"George Santayana's famous “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is one of those overused dictums politicians and others offer up when they want to sound profound. It is true, however, that history reminds us usefully about the sorts of situations that have caused trouble in the past. Allied leaders in World War II were determined that, this time, Germany and the other Axis powers would not be able to claim that they had never been defeated on the battlefield. Allied policy was one of unconditional surrender, and Germany, Japan, and Italy were all occupied at the end of the war and serious attempts, largely successful, were made to remodel their societies so that they would no longer be undemocratic and militaristic. When someone complained that such treatment was like the savage peace the Romans imposed on Carthage, the American general Mark Clark remarked that no one heard much of the Carthaginians these days."
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Anti-communists from the United StatesMilitary leaders from the United StatesMemoirists from the United StatesMilitary leaders of World War IICommanders of the United States Far Eastern Command
Original Language: English
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Sources
Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History (2008), pp. 163
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_W._Clark
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Mark W. Clark
Mark Wayne Clark (1 May 1896 – 17 April 1984) was a senior officer of the United States Army who saw service during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. He was the youngest lieutenant general (three-star general) in the United States Army during World War II.
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