The Generals
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The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today by Thomas E. Ricks
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Characters:
General George C. Marshall- fielded the first combat division. Could “reduce complex problems into their fundamentals.”
Marshall’s list of qualities in a successful leader
• Good common sense
• Have studied your profession
• Physically strong
• Cheerful and optimistic
• Display marked energy
• Extreme loyalty
• determined
In a meeting with Roosevelt, the senior advisors were very soothing, but Marshall, almost overlooked asked for a few minutes of the President’s time. Marshall spoke in a torrent of facts, “If you don’t do something…and don’t do it right away, I don’t know what is going to happen with this country.” He had his attention. “We are in a situation where now it’s desperate. And I am using the word very accurately.”
Marshall’s attitude toward his dealings with Roosevelt provided a model of civil-military discourse. Frank, emotionally and socially distant.
13 Americans with notable military records have become president: Washington, Eisenhower, Grant, Andrew Jackson, William Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and the first President Bush.
Look into VE day.
Post Korean Army. A malaise, lack of a clear mission. One battalion commander committed suicide. Another on FT Dix sowed salt into the roots of shade trees to prevent raking leaves in the fall.
Schwarkzhopf got to FT Cambell in 1957, surprised to find many of its officers and sergeants wallowing in alcohol. One of his tasks was to collect his company commander from the rod and gun club around six every evening, when the commander, who left early, passed out from drinking. “If you didn’t show up for happy hour at the officers’ club on Friday afternoon, you were regarded as a weak sister,” “Drinks cost a quarter and the object was to put away as many as possible before seven o’clock.”
Westmoreland: Odd combination of traits. “energetic and ambitious, yet strikingly incurious and prone to fabrication even as he considered himself a boyscout in his ethics. Lacked cognitive complexity. Read to his subordinates in Vietnam the principles of war, which is like a squad leaders manual.
Depuy. Great in WWII where massive firepower and tactics won, but it was the wrong answer in Vietnam.
The Marines did COIN operations effectively, but didn’t have the Army backing them. “The Vietnamese people are the prize.” Marine LTG Krulak wrote. Three layered approach. 1. Use battalion sized operations to go after main forces. 2. Smaller counter-guerrilla patrols would aggressively seek to contrain VC movements in population centric centers. 3. Put small numbers of infantryman into villages themselves. Combined Action Platoons (CAPS).
Look into Gresham’s law.
“do not tolerate incompetence,” “Once you do you have an incompetent organization.”
LTC Paul Yingling’s denouncement of today’s general. Find his paper.
September 1918 the U.S. entered WWI, the armistice was declared 8 weeks later.