War In Europe

Washington. -- Considered in the abstract, the words ''America First'' could hardly offend anyone lucky enough to be a citizen of this country. But after more than two centuries ofpolitical dialogue, most such phrases suggest more than they say.Anyone familiar with our 20th-century history, such as the commentator Pat Buchanan, surely understands this. Thus, in declaring his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on an ''America First'' platform, he knowingly associates himself with the best-known earlier political movement of that name.

John Trovato is a familiar figure on the benches and in the bars and restaurants of Little Italy, where he likes to end his days with a dram of Grand Marnier and a cappuccino at Da Mimmo. He lives next door, just a half-block from the corner store on High Street where he was born 91 years ago yesterday. He's spent most of his life here in the 200 block of High St., where about 100 years ago, his father, Orazio, an immigrant from Sicily, started the store where Apicella's deli is now. Trovato has hardly ever left Little Italy, or even his block.

From The Sun Sept. 18-24, 1844Sept. 18: Can any body tell what it is that causes that disagreeable smell, in Market Space, near the northeast corner of Lombard Street, usually about nine or ten o'clock at night?Sept. 21: The noble edifice, called St. Peter's Church, on Poppleton Street, will be dedicated to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock by the Most Rev. Archbishop Eccleston, assisted by several distinguished clergymen.From The Sun Sept. 18-24, 1894Sept. 19: Calvert Hall College, under the direction of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, was incorporated yesterday by John P. Lentz, otherwise known as Brother Romuald.

The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country. Hence it is a proud privilege to be a soldier - and a good soldier. - Gen. George S. Patton Jr. In a biting wind and persistent rain that chilled mourners, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was buried on Christmas Eve 1945, in the Hamm U.S. Military Cemetery in Luxembourg, 12 days after his neck was broken in an automobile accident. Patton, who had led the U.S. 3rd Army from the beaches of Normandy into Czechoslovakia during World War II, remains an almost mythic yet controversial figure 58 years after his death.

Colonial Players' first play of the 1996-1997 season, "And a Nightingale Sang," was a good choice for reasons the play selection committee could never have anticipated.The cast and crew had to postpone their opening because of construction delays and rehearse in a theater that looked like a war zone to produce a play about a family trying to cope with life in England during World War II.Much like the Stott family of the play, the cast, crew and director Lois Evans soldiered through adversity with their sense of humor intact.

WASHINGTON -- As his chief diplomat describes it, President Bush heads off tonight on a mission to "bury the hatchet" of the Cold War in Europe while laying the political foundation for a hot war looming in the Persian Gulf.His eight days of travel will take him to the public square in Prague, where chanting multitudes peacefully toppled Czechoslovakia's Communist regime one year ago, and then onto elegant treaty-signing ceremonies in Paris that promise a new era of peace and cooperation between East and West.

General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence, by John S.D. Eisenhower. Free Press. 304 pages. $27. John Eisenhower is the perfect author for a book like this one, which is an analysis of World War II military leadership as well as a remembrance. He is a retired general. A World War II veteran. Author of two praised World War II histories. A graceful writer who taught English at his alma mater, West Point. As Dwight D. Eisenhower's son, he had entree during and after WWII to the supreme Allied commander's peers, who oversaw the winning of the war in Europe.

John Trovato is a familiar figure on the benches and in the bars and restaurants of Little Italy, where he likes to end his days with a dram of Grand Marnier and a cappuccino at Da Mimmo. He lives next door, just a half-block from the corner store on High Street where he was born 91 years ago yesterday. He's spent most of his life here in the 200 block of High St., where about 100 years ago, his father, Orazio, an immigrant from Sicily, started the store where Apicella's deli is now. Trovato has hardly ever left Little Italy, or even his block.

Paris.With the end of the Cold War, the world passed from a Copernican to a post-Newtonian political universe.Before, the United States and the Soviet Union provided the fixed political points about which other nations revolved. Since their gravitational force has waned or been withdrawn, the international system's order has been lost, sending individual nations and parties tumbling into unforeseen and unpredictable orbits.So long as the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the international scene, other states, and even the political party systems within other nations, functioned within the fields of force radiating from Moscow and Washington.

LINE 'EM all up against the wall and shoot 'em" was my Uncle Gregory's unvarying advice for handling people who ruffled the public calm.Whether they were unionized malcontents whose picket line inconvenienced him or political hotheads whose anti-government insolence outraged his sense of patriotism, it did them no good to beg Uncle Gregory for mercy.Many a time I watched other uncles, aunts and cousins plead in vain for more humane solutions. Once Uncle Calvin, who had been a combat marine, so may have actually shot some people, or at least knew how to do it, was telling us his plan for peaceably luring sit-down strikers out of a Detroit auto plant, when Uncle Gregory pounded his fist half through the table top."

