."

That is, one can find the facts of history if one looks for them. But when it comes to the War for Southern Independence, one will also discover pages and pages of spin, excuse-making, and rhetorical cover-ups. History may be "well reported" in academic treatises and government documents, but as Mrs. Protopapas says, it rarely makes it into the public school textbooks or television documentaries, and is therefore ignored by the general public.

In her letter to Clyde Wilson, shared with yours truly, Mrs. Protopapas said that "I find it quite unique that after almost 150 years, purveyors of the myths surrounding the [second] War of Secession retain not only their desire, but their ABILITY to hide the facts . . . of the era. The same lies and half-truths continue to be presented as hard fact with every passing generation and all attempts at bringing even a modicum of well-documented facts (such as the actual words of the men involved) are met with a hostility every bit as virulent as was the case shortly after the war ended. And they say that the South won’t let the past die!"

This statement suggests that Valerie is familiar with the Lincoln cult, the Straussians, and the James McPherson/Harold Holzer/Doris Kearns-Goodwin school of "Civil War scholarship," which she accuses of presenting a "murderous myth that makes saints of monsters and monsters of decent men." The following is a collection of some of the information about General William Tecumseh Sherman that Valerie Protopapas, an ordinary citizen who does not claim to be a "Civil War scholar" and who does not reside in the South, dug up about one of the more monstrous characters in American history. She labeled her collection of information "Shermaniana."

Lire la suite en cliquant ici. On peut aussi écrire à l'auteur : TDilo@aol.com.