By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

There’s this myth that America needs generals completely loyal to one man. But our generals swear an oath to America and its Constitution, not a political leader. Otherwise, you get “Hitler’s Generals,” some of whom followed their leader to war crimes, while others tried to kill him to save Germany. In the end, America’s Generals defeated Hitler’s Generals in World War II.

According to CNN, Former Chief of State, General John Kelly “…also confirmed to The Atlantic that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II, and recounted the moment. ‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’ Kelly told The Atlantic he’d asked Trump. He added, ‘I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War.’ I said, ‘Do you mean the Kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.”

Trump’s campaign denied the exchange. “This is absolutely false. President Trump never said this,” campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer said, according to CNN. But nevertheless, some from Fox News tried to explain away or defend these words Trump allegedly said to his advisers.

Fox News’ Bret Baier sought to downplay the report, according to Yahoo. Brian Kilmeade believes that maybe Trump didn’t realize what he was saying, as noted in a Yahoo piece. “I can absolutely see him go, ‘It’d be great to have German generals that actually do what we ask them to do,’ maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis or whatever,” Kilmeade said. Bill O’Reilly offered a cognitive excuse. “Donald Trump makes ‘off-hand comments all the time,’” O’Reilly said Wednesday on CUOMO (according to a story on Yahoo). ‘His (Trump’s) comments don’t mean anything, and he doesn’t even remember them 30 seconds later.’” And that quote was designed to defend Donald Trump.

It’s not just Kelly, according to a story posted on Yahoo. “Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley called the current Republican nominee for president ‘fascist to the core’ and ‘the most dangerous person to this country” in Bob Woodward’s new book War. And another Yahoo article cites former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton as saying “I think his behavior alone is troubling enough,” he continued. “To be a fascist, you have to have a philosophy. Trump’s not capable of that.”

Trump’s campaign co-chair also claimed loyalty would be paramount in his new administration. “We can have the best of the best join him to create the most extraordinary government you have ever seen to protect you and to build the America that he wants to build,” he said. “They will be loyal to him. They will have fidelity to him. They will follow his policies,” as noted in Yahoo.

I’d feel more confident if their priority was to the country and constitution, not just a president.

It is worth noting that “Hitler’s Generals” can be sorted into two categories: those who took part in a plot to kill him because his Nazi ideology was destroying Germany, and those who loyally followed his policies on the Holocaust of Jews and others in Europe, many of whom were charged with war crimes. The first group was loyal to Germany, the second was loyal to Hitler.

Thankfully, Hitler’s Generals were defeated by America’s Generals in WWII; our military leaders swore an oath to the Constitution. They didn’t swear some loyalty oath to the President of the United States. Those U.S. war heroes are the generals our country needs now, not the kind who served Germany from 1933 to 1945.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.