Prime Minister Winston Churchill throws the V for Victory sign outside 10 Downing Street in 1943.
[World History Archive]

The mighty word

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Talk may be cheap but, when it comes to war, words matter. From declaration to surrender, wars begin and end with words: they provoke, commit, inspire, motivate, reassure and mislead.

Mislead, indeed. Perhaps conflict’s most telling and well-known quotation is “the first casualty of war is the truth,” variously attributed to the Greek dramatist Aeschylus circa 550 BC, English writer Samuel Johnson in 1758, and U.S. Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918. Regardless, truer words were never spoken.

Tough talk is a fundamental tenet of war speak, but as he stood in Spain one day in 1809 and cast his eyes over the ragged levies that were to carry him through his peninsular campaign against the French, Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley—the Duke of Wellington—spoke plainly and honestly of what stood before him.

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General Walter Natynczyk was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2024. [Wikimedia]

Former defence chief Walter Natynczyk: Now Officer of the Order of Canada

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Dec. 18, 2024, Governor General Mary Simon announced the appointment of 88 individuals to the Order of Canada. Among them was retired general Walter Natynczyk who, from 2008 to 2012, served as the head of the Canadian Armed Forces. Before his tenure as defence chief, Natynczyk held various command positions, including with The Royal Canadian Dragoons and for international peacekeeping missions to Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia. The Winnipegger has since carried out duties as president of the Canadian Space Agency (2013-2014) and deputy minister of Veterans Affairs (2014 to 2021).

In an exclusive interview with Legion Magazine, Natynczyk discussed his pre-military life, career in the CAF and his recent Order of Canada.

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