THE PLEDGE

Ronald Reagan on the Little Bighorn cover-up:

"The entire Custer story has been surrounded in mystery and I recall an elderly Colonel telling me once of a story that used to circulate in army circles that there were men who knew an unpublished truth about the story, but who were pledged never to reveal it."

Ronald Reagan,  Governor of California, President of the United States, letter to John A. Minion, July 15, 1965. Louise Barnett, Touched by Fire, Henry Holt Company, 1996, page 331

What has the army been hiding since 1876?

# Custer’s mistakes?

No. Custer has been regularly defamed by the US army since 1876 without any official inquiry. His entire career has been whitewashed in such ways that people refuse to even admit that his victories during the Civil War happened because of his leadership. “Luck” helped him to graduate from West Point Military Academy, become General and win battles against Jeb Stuart (as everyone knows, it is very easy to become General and win battles at age 23).

# The poor fighting abilities of the 7^th cavalry?

No. The US army has never defended the Last Stand. US officials have never ceased to depict Custer’s battle as a short fight with cut-and-run soldiers. The enthusiasm generated by Fox’s fraud of the “no Last Stand” in army circles is an example of this behavior: never before has an army been so glad to see the abilities of its soldiers being ridiculed against all evidence: “These soldiers were bad soldiers? No! They were worse than the worst! - except those who survived with Benteen and Reno, who were heroes who got Medals of Honor. They were the exception”

# The impossibility to get the truth?

No. In the 7^th cavalry alone, 389 witnesses, officers, Indian scouts and civilians were available for an official investigation. No one was interrogated (for the record, the 1879 Reno Court of Inquiry was asked by Major Reno himself).

What has the army been hiding since 1876?

Custer’s Last Stand is a criminal case that has never been investigated by US authorities. Case not closed.

What has happened since the early 1990s is so ugly that it is hard to believe that this kind of rape of History can happen in our beloved America:

The US army has never been a body where political correctness was more powerful than the honor of its soldiers. Even though Hollywood was doing its best to defame soldiers during the Vietnam war, the Pentagon firmly stood behind its soldiers and defended them with monuments and ceremonies.

But Custer’s soldiers did not get the same treatment.

In 1990, even after one century of constant defamation against them, Custer's soldiers were still standing on their hill. The US army and the National Park Service thus resumed the attack:

Following Fox’s wildly publicized “no Last Stand” theory, the US government removed Custer’s name from the battlefield. Of course, the official reason was to honor American Indian warriors. But the National Park Service went much farther that simply giving “the voices of the victors” to visitors: the Indian monument cost ten times more than the monument of the 7^th cavalry, and was built near Last Stand Hill to remove the special meaning of the Last Stand.

Sitting Bull’s warriors were very brave that day, but not different that in other Indian battles. But it was not the story that had to be spread around: along with new markers of fallen warriors, visitors of the Little Bighorn battlefield got new “information” on spectacular – and completely fake – tactics by Indian chiefs and warriors. Suddenly, the Indian warriors got very special weapons (the National Park Service did no say that they had AK-47, but it was close) and awesome military skills. In a matter of a few years, the Indian warriors of Little Bighorn became the most awesome soldiers ever seen in America – more aggressive than ever before (the “hordes of angry Sioux” became the favourite song).

So, if you visit the Little Bighorn battlefield today, if you read general books on Custer’s Last Stand, you will learn that:

1)      The story ended on June 25, 1876 (no information on what happened next: an investigation? Something? Critics?)

2)      General Custer and his 210 soldiers never existed or existed as the worst men ever seen in US history: cowardly, inefficient, no training, no morality, no spirituality. They were also criminals who were poor, stupid, sick and alcoholic.  They did not kill a single Indian warrior in the battle and committed suicide en masse in less than twenty minutes. Forget about them.

3)      Captain Benteen was a wise man (he was right not to go with those cowards above), Major Reno was a poor victim of the horrors of war who lost his nerve (remember your lessons of psychology). Their men were heroes and deserved their Medals of Honor (to the contrary of those cowards above).

4)     The American Indian warriors at Little Bighorn has been the greater tacticians ever in US history – fifteen thousand, or several thousands (what about a few million of them at Little Bighorn?) of men of Honor with spirituality, Napoleon’s strategy, thousands of automatic rifles (maybe bulletproof jackets?), never-seen-before heroism and discipline.

5)      Ronald Reagan never talked about a cover-up. In fact, no soldier or officer (or the US General-in-chief Nelson A. Miles) has ever criticized Benteen and Reno. End of the story. For the things that you will find hard to believe... it is a mystery.