Fifty-two years ago today, on January 20th, 1973, I wrote a letter to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands requesting Dutch citizenship. Having been living in the country for seven years, I was eligible. A short time later I was visited at home in Maarssen, after dinner one evening, by a local policeman in mufti. He chatted with Loekie and me for half an hour, told me that he saw no objection to honoring my request, and politely took his leave. In the spring of 1974 I was invited to the office of the Utrecht District Attorney, who explained to me the rights and obligations of Dutch citizenship.
Then, in April, I received this extract from the State Gazette, granting Dutch citizenship to Joaquin Alvarez Santa Ana and twenty-three others, including me. A few days later I went to Maarssen town hall and applied for a Dutch passport. For the application to be accepted, I had to hand in my U.S. passport. This I did gladly. It was the whole idea.
My reason for writing to the queen on that day, a reason I put in my letter, was exactly to relinquish my American citizenship. I was sickened that the voters of my country had returned Richard Nixon to office for a second term, with the facts of the Vietnam War and Watergate available to them. The disrespect this paid to the values I had been bred to think of as American was too much for me. I saw it as a compliment to all I had been taught in school about “Civics,” and to the politicians I had admired, from FDR to Adlai Stevenson to JFK, to exchange my U.S. citizenship for that of a country that adhered more closely to those values. Most important was the use to which Nixon put his re-election, bombing the cities of North Vietnam in December 1972 and killing thousands.
There is a certain measure here that I want to bring forward. Of all the criteria by which one can judge governments and their leaders, one that stands out for me is their cost in human lives. And as dismayed as I once more am in the U.S. electorate, as fearful as I am about the harm that Donald Trump’s benighted and self-serving policies may bring, I derive a measure of solace from the fact – correct me if I’m wrong – that his first presidency had the lowest body count of any U.S. presidency since the 1930s. Even if this was not a result of humanitarian ideals, it matters. And on the day of his second inauguration, I must acknowledge gratefully that yesterday his bullying was instrumental in bringing about the cease-fire in Gaza. If this is a sign of things to come for the next four years, that will be a lot to be thankful for.
© Gary Schwartz 2025. Published on the Schwartzlist on 20 January 2025.
P.S. 12:40 EST. I posted the above deliberately before the inauguration and the inaugural address. I was uncertain whether I could get it out of my pen after listening to hateful bombast. I was right to be. But Trump did claim the mantle of the peacemaker.
I should also say that President Biden did not wage U.S. wars. On the contrary, I blame him for pulling out the 2,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan that were keeping the country safe from Taliban rule.
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Thanks, Gary. Today, as the monster-child is inaugurated once again, I am happy to find solace wherever it may be. However, the more accurate count should not be limited to lives lost; it should include lives ruined — those of immigrants (men, women and children), long-time residents of the US, who will be deported in the cruelest of manner; those of women who will lose the freedom to make to the most important health decision of their lives; families who will lose children to more gun violence as the laws governing gun ownership are weakened even further; and low-income families who will see much of the social and economic safety net (such as it minimally is in this country) shrink even further as Obama’s health care program is destroyed. It makes you want to say kaddish. (My own escape clause includes a Canadian passport, thanks to my father, born in Montreal.)
Of course I agree, Steve. But I do think it important to single out the waging of war and its cost in lives.
Fair enough. Being hopeful is the only strategy we can adopt to make it through the next four years. (And hopefully it will be only four years, not twelve.)
Well said. I tried to explain to several friends that, whatever Trump’s faults as a human being, I regarded him as the lesser of two evils in the election and made exactly the point you make about the relative peace that prevailed during his first term. I don’t think any of them were persuaded even though they had no answer to my point.
Ian, I do not agree at all that Trump was the lesser of two evils. It hurts me deeply that he was elected. And as I said in the P.S. (after you posted your comment), Biden too minimized warfare by the U.S. military.
I forgot to congratulate you, Gary, on fifty years of Dutch citizenship. My apologies for posting too quickly.
