New York Times op-ed makes false claims

(Reader Note: On July 6, 2005, the New York Times' acknowledged that one of its editors had inserted false information into an op-ed that ran that day in some editions.

My post below also deals with false information in another Times' op-ed.

For clarity's sake, I'll refer to the op-eds by their author's last names: Carter, the op-ed about which the Times has made an acknowledgment; and Truscott, the op-ed about which it has yet to acknowledge and correct the false information it contained.)
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Lucian K. Truscott IV is a novelist, screenwriter and West Point grad (’69) who resigned his commission at the time of the Vietnam War.

In a June 28 New York Times op-ed, The Not-So-Long Gray Line, Truscott argues the Army is about to have trouble retaining recent West Point grads for the same reason it had trouble retaining them at the time of Vietnam: The Army lies.

Here's how Truscott puts it:

“The mistake the Army made then is the same mistake it is making now: how can you educate a group of handpicked students at one of the best universities in the world and then treat them as if they are too stupid to know when they have been told a lie?”

He ends with this sentence:

But if you peddle cleverly manipulated talking points to people who trust you not to lie, you won't merely lose them, you'll break their hearts.

With one exception, Truscott seeks to sustain his charge with a mix of impressions and incidents that can't be checked because no names are used.

The exception comes near the end of his op-ed.

There was a time when the Army did not have a problem retaining young leaders - men like Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, George Marshall, Omar Bradley and my grandfather, Lucian K. Truscott Jr. Having endured the horrors of World War I trenches, these men did not run headlong out of the Army in the 1920's and 30's when nobody wanted to think of the military, much less pay for it. They had made a pact with each other and with their country, and all sides were going to keep it."

Truscott’s claims that the five future generals “endured the horrors of World War I trenches” and “made a pact with each other” are false, something he, as a West Point grad and grandson of one of the officers who was a friend of the other four, surely knows.

Eisenhower, Bradley and Lucian K. Truscott Jr., one of World War II's great corps commanders, never went overseas during World War I.

Eisenhower's lack of combat experience is well-known. Historians who have discussed it include Steve Ambrose in Eisenhower.

Bradley and Truscott’s services during World War I are described in many sources including an Army publication, U. S.Army World War II Corps Commanders: A Composite Biography, which states: "To their dismay… Truscott served in Texas and Arizona along the Mexican border, while Bradley trained troops in Washington state."

Marshall served overseas as a staff officer with the American Expeditionary Force, but did not fight in the trenches. Forest Pogue’s George C. Marshall: Education of a General is an excellent reference.

Patton was the only one of the five to see World War I combat, but it was almost entirely as a tank officer, not in the trenches. Carlo D'Este's Patton: A Genius for War details Patton's World War I service including his being wounded and earning the Distinguished Service Cross.

As for the five having "made a pact with each other," I know of no historian who has ever made that claim. The three generals whose careers I know best - Eisenhower, Patton, and Marshall - were certainly never part of such a pact, formal or informal.

I'm surprised Truscott would make false claims, especially when he's accusing the Army of lying.

And why did the New York Times publish claims that a summer intern with a decent knowledge of U. S. History would immediately question; and then with an hour or so of Internet searching prove false?

I plan to e-mail this post to the Times' public editor, and invite him to respond here.

I'll keep you informed.

UPDATE July 7, 2005: When I wrote the above post on June 29, I obviously didn't consider the possibility that a New York Times' editor would insert false information into an op-ed, as happened with the Carter op-ed.

Now that I know a Times' editor can do such a thing, I acknowledge that the statements in Truscott's op-ed, while still false, may not have been his.

The Times' has a responsibility to tell the public whether the false statements in Truscott's op-ed are his or someone else's.

And if someone else's, whose?

And why were they made?

Since sending my initial post with a request for response to NYT public editor Byron Calame, I've heard nothing from him or the Times' other than a formal acknowledgment.

I'm sending this post with note added to Calame with another request that the Times' respond, now not only to the false information in the Truscott op-ed but to the questions of who put it there, and why.

I'll keep you posted