General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders

[kpete]

Source: Telegraph UK

General George S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book

George S. Patton, America's greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book.

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 7:16PM GMT 20 Dec 2008

The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.

The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.

But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".

His book, "Target Patton", contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3869117/General-George-S.-Patton-was-assassinated-to-silence-his-criticism-of-allied-war-leaders-claims-new-book.html

[Hardrada]

1. You have to get a prototype tinfoil hat from a museum for this one!

[Donnachaidh]

3. how about a tricornered tinfoil hat

Hell, they let Prescott Bush slide on the treason charges -- this could be yet another little 'sekrit' the government didn't want to come out.

[tomp]

21. not the latest and most up-to-date and refined hat, but a prototype hat?

i guess you don't have to read the book to know about the case. man, it would be so good to know everything in advance.

[Hardrada]

28. OMG, am I taking this too seriously? What could I have been thinking?

[scytherius]

33. Well, I will look at most things skeptically but as they say

even paranoids have enemies.

I listened to the author on Coast to Coast AM. Fascinating. Will at least buy the book.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. Wow...

I wonder what we'll learn about our country sixty years from now...

[Sherman A1]

34. Anything is possible

Don't know how likely, but might be an interesting read.

[No Elephants]

36. That Bushco was the worst thing to happen to it. Ever. (I have a crystal ball.)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

43. I meant stuff we don't already know...

:rofl:

[Ikonoklast]

4. There isn't enough tinfoil on Earth to use for that one.

If anything, letting the Russian Army take Berlin as the Allied forces consolidated western Germany saved Allied lives.

[Alcibiades]

60. It saved tens of thousands of soldiers

There was some cost to the Soviets, who lost about 80,000 in the Battle of Berlin.

[Historic NY]

5. paralysis from the neck down is recoverable.........just a flesh wound.

:tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::crazy::crazy::crazy:
:crazy::crazy::crazy::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat:

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Paralysis from the neck up is all too common: the walking wounded with no visible or recorded wound.

[Botany]

6. I gotta buy stock in the tinfoil industry

:rofl:

[Mister Ed]

12. Accidents often happen. Occasionally, so does murder.

Commenting on another apparent accident this weekend - the death of Karl Rove's IT guru, Michael Connell - you state unequivocally, "He was whacked":
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4688755#4688826

On reflection, you might agree that the death of a person who has become inconvenient to the powerful might not always be the accident it seems to be.

[Botany]

20. Well I was in the room w/ one of the chief lawyers looking into .....

... Connell and stuff this AM ... he was one of the people who has
first hand knowledge about the threats to Connell.

George S Patton died after an auto accident that left him paralyzed
from the neck down .... the history around his accident is well known
and thousands of saw and or dealt w/ Patton ... Connell was 1 man
alone in a small plane.

[Mister Ed]

39. Thank you.

Much better to give the reasons for your skepticism than to just dismiss kpete's OP with a cry of "tinfoil" and an ROFL smiley.

For the record, I share your skepticism about Patton's possible assassination, despite my personal anecdote below. I also share your very strong suspicion that the death of Mike Connell this past weekend was no accident. I've been rec'ing every thread I see on the topic, in the hopes of raising awareness.

[wolfgangmo]

63. Let's not forget Senator Paul Wellstone

Whose plane went down as well. As a progressive in the senate with a track record of getting shit done, he was a serious threat to the big money boys.

Remember that the FBI "secured" the crash site in less than 1/2 hour, banning all local emergency services from the site. The Feebs don't have the authority to secure a crash site, only the NTSB does. The funny thing is that their office is 3.5 hours south of the crash site and they never leave in a convoy unless something is up. So did they have advanced notice? And what did they do for those 3 hours? Was Senator Wellstone still alive when they arrived? Did any evidence "disappear?"

This has happened before and anyone who has read about the history of the OSS knows that there are more than a few skeletons in those closets.
So did they silence Patton? Maybe. Was MLK silenced? Could be. How about Kennedy?

I don't think tin foil is needed to at least give the evidence a hearing.

[No Elephants]

37. I did that as soon as Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency. What recession? Made a

fortune on his birth certificate alone.

[Mister Ed]

7. My Dad used to have a friend who'd been a US congressman and an aide to President Truman...

...and who knew where the skeletons of that era were buried.

Dad occasionally dogged his friend with questions about Patton's alleged assassination. Usually he got no answer, but on one occasion, his friend glowered at him and snapped, "Look to Ike for that!". He then would say no more.

