On Being a Patton

Robert Patton was 12 years old in 1970 as he sat beside his father in a Times Square theater and watched the newly released film "Patton," starring George C. Scott.

"I couldn't understand why my dad was sobbing during the movie," he recalled. "I guess that's the first time I realized I was the grandson of the famous general I was watching depicted on the big screen."

Before seeing "Patton," the adolescent boy only vaguely grasped the historical importance of the famous World World II commander and knew him as a long-dead grandfather seen in faded photographs and heard about in stories at family gatherings.

More from Paul Grondahl in yesterday's Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Grandson-of-Gen-Patton-examines-war-5458306.php

Robert Patton visited the Writers Institute on April 29th:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/patton_Robert14.html

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Pearl Harbor: What Did FDR Know?

Writing in the New York Times in 2004, the Capital Region's own Joe Persico talked about intelligence failures in the FDR administration in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with comparisons to intelligence failures in advance of 9/11.

"THE president was receiving intelligence that an attack might occur imminently, probably not on the United States mainland, but abroad. Intercepted communications pointed to an adversary with a deadly history of surprise attacks. And, it did happen, the most horrific assault ever on American territory, and one that would lead to war. An investigation as to how so large a blow could have gone undetected was begun while the nation was still fighting the war. One objective was to find out what the president knew about the threat, when did he know and what did he do to counter it?

The date in question, Dec. 7, 1941; the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt." More.

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