Revisionist History

I have been doing a lot of thinking about revisionist history lately. My reaction to Dick Cheney’s rewriting of the Iraq War after leaving office left me realizing that there is very little narrative history that can be taken as fact. We all have our own versions of history based on where we stand.
I once had a person tell me that when it comes to relationships there are three sides to every story – each person’s and the truth. But what is the truth? Can it ever be told given that any narrator will only tell his/her version of the facts? I am sure that my ex-husband and I each have our own version of what occurred in our marriage and the events that led to our divorce. At times I have become enraged by his version of the story and have had a strong desire for the world to see my version as the truth. However, truth be told, neither of us have the full story. You would have to live simultaneously in each of our heads to be able to have an inkling of what happened and I would not wish that experience on anyone. I have learned to honor his version as his story and remember that I don’t know the entire story from his perspective. I can now see him as a player in the story of my life from the age of fifteen to thirty, the father of my son and the grandfather of my beloved grandchildren. I can let him live with his version and I am aware that my side of the story is colored by lack of maturity at that time and over twenty five years of personal growth and recovery.
When my father died, one of his remaining brothers was looking at the shadow box of Korean War medals. They had both served multiple tours in Korea and there seems to be a blurring of their stories. My uncle commented that my father had told a story that was actually his experience. My sister quietly said, “But that was Dad’s reality.” It was. Dad’s reality was told from the viewpoint of an abused child, a traumatized war veteran, and someone who wanted to be loved and respected. His reality often collided with mine and it caused pain for both of us. As in my experience with my ex-husband I have strived to let it be. My father is gone from this life and I know longer have to struggle to have him understand my reality. With that struggle gone, I find that my work in the trauma field has helped me know a little better how his reality was formed.
I do still become very angry, though, when persons and governments in power try to revise history to suit their own agenda. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and remember there was very little in the history books about the native people of the area, many of whom were my ancestors. The history books were written by white men about the accomplishments of white men and the genocide and racial cleansing of the indigenous people of this country was never mentioned. As an adult, I learned that my grandfather had been taken from his home and sent to a Franciscan school to have the “Indian beaten out of him” by a Catholic education. In order to learn more about my ancestors, my family would go to Madeleine Island, off the shore of Bayfield, Wisconsin, and visit the island museum and the cemetery. We did not learn until much later that the Madeleine for whom the island was named was our great great great grandmother, the daughter of the Ojibwa chief who married a fur trader with the last name Cadotte. I have lost any memory of her birth name.
In 2007, I visited Nepal and Tibet and had a firsthand look at how the Chinese government has revised history to justify what they refer to as the “liberation of the Tibetan people.” Books and television programs in Tibet share a history that is outside of the Tibetan people’s reality. The Chinese government insists that the Tibetan people were under the dictatorship of the Dalai Lama and that Tibet had always been a part of China, therefore justifying the occupation of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the suppression of Tibetan culture, including art and religion. The Chinese even went so far as to “disappear” the child who was chosen as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and replace him with the child of a Chinese government official. Rumors still abound as to the whereabouts of the Tibetan Panchen Lama.
Tibetan people are told that if they practice Buddhism they cannot work government jobs – “The Buddha can pay your rent.” Also, our Tibetan drivers were told they had four hours to drive between Shigatse and Lhasa. If they arrived too early they would be accused of speeding and if they arrived any later they would not be allowed past the Lhasa checkpoint. This was being done to discourage Tibetan-led tourism.
Before we had entered Tibet there had been a hold up in obtaining our Chinese VISA. The Chinese government had information that a British journalist had reported that the Chinese made it difficult for Westerners to enter Tibet from Nepal. In answer to this, the Chinese closed down the border to westerners and were refusing to issue visas until they received an apology from the journalist. It took a number of travel companies within Kathmandu to convince the Chinese embassy to begin issuing the visas. We were not told any of this until it was all said and done.
Even once we entered Tibet we witness Tibetans being treated horribly by checkpoint officials, refusing to allow them through once roads had opened after a series of landslides in the Himalayas. I witness a group of about fifty Tibetans, including our drivers, become enraged as cars with Chinese passengers were allowed past the checkpoints while we were all told to park at the side of the road.
Revisionist history is a tool used by governments to destroy culture and maintain control over people. Dick Cheney has tried to convince us that “enhanced interrogation techniques” were necessary and did not constitute torture even though what Cheney refers to as “enhanced interrogation techniques” fits the federal government’s definition of “torture.” I believe that he believes what he says. Historical revisionists eventually begin to believe their own propaganda because to admit otherwise would destroy their vision of their role in history. This makes it critically important for citizens to engage in understanding current events as they happen so that when the players begin to re-write history we are able to recognize the discrepancies and hold them responsible for their actions before we become “liberated” from the truth.