[wolfgangmo]

64. I have to say the old school ...

... where they "take it to the grave" is nothing but cowardice, IMHO.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin, we must all hang together or we will surely hang apart.

[bemildred]

8. Yawn ...

Does this fuckwit have any idea how many tens of millions of people got killed in WWII and its prefaces and postscripts? Patton was just a media construct, and so is this book.

[Ex Lurker]

22. Patton was a lot more than a media construct

he was an asshole, but he was also the best operational commander since Stonewall Jackson, and the only Allied General that Rommel feared.

[bemildred]

41. So he was a good tank general, big deal.

It is true that in an organization as hidebound and unaccountable as the military usually is, a good general who understands the use of current technology stands out, but Caesar stood out too; he was still no friend of the people or democratic rule. There is more to governing than having a big dick and autocratic ways ...

[bertman]

48. If he had been a BAD tank general a whole hell of a lot more people would have died.

Big dick and autocratic ways don't mean shit if you can't command. If you can't command, your troops die.

Would you prefer that he was less flamboyant and arrogant but a shitty general? I don't understand your bias.

[bemildred]

49. I'm not a fan of war lovers. Patton was a war lover, in spades.

That's my bias. But I give him credit for being a good tank commander. I'm not convinced you have to be the sort of asshole that he was to do that, there seem to be other good tank commanders that manage without some of his "methods". Ariel Sharon was a good tank commander too, and Rommel, but I don't have to like them either.

[bertman]

53. Neither am I a fan of war lovers. I understand your bias in that sense. I don't know much

about Sharon, but Rommel didn't need to be an asshole. He was leading an army of some of the most disciplined, dedicated-to-duty, and hyper-propagandized soldiers the world has ever known. The German military did not tolerate dissent. Period.

Patton, on the other hand, certainly had a highly motivate bunch of soldiers too, but their diverse backgrounds and American individualism also made them a somewhat unruly group. Perhaps that was a contributing factor to his arrogance/bravado.

When I was in Vietnam, a friend of mine who was a crazy-ass, gung-ho, helicopter pilot was the personal pilot of Patton's son or grandson, who was an air cav colonel (I think that's right--it's been a long time). My friend transferred out of our unit to Patton's unit and loved it because of the esprit de corps and the flair of the c.o. The colonel sported two ivory-handled Colts just like his grandad, and wasn't afraid to get down on the ground during a firefight and personally lead his troops instead of circling overhead in the C&C chopper.

War is a terrible thing, but if you are in one, it's best to fight with the best.

[bemildred]

55. OK.

I might want to disagree, but I don't want to fight. Frankly, in the purely military sense, I'd take Rommel over the lot of them, but he was on the wrong side.

[bertman]

58. From all I have read and heard Rommel is considered to have been a military genius.

[Diclotican]

51. bemildred

bemildred

Caesar was not a great democrat, that is true. But the Roman Republic was no democracy either.. At best it was a republic who had honest leaders, who in their own time managed to build one of the biggest european/asian/african empire know to man at that point.. But it was for the nobles, not for the common man... And in the end the republic closely managed to tear them selfs apart because of pure greed and political power play by the powerfully and mighty.. And that started not with Caesar, but more than 100 year before, with Sulla, Marius and the gang there. In the end Casar was also killed, by his "fellow senators" who was afraid he should be to powerfully, and who was afraid he would kill them.. But the only thing they managed when they killed Julius Caesar was to ruin them selfs, and to ruin the Republic they believed in.. The sole hair to Caesar the young Octavian was a better politician, and have the fortune of have some of Roms best military leaders who in many cases fight, and won his wars.. And he had the support of the "plebes" to.. A very important thing to have in the late Roman Republic... Without them, you had not a single Chance.. As even some roman empires more than 100 year after should feel on their body... The whole concept of DEMOCRACY as it is today was way away from what the roman leaders, and for that point the Greek City States wanted.. They feared the ordinary people, and it was very st-rick who could vote at all...

I am not sure about General Patton, but he was an asshole as some have pointed out.. And he was indeed feared by the germans.. Even that I would say other american, and British generals was far better than Patton. But Patton was the "golden goose" when it came to media attention, and he was not a man who was afraid of show off either..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[bemildred]

54. True.

Ninety percent of everybody were slaves back then. It is amusing to read about Greek "democrats" putting aside their differences and going out to put down a slave revolt. Plus ca change, plus meme.

I agree that Patton was over-rated, but then tank warfare was over-rated too. It appears to me that the normal level of Generalship - most anywhere you go - is so low that anybody with a clue appears great. I think Paulus was an excellent general in a shitty situation. The same could be said of Rommel, or lots of others. I think Patton was over-rated, like Sharon.

But opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.
:hi:

[Diclotican]

56. bemildred

bemildred

I do not believe that 90 percent of everyone was slaves. Both Rome and the Greek City states had a population of free men, dependable and outright slaves.. If 90 percent of them had been slaves, then the society would seize to exist.. But the size of slavery in both society was large, compared to other society after and before.. In Rome they believed that 20-30 percent of the population in 100 AD was slaves.. And the number of slaves was probably not lower other places too.. And it was not difficult for people in antiquity to have slaves, it was the nature of the day. Everyone if they could afford it have a least a couple of slaves, the rich ones could have thousands.. But even that a slave was under his masters wimp, in Greek at least he had some right, even that the right was small, and problem never force-ly given out.. In that time of the world a slave was mer property, like your house, your land, or your cattle.. They could be treated good, or they could be treated bad.. The slave revolts who hit both Rom and the Greek City states was always beaten down, but in the wake of this revolts, it was made some laws, that made the life as a slave far less dangerous, than before... So even that they never managed to get free, they get some "right" in the society.. As the right to be free if their master wanted it. Some slaves could even be rich, very rich, and in many cases own property on their own if they had the nose for it.. And if their master was smart, he give the slave who was smart enough to trade and get property his freedom, off course for a price..
The last big revolt was he Spartacus revolt if my mind doesn't kid my now. And even that this revolt was put down rather harsh, more than 5000 slaves was crucified by the road, to scare of everyone who wanted to do that again, the life as a slave was given some reasoning, and in the end the right even of a slave was given the right of laws and the worst slave owners had to act accordingly.. Even that a slave, was still a slave...

Ah, the latin Plus ca change, plus meme.. I guess it goes some like this in Norwegian.. "Jo mer ting forandrer seg, jo mer blir de det samme".

Patton WAS a good general, but compared to some less known generals he was not _THAT_ amazing.. WW2 is full of less known generals of both sides. Patton was very god to give himself the light, and to make the best of it. Many other different generals, and high ranking officers who did the job, was never given the same fame.. Maybe because US do not want officers, who are not "light headed" and act as they own the world.. But want some generals who are little light headed and act as they do own the dam world..
Compared to tank warfare in Germany and Russia, the US tank machine was in that day of things not the best way to get a general star or two.. For the case of things, the US had not the best tanks in the ww2.. EVEN that the US did have some decent tanks, after a while.. But compared to both Russia and Germany, the tanks who US made, was rather, shitty, compared to the mean attitude of both the german Panzer, and the russian T34.. And if Patton believed that the T34 was something the american could beat, then think about it again.. The Russian beat the Tiger many times over, when the T34 got into real production, and the crew had the know how to handle the beast.. And it was indeed a improvement when they changed the T34 engine from Petrol to Diesel powered too....

General Paulus, or in fact he was given the Fieldmarhall staff some weeks before he had to surrender in Stalingrad in 1943, was maybe a good general in the General Stab. But he was not the most excellent general in the field.. Even that he might had been a better general if he was given what he needed to beat the russian once and for all.. Many things was against Paulus in the end, the weather for a starter.. How many germans, and others who was killed in the winter of 1942-43 because of ill equipment, no food no water, in the end no weapon are not exactly known.. But it could be counted in the thousands, maybe ten of thousands.. Even that he was in the end given freedom, and ended his life in East Germany after 1955 he are still not fully forgiven for what he was doing after capture.. They who managed to flee Stalingrad, and got to the german lines, could never manage to forgive poor Paulus for what he was doing.. And I believe Paulus died of a broken heart in the end.. Lonely, and with the knowledge of what happened in Stalingrad could kill the strongest heart in the end...

General Rommel was a excellent panzer general.. And if it was not for some pure luck from the British side of the war, and the fact that he never was given the resources he NEEDED to get the war ended, the germans could maybe got so long as to Alexandria... The main sea base for british forces in the Mediterranean sea.. B

Sharon is a great actor, if it she you are thinking about;). Even that she might be little overrated, but she is defiantly on the top ten, still after all this years.. She is sure one of the women who are given enough money when she act in movies...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[bemildred]

59. Well, she had good basic instincts ... nt

[Diclotican]

62. bemildred

bemildred

:evilgrin: :hi: She ws good in basic insticts.. Even that I never fully understand that movie...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language.

[Javaman]

65. My Uncle served under Patton...

He once told me that during the latter days of the war, among the enlisted troops there was a $10,000 bounty on Pattons head. They all hated him. He was a glory hound.

