Every Veterans Day, I try to do something special to remember or honor a veteran. I don’t like the standard flag-waving event that this day has become for many people. In many Veterans Day speeches, the speakers talk about the hundreds of thousands of American veterans who gave their lives for our freedom. The problem with that is twofold: (1) Very few of those who were killed in war literally gave their lives but instead had their lives ripped away, and (2) very few of them fought for our freedom. So my tribute this time is to a veteran who did not give his life and knew that he wasn’t fighting for our freedom. That veteran is Richard H. Timberlake, Jr.
Dick Timberlake, who has become a personal friend, is a fairly well-known monetary economist and a veteran of World War II. Timberlake’s book They Never Saw Me Then is his account of his time in World War II, first training to be a pilot in the United States and then being a co-pilot of a B-17 on bombing raids over Germany. The book ends with his being wounded in one such raid and then recuperating in hospitals in England and the United States. The title of his book, he explains, comes from the thought that he and his buddies had about their wish for various friends, relatives, and “enemies”: “Boy, if they could see me now.” But because they couldn’t see him then, he writes, his recourse is to tell the story himself. He tells it well.
One thing that is clear throughout the book is that Dick Timberlake had one main goal during the war: to preserve the life of Dick Timberlake. And, he points out, this was the norm. He quotes from Arthur Hoppe, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle: “I suppose there were a few in World War II who were fighting for freedom or democracy, but in my three years in the Navy I never met one of them. … [W]e were fighting to stay alive. And that is the true horror of war.”
Arthur Hoppe, writes Timberlake, “had it right.”
But if this is how everyone thought, what makes Timberlake’s book special? Not mainly that he’s a good writer, but that he is willing to speak out about the horror of war. It helps, also, that Timberlake is a free-market economist who understands the harmony that markets lead to and the chaos and destruction that war causes.
We often hear about soldiers in World War II trying to go after Hitler. But Timberlake recognizes the reality. He writes:
All of my fellow airmen and I knew that Hitler and his henchmen were atrocious and loathsome examples of the human race. Yet, any U.S. soldier or airman who thought even briefly about his job of trying to kill and destroy ‘the enemy,’ knew that he was not within range of damaging Hitler and other Nazi leaders. We could not reach their personal environments or influence their decisions; our activities were many magnitudes removed from hurting them. We could only chip away at the peripheries of their domain and hope that they would realize the futility and fallacy of their ways. To do so, we had to try and kill our enemy counterparts with whom we had no personal quarrel at all. We aimed our bombs at their strategic war-making industries and infrastructure, but in the process we knew that we could not avoid hitting churches, schools, and innocent people. Many of us thought that a better way must exist. Fifty-six years later, I still think so.
Reading the line about killing counterparts with whom he had no personal quarrel, I thought of a vignette I read years ago:
General: “Men, we’re surrounded, but the enemy has the same number of soldiers we do. So some man out there is going to try to kill you, and your job is to kill him first.”
Private: “General, could you point to the man you want me to kill? I believe that he and I can make another arrangement.”
Timberlake gives a pithy statement of the essence of war: “War is the mutual destruction of capital, both human and non-human.”
Timberlake also recognizes the cause of war. He writes:
Finally, in their external affairs governments must resist any temptation to intervene in the affairs of other peoples. It takes a government to wage a war. So governments must take the same oath of nonintervention – live-and-let-live – with other governments as each individual observes with other individuals. The model for this point-of-view is the political system the Founding Fathers put together when they wrote the Constitution of the United States.
So what do we owe our veterans on this Veterans Day and, indeed, on all days? Timberlake has an answer:
Surely, if societies owe anything to the veterans of former wars and the innocent soldiers and people destroyed in these catastrophes, it is a responsibility to avoid further warfare by every practicable means. So far as I can see from my vantage point, societies and governments are not following my simple prescription – or any other effective strategy – for preventing wars of all varieties. In not doing so, they are betraying the trust that my wartime colleagues, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and I reposed in them.
This was first published at antiwar.com in November 11, 2008. Here’s my tribute to him when he died in 2020.
READER COMMENTS
David Seltzer
Nov 11 2023 at 10:11am
David, wonderful story. Dick and I became very good friends before he passed. He lived with his wife Hildegard, herself an economist, in Bogart Georgia, about 30 minutes from our home. Dick taught econ at UGA. Debbie and I were guests in his home often where the discussions were lively and informative. He gave me a signed copy of They Never Saw Me Then. As both of us flew in the military, we spoke of the the true horror of war; staying alive. Dick took several rounds of shrapnel on one mission but managed to get his crew back to safety with no loss of life. The scars on his legs were quite visible. Dick was kind and not given to hyperbole. He was Phil Gramm’s PHD advisor. I loved the man.
