SOURCE: "The Man Who Would Be Hero," in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 229, No. 4, April, 1972, pp. 107-8, 111.

In the following essay, a review of The Patton Papers, 1885-1940, Bunting compares Patton to other leading figures in the United States military during World War II.

For many it is difficult to acknowledge authentic military genius—and there is such a thing—without a patronizing smile. The very existence of brilliant generals seems an unacceptable reminder of our failures to stop hating and fighting one another. The political systems and ambitions of nations in which men esteemed the profession of arms their highest calling are now largely despised or discredited. Moreover, we have been fighting a war for seven years which has disclosed no apparent prodigies of generalship on our side except perhaps the dour pertinacity, reminiscent of U.S. Grant's, of the current commander in Vietnam. Yet forgetting almost everything...