[Ken Burch]

30. You gonna go out and slap the guy that wrote it?

[bemildred]

42. The little people are not important, props for dramatizations of "toughness". nt

[Captain Hilts]

9. My mother worked as a secretary to Kenneth C. Royale, Sec. of War...

and would have known this.

What's a "colourful assassin?"

Why did the other passengers not say anything?

FDR: I was poisoned at Yalta!
WSC: Really? Why didn't I get poisoned, I did more to earn their eternal enmity!
ER: Hey, would everybody please be quiet for a moment so I can take the picture!

[medeak]

11. old old story

he was shot with a bolt... nothing new here

[Hanse]

13. Implausible.

It's not like Patton concerned himself with the senseless deaths of American troops.

[bertman]

16. I don't understand why you say that, Hanse. Please elaborate.

[Hanse]

24. That was a joke.

About Patton's willingness to get his own men killed for his own personal glory.

I can dismiss the conspiracy theory on simple plausibility. Somebody's going to run into him with a truck, which doesn't kill him, only to distract people so he can shoot him with a super secret gun in the neck?

That's as dumb as the idea of shooting missles into the WTC the split second before ramming a plane into it.

[Ex Lurker]

27. That was the knock against him

the counter argument is that getting the thing over with as quickly as possible saves the most lives.

FWIW, a combat soldier in MacArthur's command stood the best statistical chance of coming out alive. A martinet and prima donna, but he was extremely parsimonious with his soldier's lives, especially in comparison to the Marines.

[MinM]

14. The Parts Left Out of the Good Shepherd

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/MinM/74

:kick:'n r

[bertman]

15. Another "theory" is that Patton was assassinated because he was known for his fearless

willingness to say whatever he wanted to whomever he pleased. This fits with your information from the new book, kpete, except it has to do with what Patton's army discovered when they made their mad dash into Germany. They were the first to arrive at the Germans' most infamous "experimentation campus" where Nazi scientists were working on major nuclear projects and other very strange--and futuristic--weaponry. Some of the experimental weapons they were working on were being tested on concentration camp inmates (Jews, Slavs, Gypsies) and on Russian armies, and had been proved to be horrifyingly successful. But they had not been able to perfect the delivery systems so they had not had a chance to use them against the other Allied forces.

When Patton captured the scientists and the commandant he learned about stuff that no American had ever heard of except those in the highest ranks of the intelligence services. The captives were whisked away by American intelligence operatives to be used later by the American and British governments in their top secret weapons projects. They were sent to England, along with much of the information on the experimental weaponry that the Nazis had not been able to destroy or hide.

Apparently Patton was very distraught about what he had seen and made his feelings known to the wrong people.

I had never heard the part about a broken neck from a low-velocity projectile.

[No Elephants]

38. Please stop. You're making Kissinger weep with nostalgia! Good times.

[Adsos Letter]

17. And I had heard that it was because Patton was pushing the Allies to fight Russia...

Since the force level was already up in Europe...

They made a movie about this several years ago.

People make a lot of claims in diaries, but once they are dead questioning them becomes problematic...

I don't believe he was assassinated, but on the other hand, nothing surprises me anymore.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. Patton hated the communists and wanted the US to attack the Red

Army and drive them back into Russia, out of E Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. We had the only nukes at the time and he thought we could do it.

[Adsos Letter]

19. counterfactuals, and all that...what do you think would have been the result had we done so....

from the nature of your previous posts, I get the impression you have a background in History... :)

[Ex Lurker]

23. If I may jump in

there would possibly have been large scale mutiny, or at least a political revolt at home. There was already a lot of dissatisfaction among troops and their families about troops being transferred from Europe to the Pacific. This led to development of the "point system," allowing troops who had been overseas longest and/or seen the most combat to go home first. I don't see the political will to fight our ostensible allies. Patton was a great leader. He literally saved the Bulge--arguably no other general could have accomplished what he did in halting his whole army, turning it around, and attacking in the opposite direction in the space of about 48 hours. But he was a loose cannon and Ike had to keep him on a short leash.

It's interesting to consider what he might have done had he lived. Politics?

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. If we had done that, I think I'd have grown up learning Russian.

They would not have given up, at that time, even if we nuked Moscow. They lost 20 million in the war, and were stronger after the war than they were before it. It would have been a monumental mistake to have turned on them then. Especially since they had just gotten control over the Czech industrial works, the Caucus oil fields, the Nazi rocket grounds and scientists. We had 12 million people in uniform, scattered around the world; they had in the neighborhood of 15 million, most of them either in Europe or on the European side of the Urals.

