Where I Stand—Mike O’Callaghan: McManis analyzes Ellis

Tuesday, July 31, 2001 | 8:28 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

RECENTLY THIS COLUMN was dedicated to the uncomfortable matter of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and college professor Joseph Ellis lying to his students. Ellis, a distinguished historian, when teaching about the Vietnam War, worked himself, as a participant, into the course as a combat paratrooper. He didn't see combat in that, or any other, war and therefore was lying.

The column about Ellis brought many phone calls and letters. One letter, above all, stood out and I believe it should be shared with our readers. It came from Las Vegan Charles E. McManis, a clear thinker and excellent writer, who has served in the armed forces overseas enough years to fulfill the requirements demanded of at least a half dozen ordinary American males.

The letter from McManis is too long for complete publication but here is a healthy taste: "I used to read Chicago columnist Bob Greene and get furious with most of the stuff he was writing at that time. Then, one day he wrote a column just after the hostilities ceased in which he suddenly felt a little lost and ashamed. He had not been called. He had not been tested. He did not know whether he would have survived in combat or whether or not he would have been brave when he needed to be brave. In short, he felt frustrated and a little guilty, perhaps a lot guilty because he did not go to Vietnam. He had not tried to evade the draft. He was just lucky and yet, he now felt that he had somehow been cheated out of his manhood."

McManis continues, "I think that this is why we are now finding these people who did not get chosen and who did not get to prove themselves. These are the ones who often protested vigorously against the war, and who are now realizing that perhaps they were not really up to the task themselves. Those in a position to do so are now fantasizing about their conduct and in true Walter Mitty fashion, creating the myths that they would have loved to have been a part of but were excluded from in real life.

"I am sure that you will agree that any soldier who has been in any combat zone will tell you that war is not the best way to settle anything. Just like the men who felt guilty because they were not killed along with their buddies, there is a growing number of citizens who missed out on their one chance to do something to prove themselves that was unselfish, brave and heroic.

"As a young man, I often wondered why so many veterans made such a big deal of WWI and WWII, wearing their funny little hats and marching in parades. I finally realized that for many men, their survival in wartime turned out to be the high point of their lives. They returned to lives that were drab in terms of the adrenaline of war. It was a time when their lives had really counted for something and the world was a better place because of what they endured. Those that have never served cannot understand that and so they create the myth that makes them ersatz heroes. They are crying out like Marlon Brando in 'On the Waterfront' when in frustration he complains that, 'I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody.' "

McManis concludes, "Most real heroes bury their heroism deep inside them and those who only dream about being a hero, make up stories."

This made me wonder if Ellis became a victim of what many have come to believe is a requirement for greatness in a historical role. "The Founding Brothers" won Ellis a Pulitzer Prize and is certainly a masterpiece of historical facts and interpretation. The book richly deserves the recognition it has brought the author. Because of the problems Ellis created for himself, as a professor, a sentence in his book became of special interest to me. When discussing the disastrous duel between Hamilton and Burr, Ellis wrote: "Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that 'a great man represents a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists of his being there.' "

Ellis wasn't in Vietnam, but did he believe it necessary to create a role for himself to secure his standing among his colleagues and students? Only Joseph Ellis knows the answer to this question.