Clark in November, 1942.
Today in World War II History—October 21, 1942: Maj. Gen. Mark Clark lands by submarine at Cherchel, Algeria, for a clandestine meeting with the Vichy French in preparation for the upcoming Allied invasion.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The photogenic Clark was a favorite of the Press during the early part of World War Two. This event, resulting in the beginning of the formal separation of the French military from Vichy, may have been the high point, in real terms, of his career. His later command in Italy, where he was in command until the war's end, has been subject to less impressive analysis by historians, and he was held in bitter contempt by veterans of the 36th Infantry Division who had taken huge casualties trying to cross the Rapido. The sought, and received, a post-war Congressional investigation of that incident, for which Clark was cleared.
During the Korean War he was commander of the United Nations forces following the command of Matthew Ridgeway. He occupied that role from May 12, 1952 until the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. He retired that following October, after which he became president of The Citadel. He died in 1988, at age 84.
That last item is worth considering. It means, for example, that when Clark was dispatched to negotiate with the French, he was 41, and when World War Two ended he was 44, younger than we often imagine World War Two generals to be. In reality, in the U.S. Army, they tended to be relatively young.
Sundin also reports that a B-17D provided by the Army to Eddie Rickenbacker went down in the Pacific. Rickenbacker was on a tour of Pacific air bases to review operations and living conditions. Faulty navigational equipment caused the plane to go widely off course and run out of fuel over the open ocean. The crew was adrift thereafter for twenty-four days before being picked, with one of the men dying from dehydration. Ultimately, the men split up in lift rafts at sea, but they were found.
The experience caused the Navy to alter life raft equipment to incorporate fishing equipment in them.
She also notes that the Revenue Act of 1942 went into effect in the US, which increased individual income tax rates and corporate tax rates, with top tax rates going from 31% to 40%. The act also reduced personal exemptions. An excess profits tax of 90% was also put in effect. Medical expenses became a deduction for the first time.
The war ushered in an era of generally high upper tax rates that remained in effect for the next couple of decades, meaning that they remained high during the boom years of the 1950s. The concept that American tax rates were unfairly high really didn't come about until Ronald Reagan's presidency.
2 comments:
I must disagree that opposition to high taxes was a product of Ronald Reagan alone. Consider the Revenue Act of 1964, championed by JFK, and passed under LBJ. It was wildly successful until the entanglement of guns or butter brought on by Vietnam.
Tom
Sheridan, WY
The Kennedy act is often noted, but when put in context, it's pretty revealing.
In January 1963, Kennedy proposed the Revenue Act on a Keynesian model. It did in fact drop tax rates, but the tax rates remained vastly above what they now are. It dropped overall rates about 20%, with the top rate going from 91% to 65%. Corporate tax rates went from 52% to 47%.
This actually therefore tends to make the argument the opposite of what is commonly believed. Yes, the rates were dropped, but they were dropped from the extremely high rate that came in during World War Two down to a rate that would be regarded as enormously high today.
This did achieve the stated goals, but starting in the 1970s/80s, we embarked on a new path that dropped rates down to where dropping rates now is arguably ineffective. We'd have to actually enormously raise rates to create an economic situation such as Kennedy faced in the early 60s, and which he had the ability to act upon.
Also, I don't think (although I could be wrong) that there was a general "taxation is theft" and "all taxes are too high" mindset in the US in the early 60s. Throughout the 50s and into the 60s Americans generally seemed to accept the high rates. It wasn't until after they were dropped in the early 60s and inflation set in during the early 70s did there come to be a really widely held belief that taxation was just too high as the government was overall too large.
Bringing that forward, with inflation really being a big problem right now, and that probably necessitating a recession whether we want to admit it or not, increasing the tax rate at the higher end would likely help damper inflation, although there's a lot to what's going on right now.
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