No real background in history, but always been fascinated by it. After all, it is history that makes the present.

[Diclotican]

52. NCevilDUer

NCevilDUer

Patton was little to trigger happy for most people I guess.. And yes he wanted to attack the Red Army and trow them back to Russia.. Maybe even "Liberate" Russia in the process too...

But the leaders and the european would not have another war.. And they KNOW that for the moment the Red Army had the bigger hand up, with more than 5! million soldiers under weapon.. And the will and experience to go to war... In 1945 the Red Army was an army to respect, they have shown wherry clearly that they could fight a better equipment army, and win their part of the war.. Even if the cost was hard..

Patton even wanted to use parts of Whermact, and the infamous SS to fight the Russians.. And Himmler himself, believed he could switch side, and be a allied to the new german leaders, and give them information of what he know about the Russians... Many others, from the single soldiers to the high ranging officers believed for a while that the US/British was willing, and was needing their expertise to go to war against the russians... They got that wrong, and for the most part they was taken into custody, and for some the executing squad was the final way for them.. Some killed them selfs, as Himmler, the leader of the once mighty SS...

Patton was never given his war with the russians.. Even that US WAS the only country with the nuclear weapon at that point.. And in 1949 the Russian got their bomb to, and the cold war was going REALLY cold... And for countless europeans, the fear of another war was little smaller.. So they could start rebuild wat was ruined.. And for everything it was wort. The peace in Europe was there for more than 50 year.. (Yugoslavia not include) And almost 3 generation have lived in a peacefully continent, where your former enemy are your friends today.. And I hope, and I believe that a new war within the EUropean continent could be a thing of the past. Or at least very, very difficult to do... After all, it is no prosperity in war..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language.

[davidthegnome]

25. Very little surprises me

From what I know of the history, it's a possibility. One of the numerous things about that era that has always disturbed me is the way they covered up the evil and corruption of which many psychiatrists (not only those in Germany) were guilty. After the war ended, a number of the Nazi German Psychiatrists came to practice in America. Hardly a surprise.

[GodDamLiberal]

26. If the book

is of the same caliber as the article, it's bs.

"George Patton, a dynamic controversialist who wore pearl handled revolvers on each hip"


Ivory.

[melm00se]

35. great quote

Only a New Orleans pimp would carry a pearl-handled gun

George C Scott as Patton

[ashling]

31. Why do you hate America? The OSS was not involved. It was

the United Auto Workers that set this up. :sarcasm:

[Jim Sagle]

32. Hogwash!

Most of the previous theories about his "assassination" blame it on the joooooooos. This shiny new theory, while thankfully free of bigotry, is nonetheless fanciful rubbish.

[HamdenRice]

40. Funny thing is, I remember a TV movie of the week about this about 30 years ago

At the end of the movie just as the truck plows into Patton's car, he was shot with a slug like projectile.

So this theory has been around for a while.

[The abyss]

44. Brass Target 1978

I believe.

[HamdenRice]

45. Cool! nt

[CatWoman]

46. that is correct

it wasn't a tv movie, but it was sold on VHS. I was able to get a DVD copy from Ioffer.com.

The premise in Brass Target was senior officers stole a cache of Nazi gold, and murdered several MPs in the process.

The Russians loudly protested the theft, saying that they were guaranteed a percentage of the gold. Patton declared that he would single handedly get to the bottom of the theft.

The thieves got wind of this and were threatened. So they hired a hit man who worked out of Switzerland.

[The abyss]

47. Very old theory

I think this “assassination theory” is very old.

I can’t prove it, but would be willing to bet it goes back to a treatise published by the Birch society sometime in the mid or late 50s.

[theblasmo]

61. George Kennedy IS George S. Patton, Jr. in...

... a really crappy Italian film that plays off these theories. I remember seeing Brass Target in the theaters and thinking it was a piece of crap. And I was about 10.

[skepticscott]

50. There was also something called

The Last Days of Patton, which came out as a TV movie in 1986, though I don't recall that it played up the assassination theory.

[sofa king]

57. And if you read Patton's diaries....

...You'll find that in a few short months after the end of hostilities in Germany, Patton became a vehement anti-semite and pretty clearly entertained the idea of re-constituting the Wehrmacht and combining it with America and Britain to take on the Soviet Union.

Scary stuff. That guy pinned his whole existence on the next fight, and when he ran out of them, he started looking to stir up a new one. So yeah, maybe someone did decide to whack him.