Tea at Trianon: Merian Cooper, Conquering Hero

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

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Merian Cooper, Conquering Hero

From Chronicles:

With the war in Ukraine dangerously close to involving neighboring Poland, the specter is raised of the forgotten Polish-Soviet War of 1920. In that war, to Poland’s aid came American pilots, most importantly World War I veteran Merian C. Cooper, who created the Kościuszko Squadron and flew with great distinction in the battle against the invading Russians. Most people today know Cooper only as the man who made the movie King Kong.

Born in 1893 in Jacksonville, Florida, Cooper was the son of a prominent attorney. The Cooper line went back to the colonial era in Southeastern Georgia. Rising to prominence during the Revolutionary War was John Cooper, Merian’s great-great grandfather, who served as a colonel alongside Casimir Pulaski, the Polish cavalry commander. After meeting with Ben Franklin in Paris in 1776, Pulaski sailed to America and was soon reorganizing and commanding the Continental Army’s cavalry regiments.

Though his imperious manner caused controversy, the aristocratic Pulaski served with distinction in several battles both before and after spending the winter of 1777–78 with George Washington at Valley Forge. While leading a charge during the Battle of Savannah, in October 1779, Pulaski was grievously wounded by British grapeshot. Col. John Cooper carried Pulaski from the battlefield and, according to family lore, was at Pulaski’s side when he died two days later. Pulaski became a hero to Americans, including to Merian Cooper who was told stories as a young boy of his great-great grandfather and the Polish general.

Cooper’s youthful imagination was also fired by the exploits of his great uncle, Merian R. Cooper, who joined the 2^nd Florida Infantry of the Confederate Army at the age of 16, fought heroically, suffered several wounds, and was commissioned as a captain at age 20.

Moreover, the young Cooper was a voracious reader of adventure tales, in particular, Paul Du Chaillu’s Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, a thrilling account of the author’s hunt for gorillas in the forests of the uncharted Crystal Mountains. Du Chaillu’s description of two native women being carried off by gorillas left a lasting impression on Cooper. It wasn’t by accident that in 1933, Cooper co-wrote, directed, and produced King Kong.

Thirty years prior, at the age of 10, Cooper’s thoughts of adventure turned skyward when the Florida boy read of the Wright brothers’ 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk. He vowed then that one day he’d fly airplanes.

Upon graduating from the Lawrenceville prep school in New Jersey, Cooper received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. He performed well academically and athletically, but he had trouble controlling his wild nature and received demerits for disciplinary infractions. His fondness for strong drink got him in the brig during December 1914, and the academy began dismissal proceedings. Cooper was only one semester shy of graduation, and he could have contested the proceedings, but he felt that he had brought dishonor upon himself and his family and that it was best for all if he left.

Too embarrassed to return home, Cooper sailed to Europe as a seaman aboard a freighter. He thought of enlisting to fly for Britain or France, but passport problems interfered. He returned to the United States and worked at various jobs, including as a reporter for the Minneapolis Daily News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He stopped drinking entirely and excelled at his jobs, but he did begin smoking a pipe. In a letter to his father, he said of his pipe, “He soothes many, many a hatred and many a regret, and whenever I have wanted a good stiff drink the old corncob has always stuck by me, and taken the place of John Barleycorn.”

In 1916, Cooper joined the Georgia National Guard and quickly found himself on the Mexican border with Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing. Cooper thought he’d soon be pursuing Pancho Villa deep inside Mexico, but his duties were confined to patrolling the border. After several months and only limited action, Cooper got orders to the Military Aeronautics School in Atlanta.

After a year of rigorous training, Cooper graduated first in his class of 150 cadets. The commandant of the school sent a telegram to Washington recommending Cooper for service overseas, saying, “He is the best man in every respect who has yet entered this school.”

Cooper was in France by October 1917 but was given several months of further training before being assigned to the 20th Aero Squadron. Injuries in a crash landing and months of heavy rains and fog delayed Cooper’s first combat flights until September 1918 during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. He was flying the De Havilland DH-4 Liberty, a powerful and fairly maneuverable plane, but when loaded with a pilot, a bombardier, ordnance, and a full tank of gas, it was considerably slower than the German Fokker D.VII. Moreover, the Liberty’s gas tank was particularly vulnerable to enemy fire, which earned the plane the sobriquet “flaming coffin.”

Cooper flew both bombing and reconnaissance missions. His luck held until a bombing mission in late September during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. His flight was jumped sequentially by two groups of Fokkers. Cooper maneuvered his plane brilliantly and he and his bombardier, Ed Leonard, shot down three Fokkers before his own plane was riddled with bullets and ablaze. Cooper would have bailed out, but Leonard was wounded and only semi-conscious in the rear seat. With badly burned hands and using only his elbows and knees to control the stick, Cooper crash-landed the plane in a field. (Read more.)