O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [52]
The next morning, as everyone took their places, Ben Boone could hear Tobias Storm’s belly rumbling in tune with his own. The coming lecture would be delivered before a judge of high rank, Richard Maple, and a jury of curious plebes.
“ ‘Ten-shun!” Kunkle cracked. As the midshipmen scrambled to their feet, Private First Class Zachary O’Hara entered. Maple leaned forward, wondering what kind of ambush these lousy Marine bastards had set. The midshipmen were no less astonished.
Captain X looked sternly at Ben and Tobias, but could nearly hear their thoughts: Let us train our people our way for our job and we’ll deliver the finest ever seen.
“Now hear this. Private First Class O’Hara will conduct this class. You will accord him the same respect you would accord an officer. Be seated.”
A beardless wonder standing before thirty-five other beardless wonders. Zach showed calm presence and poise. He knew what this moment was all about and liked where he stood.
“Anyone here who doesn’t know what this is?” he began, pointing to a map of the world behind him that stretched nearly the width of the room. The flitting of doubt that had hopped from plebe to plebe abruptly stopped under the sure tone of his voice.
“As Marines, we take enormous pride in our training and discipline. As the first underclass of AMP, we have also been encouraged to express diverse opinions. We demonize our enemies. They demonize us. It is standard procedure to hate each other in order to be able to obliterate each other. Yet the intelligent officer does not let demonization get in the way of clear thinking. The enemy must also be regarded as a human being as intelligent as you, as courageous, and as believing. Knowing his point of view will enhance your ability to make better decisions.”
Zach had grown a beard before their very eyes.
“What we have to examine here now is the probable course America will follow in this decade leading up to the twentieth century. The papers on your desk will give you every point of view in government and military thinking and planning. It’s mostly boring reading but relevant.”
The room was very quiet now as Zach perched on a high stool and allowed that he could be interrupted at any time for a question.
“Who had fathers and grandfathers in the Civil War?”
Nearly everyone raised a hand, including Captain Maple.
“Their generation has passed since the war. America buried upward of a million dead, the South was a wreck, and the need to heal our most urgent priority . . .”
There was a sudden scratching of pens dipped in inkwells as he went on.
“Before the war we had already annexed Texas and California through force as a national ambition. We justified our expansion on the premise that we were more entitled to the land than was a failing, corrupt European regime . . .
“Today, in 1891, there is no danger from either of our neighbors. There is a strong sense that we will see war no more on continental American soil.
“Therefore, there is no reason to burden ourselves with a huge army. The main mission of the army, led by its magnificent cavalry, has been to subdue the Indian population. Your first binder of papers pertains to the writings of our best minds on the pros and cons of the Indian question. I think it’s safe to say that the navy is not going to play a major role in the future of Nevada. However, we do find disturbing parallels between certain views on the Indian question and earlier justifications of slavery, namely the notion that the Indians are subhuman savages incapable of adaptation to our version of civilization. Therefore, it has been reasoned, it is no sin taking them down in battle and herding them onto reservations. There is also a very strong minority opinion that in doing this, we may be setting ourselves up, if not for another Civil War, then for decades of misery.”
“Sir!”
“Yes, stand and give your name.”
“Midshipman Darlington. What is the Marine Corps’ position regarding the Indian question?”
“I’ve asked my instructors