BC
Nov 11 2023 at 8:08pm
“Many of us thought that a better way must exist. Fifty-six years later, I still think so.”
I feel like this excerpt was cut off prematurely. What was the better way to stop Hitler and the Holocaust?
“So governments must take the same oath of nonintervention…The model for this point-of-view is the political system the Founding Fathers put together.”
I am confused by this oft-made claim. Didn’t Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and James Monroe all support the doctrine that the US government should actively intervene throughout the Western Hemisphere to limit European influence and future colonization? [https://www.britannica.com/event/Monroe-Doctrine/Application-and-extension-of-the-Monroe-Doctrine]
Mathias
Nov 11 2023 at 11:56pm
Wasn’t a big reason for breaking away from the Crown that them colonise as much of the native territory as they liked?
In any case, the precious founding fathers did not seem to think that let-live applied to everyone equally. (The slaves are another example.)
V. L Elliott
Nov 12 2023 at 6:53am
My experience is that, at the time people join/enter the military many have the ideal view that they are acting in support of a higher cause such as to fight for our freedom. Later, when they have been introduced to the terrible parts of war, staying alive and uninjured become their goals. Does the survival wish negate and nullify the initial goal that was often more idealist? Maybe but not in my experience and certainly not automatically. Among those whom I knew, a significant cause of erosion and loss of idealist goals has been based on what many see as the failure of others to respect and even reject their service. The further realization that those in positions of leadership — especially civilians but including, where applicable, military leaders as well — failed to meet their leadership responsibilities and wasted the lives and service of American service members is also an important factor.
Like Professor Timberlake, my uniformed service took place during a time of conscription as did the several years I spent as a civilian in the Indo-China countries. I have also spent a number of years working with US military personnel who served/serve voluntarily. I suggest that the large number of Americans who have served in the volunteer military, with its heavy commitment to the conduct of war, warrants further consideration than the discussions in this thread have recognized. If nothing else, their service and sacrifice should at least be noted and the possibility that, at some point, it would be appropriate to recognize that they may have had and acted on some higher purpose. Whatever the case, they did their duty which should be appreciated. I hope Professor Timberlake’s service, sacrifice and adherence to duty were.
steve
Nov 12 2023 at 10:53am
I think it has been recognized for a long time that when it comes to fighting a soldier’s primary motivation is for himself and his fellow soldiers. The quotes you provide seem to concentrate on the self but fighting for the guys in your immediate unit was almost or sometimes more important. Someone looking out only for themselves would get in trouble. That said, when not actively fighting I think many if not most soldiers feel that they are there to serve a higher purpose, even if their leaders often let them down.
“a better way must exist. Fifty-six years later, I still think so”
Avoiding war would be ideal. However, not everyone abides by that. Does he offer suggestions on what to do if attacked?
”
General: “Men, we’re surrounded, but the enemy has the same number of soldiers we do. So some man out there is going to try to kill you, and your job is to kill him first.”
Private: “General, could you point to the man you want me to kill? I believe that he and I can make another arrangement.”
General: “Go ahead. We will bury you later.”
Steve
Kurt Schuler
Nov 12 2023 at 5:55pm
On the mantelpiece above his fireplace, Timberlake had, framed and under glass, a certificate and a piece of shrapnel taken out of his leg. The certificate was from his fellow crewmen in his bomber unit, and it said, “This is to certify that RICHARD TIMBERLAKE is a member of the Lucky Bastard Club” (for making it out of the war alive). The Web site of the National Museum of the United States Air Force says, “During 1943, only about 25% of Eighth Air Force bomber crewmen [Timberlake’s group] completed their 25-mission tours—the other 75% were killed, severely wounded, or captured.”
Thomas Strenge
Nov 14 2023 at 6:04pm
Great post!
Bart Frazier
Nov 16 2023 at 8:17am
David, I hope all is well. My grandfather was a B-17 captain in the 388th, the same bomb group as Mr. Timberlake. Perhaps they knew each other?
Best,
Bart
Bart Frazier
Nov 16 2023 at 8:18am
Bud Beatty was his name.
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