Robert Bateman (historian)

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Robert Lake Bateman (born 1967) is an American military officer, historian, author, and web and newspaper columnist.

Contents 1 Role as educator 2 Works 3 On No Gun Ri 4 On Carnage and Culture 5 On Blackwater, Inc 6 References

[edit] Role as educator

Bateman taught military history at the United States Military Academy and on an adjunct basis at George Mason University. He is a United States Army Ranger, served as a commander in the 7th United States Cavalry, and served in Iraq from 2005 through 2006. He was once a "military fellow" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is currently assigned to the Pentagon and teaches on an adjunct basis in the Security Studies program at Georgetown University. Bateman also writes a bi-weekly column as a media critic/ethicist for the Committee for Concerned Journalists, which is sponsored by the Knight Foundation and the journalism program of the University of Missouri.

[edit] Works

His books include Digital War, A View from the Front Lines (1999) and No Gun Ri, A Military History of the Korean War Incident (2002). From Iraq he wrote weekly columns for the MSNBC.COM weblog "Altercation," hosted by left wing commentator Eric Alterman, and the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner. He has published editorials in the right-leaning New York Post, and various left-of-center publications. He has appeared on several National Public Radio programs, as well as those of the Public Broadcasting Service on programs such as those hosted by the right-of-center hosts Ben Wattenberg and also Tucker Carlson. He is a regular author for the professional military journals, Marine Corps Gazette, Parameters, the academic Journal of Military History and Academic Questions, and the historical commercial magazines Armchair General Magazine, Military History, America's Civil War, World War II and Military History Quarterly, among others.

[edit] On No Gun Ri

Bateman's first major run-in with a major media establishment was during his archival research into the events which took place at No Gun Ri, Korea, in the summer of 1950. During the research he established that the Associated Press team which had first publicized the story of No Gun Ri had relied upon false testimony from at least one veteran who was a complete fake, and probably two others who were not there as well. He further contended that the AP's evidence was insufficient to support their apparent conclusions from a historical point of view, noting particularly the lack of bodies found in the aftermath. He informed the AP team of this error, but was not believed. The AP team won the Pulitzer Prize two weeks later. Bateman presented his archival research materials to reporter Joe Galloway, then at US News and World Report. Galloway's subsequent articles on the issues and evidence led to a media-fight between the two insitutions. Ultimately the AP's fraudulant witness confessed. The fake witness was later convicted of fraud in federal court for falsely claiming veterans benefits for PTSD for more than a decade, making Bateman perhaps the only historian ever to have a hand in sending a man to prison. Bateman details these events in his book on the same topic.

[edit] On Carnage and Culture

In the Fall of 2007 Bateman took exception to Victor Davis Hanson's book Carnage and Culture and the 2,500 year thesis therein. Bateman claimed the book was factually challenged and historically unsupported and unsupportable during a four-part series on the blog of Eric Alterman. One of Bateman's major points was that Hanson essentially skips 1,700 years in the middle of his 2,500 year period, by failing to provide evidence during that stretch. On his own blog Hanson accused Bateman of being in the pay of liberal fundraiser George Soros and said that the professional military officer was mentally "unhinged" for making his critique and that Bateman's commentary had been a commissioned "hit piece" by the website Media Matters for America and that by implication Bateman was himself a liberal mouthpiece. Hanson provided no evidence for these claims. Bateman, who apparently initiated the series himself and who has previously noted that he receives no monetary compensation for his essays, did not respond to Hanson. Among other elements of the debate Bateman noted that Hanson is "widely known" among historians for being "notoriously thin skinned." Hanson wrote more than 16,000 words in response to Bateman's four short essays. Bateman has also published portions of the debate on the military-insider website Small Wars Journal, where he is also a contributor.

[edit] On Blackwater, Inc

In October 2007 Bateman published an Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune entitled, "Blackwater and Me, A Love Story It Ain't." In the essay he presented unflattering first-person descriptions of Blackwater operatives in Iraq based upon his own observations in Iraq in 2005-2006.

[edit] References