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To the editor:

Please let us review our history.

President McKinley in 1898 did not want warfare during his administration but when the USS Maine blew up in Havana and it was determined to have been caused by a mine, the American people insisted it was an act of war. So we went to war with Spain. Even though President McKinley wanted only peace, he had authorized many battleships to be built during his administration.

Teddy Roosevelt led the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba and Admiral George Dewey led an American fleet into Manila Bay and sank the Spanish fleet. The war was effectively over. President McKinley ran for a second term and was elected. Six months later he was shot and killed. His Vice President Teddy Roosevelt took over. One of his first orders was to paint all of our warships’ hulls white. Then he ordered his Great White fleet to voyage around the world stopping in 20 cities to demonstrate the power of the USA as a world force while telling the world that the American immigrants from Europe had created this great power to the detriment of the Native American and African American people. He told the world that he would speak softly but would carry a big stick!

The USS Mississippi was not completed in time to go around the world with the 16 battleships and escorts of the Great White Fleet. However, President William Howard Taft ordered her to steam from Havana to the Mississippi River and up it to Natchez, where she anchored off Silver Street on May 20, 1909, when this picture was taken. The next day she went on to Vicksburg. She was one of the first to carry a biwing float plane, which actually saw some action in Puerto Rico. However in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson sold her to Greece along with her sistership. Before she transited to Greece, her ship’s bell was sent to Rosalie in Natchez and can be seen today on Rosalie’s lawn. She spent the war years of the First World War patrolling the areas around Athens while a real war was going on next door in the Turkish Dardinelles. In 1941 when Nazi Germany declared war on Greece, she was bombed and sunk.

Our President Trump has likened himself to Teddy Roosevelt and has told the world that America holds a big stick and she will be a leader. In his likeness to Teddy, he has been amis to have been speaking softly.

Andrew Learned Peabody

Natchez resident