Richard Clarke deserves your respect.
So does Teresa Murphy. Lucy Fletcher, too.
These three local people gave their lives during the most important event ever to be ignored in human history.
Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I, which claimed the lives of about 17 million people, including Clarke, a soldier, and Murphy and Fletcher, both nurses.
It’s also known as the First World War, the Great War and, in its cruelest, most ironic form, the War to End All Wars. Call it whatever you want, though, and the result remains the same.
Clarke, Murphy and Fletcher were heroes, true heroes, killed while saving others. They took part in what I consider to be the most underrated piece of history all-time. The planet’s inhabitants painted a lovely little picture of hell, like never before, from 1914 to 1918.
Ferocious weaponry was introduced on a giant scale, with tanks and artillery and planes and chemical weapons exploding onto the scene.
Mass stupidity was on display, on a world-wide stage, and no one seems to care, or know much about it. You should Google it, read books about it, trudge through the confusion and insanity so the people like our three representatives did not trudge through their confusion and insanity in vain.
It’s an intimidating subject, I know, with its complex alliances and regional, pre-war conflicts. Countries declared war on other countries in 1914 in domino-like fashion, all ignited by the assassination of an heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo.
Sounds unimportant? Doesn’t seem relevant today, 100 years later?
“It really is a forgotten war,” Byron Champlin, a local historian who wears a bow tie and owns an encyclopedic brain, told me by phone. “Yet, that war did more to shape America’s international posture and more to shape the world that we’re dealing with now than even the second world war did.”
World War II, as Champlin told me, was “more sexy, because it’s more immediate. There are more of us alive today who had parents who went through it. My mom worked at a propeller factory and my father was in the Navy in the Pacific.”
Plus, World War II had clearer visions of good and evil, with the United States emerging as a noble force that helped defeat a man named Hitler, known as one of the most evil figures in human history.
Propaganda helped somewhat, but generally speaking, the U.S. had justice and honor on its side. World War I wasn’t as clear cut, but, as Champlin said, its after effects can be seen everywhere.
Look at the Balkans. Look at the Middle East. Look at the Soviet Union. Look it up. Even the Second World War rose from the ashes of its predecessor.
“From that war sprang the division of Middle East countries that were based more on the policy goals of the victorious nations than the ethnic divisions of the region,” Champlin pointed out. “And also from that war sprang fascism with the peace treaty that had been imposed upon Germany.”
He continued: “And the complex relationship between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Balkan States, which had been influenced by the Ottoman Empire and fought over for centuries. We saw that blossom after the collapse of Yugoslavia, the same thing. It’s difficult for people to understand.”
It’s not, however, hard to understand what our aforementioned heroes meant to others during this war. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
It happened after American merchant ships had been sunk by German U-boats, and the disclosure that Germany had sent a secret message to Mexico seeking an alliance in exchange for territory in the southeastern United States.
Start with Fletcher, who lived at 246 N. Main St. in Concord. She graduated from Concord High in 1906 and from nursing school in 1916. She was a Red Cross nurse in France in June of 1917.
She contracted cerebrospinal meningitis while caring for wounded soldiers and died on May 8, 1918. She was buried in France near her base hospital.
A newspaper account about her read, “her duty was the relief of suffering and she was stricken and gave up her own life while at her self-imposed task.”
Another read, “It was her tireless work and devotion to duty that resulted in her death.”
Murphy, who lived at 49 Summer St. in Penacook, was no less heroic. She was also a nurse. She also died from a contagious disease while caring for the wounded, succumbing to pulmonary tuberculosis in London on Nov. 9, 1918.
The war ended two days later.
As for Clarke, he was from Penacook and died saving others as well, according to Champlin. Safe in a dugout, Clarke ran to a pair of American soldiers during a German artillery bombardment that included mustard gas. It marked the beginning of chemical warfare.
“He dragged them out of their gun pit, but in the process of doing that he was poisoned,” Champlin said. “He died several days later.”
It’s just one event from a war that few have shown interest in. An important war with long arms that have stretched through the decades, reaching today’s world.
Those chemical weapons we’ve been reading about recently? The nerve agent sarin that the Syrian president used to kill his own people?
That type of warfare was banned by the international community because of what happened during World War I. Because of what happened to soldiers like Richard Clarke.
He and a pair of nurses named Murphy and Fletcher died 100 years ago.
“Concord men and women made sacrifices,” Champlin said. “It’s tragic that by forgetting this war we forget those sacrifices, the heroism and dedication of these men and women.
“I think it’s important. Let’s get people thinking about it.”
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304 or rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)