La Follette no pacifist.

• Author: Greenberg, Felix
• Position: WE HEAR YOU - Letter to the editor

The Progressive's repeated characterization of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette as a pacifist who universally opposed war is simply not historically accurate ("When Bombs Fall, There Is Always Someone Underneath," April 7 web article by Norman Stockwell).

Fighting Bob was a "Bloody Shirt Republican" who strongly supported the Civil War and said the North would be "eternally right" to fight the South and preserve the Union in opposition to slavery. In fact, he even compared the Civil War's righteousness to the Revolutionary War. La Follette wasn't opposed to the Spanish-American War. Yes, La Follette opposed World War I (like many in his day) and history has proven him right for doing so, but that...