Gary, I think President Biden brought about the Gaza Truce and now Trump takes credit for it! Carter all over again! Eva
Eva, the terms of the cease-fire are indeed Biden’s, but I must agree with the critics who say that it was Trump’s delegate, not Biden’s, who got Netanyahu to accept them. And the timing was in literal accord with Trump’s threat that all hell would break loose if the fighting was still going on when he was inaugurated. A little credit where credit is due.
I agree with you, Gary – although it pains me, Trump’s push on Netanyahu broke the logjam. And though I disagree with so so many things of his first term and cringe at his character, he did not get us into another war. Thanks for that. And thanks for you for saying so.
Thank you, Lynn.
Do COVID deaths count? He mocked those who wore masks and received vaccinations. Why? The top-down health recommendations provided a means to attack “elitists” seeking to curtail the freedom of Americans. Even as he was vaccinated, his idiot disciples showed their fealty to The Great Swine by bravely courting disease. Hundreds of thousands died unnecessarily.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/10/us-coronavirus-response-donald-trump-health-policy
One could argue also that his assailing NATO and cosseting Putin opened the door to the war in Ukraine and its attendant casualties. And had he been in office on that October 7 he would have been less critical of Israeli excess than his successor was, and about as effective in stopping it.
Let’s hope he doesn’t decide that a body count of some sort could keep him in office in four years, because there is no doubt in my mind that he would sacrifice however many it takes on the altar of his ego.
All of that counts, Jason. But I don’t think it detracts from recognizing those effects if you single out loss of life in battle as an evil in itself. Going to war has also become a matter of presidential discretion, while the factors you name are complexes which no single authority controls.
Thank you, Gary, for this post on what is otherwise a very dark day. I believe the first election of Trump was one of the greatest tragedies in American history, but your point is well taken, and offers some relief, this day.
Right now it’s a hypothetical like many others, Ed, but I cling to it for some relief. And in four years we can say whether or not my hope was justified.
I have my doubts about “body counts” as a criterium for feeling solace with regard to the man inaugurated to-day in Wahington, whom you detest as much as I do.
FDR could have kept the American body count low by declining to participate in World War II. The result for the (free) world would have been catastrophic.
You’re right, Niek. The presidents with whom I was really comparing him, after Nixon, were Reagan, Bush sr and jr, Clinton and Obama, whose wars were matters of choice. If there is a pacifist undertone to my column, it’s the way I feel now.
Dear Gary, I too am hopeful that peace will prevail and will be enduring. But, I’m skeptical about any presidency.. however during the Biden tenure something had to change the direction the country was going and it didn’t. Our country is fraught with political, corporate, and civil corruption, an economy that’s failing the so called American Dream, too many shootings, and loss of trust in the government, and drug abuse is ubiquitously main stream. Illegal immigration is rampant and not prosecuted , and an educated populace is becoming questionable. The H1H2 visa is taking the best and brightest from other countries and displacing our drive to create our best. I hope Pres Trump can deliver… but I’m not holding my breath. In conclusion, Happy New Year and wishing you and your family the best! Vickie
I listened to Trump saying those things in the inaugural address, asking myself if he wants us to believe that they were no problem under his administration, that it’s all due to the corrupt and incompetent present government, and that he is capable of righting all wrongs. So please, indeed, don’t hold your breath, Vickie.
Thank you, Gary, for your thoughts which despite all of our reality(ies), are hopeful,
Amy
Yes, Amy, though I actually should have titled the column “A try at solace.”
Jimmy Carter didn’t wage any wars. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/11/president-jimmy-carter-interview But yes: the end of the “war” in Gaza, temporary though it may be, is certainly enough reason to welcome — if not the coming of Trump, at least the end of Biden.
Thanks, Ben, I stand corrected, gladly, about Jimmy Carter. The talks at his funeral, emphasizing his integrity, humanity and humility, were delivered under the rotunda of the Capitol four years and one day after it was stormed by Trump forces, and two weeks before Congress was going to become subservient to a tyrant. The poignancy was nearly unbearable.
But while I’m at it, let me add Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford.