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Article: BENEDICT ARNOLD: Hero, Traitor... Whiner
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 8, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Too bad for Benedict Arnold that the bullet tore through his leg
at the Battle of Saratoga and didn't smack him in the head. He would
have died an American hero. Instead, the Revolutionary War general
survived and came to make his name synonymous with "traitorous rat."
Sitting on the West Bank of the Hudson River in upstate New York
is the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1780, it was a key
American defensive position that Arnold plotted to surrender to the
British. For cash. It was an epic betrayal by an American Judas, a
scheme that, had it succeeded, could have so undermined the American
quest for independence that cricket today might be the national
pastime and "God Save The ...