General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence, by John S.D. Eisenhower. Free Press. 304 pages. $27. John Eisenhower is the perfect author for a book like this one, which is an analysis of World War II military leadership as well as a remembrance. He is a retired general. A World War II veteran. Author of two praised World War II histories. A graceful writer who taught English at his alma mater, West Point. As Dwight D. Eisenhower's son, he had entree during and after WWII to the supreme Allied commander's peers, who oversaw the winning of the war in Europe.

WASHINGTON -- It's convenient, and dramatic, to compare the Sept. 11 attacks with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years ago today. Each triggered American outrage and rallied the nation to respond. Pearl Harbor as a national motivator endured throughout the nearly four years of World War II as the United States recovered from Japan's military body-blow to our Pacific fleet and achieved ultimate and unequivocal victory. It may prove more difficult, however, with a more amorphous enemy of no single national sponsorship (beyond the disintegrating Taliban)

Even after nearly 60 years, the terrible despair of the young Jewish man from Riga in Latvia cries out from the pages of long-secret World War II spy files. Gabriel Zivial, 20, has made his way to Geneva, Switzerland, where he is debriefed on Oct. 9, 1942. Henry Louis Henriod, an aid worker, tells him that they want to continue relief activities. "Relief!" Zivial cries. "It is too late for that." "Out of 100,000 deported people," he says, "there are at present about 3,000 men and 300 women alive."

Colonial Players' first play of the 1996-1997 season, "And a Nightingale Sang," was a good choice for reasons the play selection committee could never have anticipated.The cast and crew had to postpone their opening because of construction delays and rehearse in a theater that looked like a war zone to produce a play about a family trying to cope with life in England during World War II.Much like the Stott family of the play, the cast, crew and director Lois Evans soldiered through adversity with their sense of humor intact.

LINE 'EM all up against the wall and shoot 'em" was my Uncle Gregory's unvarying advice for handling people who ruffled the public calm.Whether they were unionized malcontents whose picket line inconvenienced him or political hotheads whose anti-government insolence outraged his sense of patriotism, it did them no good to beg Uncle Gregory for mercy.Many a time I watched other uncles, aunts and cousins plead in vain for more humane solutions. Once Uncle Calvin, who had been a combat marine, so may have actually shot some people, or at least knew how to do it, was telling us his plan for peaceably luring sit-down strikers out of a Detroit auto plant, when Uncle Gregory pounded his fist half through the table top."

WASHINGTON -- A half-century after World War II ended, the nations that suffered millions of casualties are struggling anew with memories of the conflict and how to honor the dead.President Clinton is likely to travel to Moscow in May to join Russia's celebration of the end of the war in Europe. But the White House must figure out a way for the president to make the trip without offending Americans who plan celebrations for that same time in the United States, and without slighting Western European allies.

WASHINGTON -- A half-century after World War II ended, the nations that suffered millions of casualties are struggling anew with memories of the conflict and how to honor the dead.President Clinton is likely to travel to Moscow in May to join Russia's celebration of the end of the war in Europe. But the White House must figure out a way for the president to make the trip without offending Americans who plan celebrations for that same time in the United States, and without slighting Western European allies.

The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country. Hence it is a proud privilege to be a soldier - and a good soldier. - Gen. George S. Patton Jr. In a biting wind and persistent rain that chilled mourners, Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was buried on Christmas Eve 1945, in the Hamm U.S. Military Cemetery in Luxembourg, 12 days after his neck was broken in an automobile accident. Patton, who had led the U.S. 3rd Army from the beaches of Normandy into Czechoslovakia during World War II, remains an almost mythic yet controversial figure 58 years after his death.

From The Sun Sept. 18-24, 1844Sept. 18: Can any body tell what it is that causes that disagreeable smell, in Market Space, near the northeast corner of Lombard Street, usually about nine or ten o'clock at night?Sept. 21: The noble edifice, called St. Peter's Church, on Poppleton Street, will be dedicated to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock by the Most Rev. Archbishop Eccleston, assisted by several distinguished clergymen.From The Sun Sept. 18-24, 1894Sept. 19: Calvert Hall College, under the direction of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, was incorporated yesterday by John P. Lentz, otherwise known as Brother Romuald.

The Baltimore News-Post that day gave hints of the beginning of the end: "Allies Crush Fierce Nazi Counter-Attacks," the front page headline said. Nowhere did it use the phrase "D-Day," but maybe it didn't have to. The beginning of the end, indeed: June 7, 1944, the day the newspapers reported the Allied invasion to end the war in Europe."