Tea at Trianon: In the Hanoi Hilton

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, November 11, 2013

In the Hanoi Hilton

Madeleine Doak has several articles about her father's ordeal in the hands of the Vietnamese Communists. Her father was Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, former U.S. Senator and author of When Hell Was in Session. To quote:

Dad's interview with a Japanese reporter that made its way to America... As many people know, Dad blinked the word torture in morse code under the guise of his eyes being affected by the bright lights, thus alerting the world to the POW's treatment. He received quite a bit of recognition for that. And, rightly so, of course. However, the fact that, during the interview, when asked how he felt about the war, he replied that he didn't know what was going on in the war, but that whatever was the position of his government, he supported it and would for the rest of his life, was the toughest thing to do and the accomplishment of which he is most proud. This despite having been tortured prior to the interview and knowing well that he'd be tortured afterward. (Read more.)