WHAT IF THE HUNLEY HAD BEEN AN ISRAELI SHIP? | 1999-07-31
Watching the television movie on the Hunley, it kept occurring to me what a bad deal heroes get from history when they are on the losing side. Those who volunteered for this mission knew very well that the odds were that they would die a cold, horrifying death under the sea. They represented the kind of pure heroism that modern historians try to insist never actually existed.
But few Americans had ever heard of these men. If they had been on any winning side, they would not have been so forgotten. It is a very encouraging sign that this movie was made, and I applaud and thank those who made it and those who presented it on television.
If you are on the winning side, you can even be from the South and get your share of fame. Try as they might, trendy people have not been allowed to forget the Alamo. The Alamo is constantly denounced as a symbol of Anglo-Saxon oppression. Modern historians try hard to prove that the men of the Alamo were really not as heroic as they obviously were.
But all to no avail. Texas won.
I cannot help but imagine the fame those heroes on the Hunley would have had had they died on a winning side. Even more, what if they had been part of an approved minority?