Paul M. Krueger

ㅤ”Those do don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” The caption of my all-time favorite cartoon by the New Yorker writer and cartoonist, Tom Toro. I recently discovered he sells autographed prints of his cartoons on his Etsy store and sure enough, I bought one!

ㅤAlthough I’m not an historian, I am both a fan of history, and I earned my bachelor’s degree in history, so I feel like I am qualified to be included in the “those who do study history,” camp. Since getting out of the military in 2011, I began my history journey at a community college in Orange County, California and finished with a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University. If I had the resources available to continue my education, I planned to do so, but all I had was the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and no financial safety net. After graduation, I needed to find a job so I didn’t end up on the street. I always hoped I would be able to afford to go back someday.

ㅤThough I didn’t continue my education in history, I did remain an avid fan and have since become a bit of a history traveler. Whenever I travel, a historical site or museum is always on the agenda. From the Acropolis in Athens to the Colosseum in Rome, there was always something to see. Growing up in Southern California, I don’t think people in other parts of the world appreciate their history as much as they should. With Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and World War history all over Europe, there’s always something to see. Southern California history began about 10,000 years ago with ancient Native Americans settling in the area, then fast forward about 8000 years to the Portolá expedition. Since then, the Mexican-American War, Gold Rush, Hollywood, and Japanese Internment during World War II. So we have Spanish Missions, old gold mines, and internment camp sites that serve as a reminder of our moral failures during World War II.

ㅤSpeaking of World War II, that and Ancient Rome were the main areas of historical interest for me, and thus was the bulk of the courses I took in college. Below is a list of every history (and history-related) course I took during my college days:

ㅤAgain, I’m no historian, nor am I an expert in these topics, (I’d say the PhDs who taught those courses are), but I like to think I have an idea about that certain things in history mean and whether or not we as a society should venture into repeating such things. Let’s just say, hypothetically, that there is a country in Southeast Asia that is currently embroiled in civil war. A communist side versus a nationalist side. Based on what I learned from the History of the Vietnam War, I’d say we as a western nation probably shouldn’t get involved. It might not work out too well for us. But hey, what about situations that are similar, but not exactly the same? What about the war in Afghanistan?

ㅤThe History of the War in Afghanistan wasn’t a course being offered at the time, but I still felt partially qualified to understand it, having just returned from Afghanistan two years before college. But I never thought, for a second, that the Fall of Kabul would resemble the Fall of Saigon so closely. It was depressing to see all that we fought for simply lost. Who’s to blame? Well if you believe the political right in America, it’s Joe Biden’s fault. Even though it was the first Trump Administration that entered into peace negotiations with the Taliban without including the Afghan government we had been supporting for twenty years. But even then, I wouldn’t personally blame Trump. I blame the Taliban. The bad guys since day one, as well as ISIS-K, the group that was responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul Airport killing 13 U.S. troops and 169 Afghan civilians, somehow escaped the wrath of political pundits in America. Either way, as a person who studied history, I was doomed to watch others repeat it.

ㅤI recently took a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest with my buddy and, as per the history nerd agenda, we stopped to see historical sites and museums. Being a giant Greek and Roman history nerd, I managed to find the Glyptothek, a museum commissioned by Bavarian King Ludwig I to store his collection of Greek and Roman sculptures. I wanted to see the Marcus Aurelius bust they had there. Unfortunately there was far more Nazi history in Munich than I was emotionally prepared for.

ㅤThe Glyptothek, for example, sits right in the middle of the Königsplatz, which was used during the Third Reich as a square for the Nazi Party’s mass rallies. The Siegestor originally built in 1852 to celebrate the Bavarian Army stands damaged by allied bombing to serve as a reminder of World War II. The bare, unrestored rear of arch has an inscription which translates to “Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace”. The White Rose monuments to the non-violent resistance group who conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. The Stolpersteine, small concrete cubes bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution, (of which I first saw in the streets of Rome). The Feldherrnhalle was the site of the brief battle that ended Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. During the Nazi era, it served as a monument commemorating the deaths of Nazis killed during the revolt. I even found out while I was there that the hotel I booked for the trip, the Hilton Munich City, was built on the footprint of the Bürgerbräukeller Beer Hall, of Beer Hall Putsch infamy. I thought, There’s no way this could happen in America.

ㅤThere’s no way a guy who gained political notoriety by railing against immigrants and other religions by calling them “vermin” and saying they’re “poisoning the blood” of the country could possibly gain power. It would be silly to think a guy like that would normalize hateful rhetoric against other human beings. I mean, if there was a guy who campaigned on “Mass deportations” and throwing people into camps, we would all be smart enough to remember the Holocaust, right? Plus, there’s no way that the guy who tried to overthrow the government in a putsch would ever be allowed to legally be elected to power, right? And even if that guy got elected, there would be checks on his power. There’s no way the government and powerful heads of industry would just roll over and surrender to him. It would be ridiculous to think that this guy would empower an unelected oligarch to dismantle the federal government from the inside after publicly throwing out a couple Sieg Heil salutes. And even if he did, we’re still America, that guy would never align our foreign policy away from traditional allies and side with a tyrant that’s been trying to invade other sovereign nations. Seriously, if a guy stood behind the Presidential Seal and said that he wants to annex two or three other countries we wouldn’t stand for that kind of expansionist imperialism, right?

ㅤBut even if all those things did happen in some crazy reality, hopefully there won’t be a suspension of the Constitution in reaction to some kind of attack, vandalism, or civil unrest, the result of which is a dictatorship in America. Hopefully there isn’t a global cataclysm that embroils us all in conflict. Hopefully the country I fought for doesn’t descend into tyranny, or worse, collapses all together. Hopefully I’m just overreacting. There’s no way any of those things would ever happen, right?

ㅤI’ll just be sitting here reading my history books…