Was General Patton assassinated? (Iraq, enemies, Israeli, Afghanistan)

[golfgod]

Some urban legends never die. The British Telegraph is reporting today newly discovered evidence that Patton was assassinated on the orders of "Wild" Bill Donavan, head of the OSS, forerunner of the CIA.

Supposedly the deed was carried out by a hired marksman who, using a low velocity projectile to break Patton's neck after his December '45 auto accident. Everyone else in the car escaped without a scratch.

I'm not sure how "new" any of this is. IIRC there was a movie about 30 years ago that used this same device to break his neck. Also the "evidence" is the "journals" of the "assassin", IOW, his "BLOGS", to use current parlance.

There's no doubt that many in the upper reaches of the US government did not like Patton's attitudes on many issues of international relations. Despite the hyping of Donavan by his PR flaks it's not like he had an unblemished record of always doing the right thing. His constant promoting of some of his proteges is what led directly to strategic hamlet programs, cointelpro and other failures.

Donavan was a great soldier though! The truth about him though is somewhere between how he was portrayed by George Brent in "The Fighting 69th", and Robert Deniro in "The Good Shepherd".

golfgod

[my54ford]

Yea Ollie North had that on his war stories show last night...
Oliver North | War Stories - FOXNews.com

I don't think so......

[ottomobeale]

Sometimes its just a freak accident and not a conspiracy

Of course some "blue suit and sunglasses" guys are making me write the above.

[WIHS2006]

Nope, it was a freak accident. Patton was not wearing a seat belt and his staff car was jack-knifed by a 6x6 truck driven by a drunk soldier in a snow storm. Interestingly enough both the driver and the staff officer with Patton both survived with no injuries at all because they wore their seat belts unlike Patton.

Patton himself died only because of a blood clot and not directly from the crash itself. I guess they dident have Warfarin back in 1945?

Edit: I wonder who Patton was reincarnated as? He was a kook and actually believed he was the reincarnation of various past military figures such as a Carthaginian, a soldier in Napoleon's Army, etc. If you have ever seen the movie Patton there is that scene where he goes to the ancient battlefield ... "I was here" and then tells the whole story of the Battle of Zama between Rome and Carthage.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by WIHS2006

I wonder who Patton was reincarnated as? He was a kook and actually believed he was the reincarnation of various past military figures such as a Carthaginian, a soldier in Napoleon's Army, etc. If you have ever seen the movie Patton there is that scene where he goes to the ancient battlefield ... "I was here" and then tells the whole story of the Battle of Zama between Rome and Carthage.

Why does that make him a "kook?" He may have had good reason to believe that he was reincarnated several times from military leaders. (And if he really was a "kook," then it wouldn't have hurt the Allied armies if there were a few more like him!)

[WIHS2006]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

Why does that make him a "kook?" He may have had good reason to believe that he was reincarnated several times from military leaders. (And if he really was a "kook," then it wouldn't have hurt the Allied armies if there were a few more like him!)

Do you really believe that such a concept is actually possible?

I'm not going to deny that he was an amazing general ... we could sure use a Patton today in Afghanistan and also in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.

[djacques]

Patton was a repellent human being and his death was no particular loss to the planet. But I wouldn't put it past the Soviets to kill him if they could, and I wouldn't put it past our gangsters in Washington to cover it up. Admiral Forrestal was basically hounded to death by Israeli intelligence. Jan Masaryk was disposed of by the Soviets. Things like that do happen. Whether it happened in this case, I have no idea.

[Filet Mignon]

I say Bush did it. No question, Bush killed him - just like he has killed millions of other people, and created the Tsunami that devastated Indonesia a couple years ago.

Yep. Bush did it. End of story.

[golfgod]

wihs2006 wrote;

the driver and the staff officer with Patton both survived with no injuries at all because they wore their seat belts unlike Patton.

I'm going to have to take your words on this one. But, a car with seat belts in the '40s does kind of strain credulity!

Blood clot huh? Isn't that just doublespeak for "magic bullet"?

golfgod

[Bostonian08]

There was a sequel to Patton called The Last Days of Patton. George C Scott reprised his role. All Patton fans will enjoy. I've heard the reincarnation thing is a myth.

Do I think Patton was assassinated? One sure can't rule it out. He was right in the middle of the post war fallout with all the Nazis being brought into the CIA and Patton's will to go on and fight the USSR. He had a lot of enemies, and if he chose to go into politics upon his return he could have disrupted a lot of plans.