USMC Captain Olaolu Ogunyemi writes in “Military Officer” on leadership in the armed services: “Leaders must create a clear mission, communicate compelling vision, influence culture and encourage loyalty and faithfulness.”
He is right. There is no greater stage to display leadership than on the global platform of instant internet presence. In past wars, there existed no such pipeline, making it easy for U.S. Army General William Childs Westmoreland to overlook major casualty figures in the Green Hell of Viet Nam. His boss, the formidable LBJ, was a President before whom officers telling the stark truth saw their careers axed.
Lyndon Johnson was a skilled Texas politician with no tolerance for pessimism. For some, the comparison is ludicrous, but like Russian President Vladimir Putin, word got round that no news is good news, and the smoke shield of near-absolute authority in a personality cult held firm.
Every high office is shaped by the person who holds it, regardless of government or age in history, and preference for only syncophantic positive reports precedes a downfall. Occasionally Johnson – sensing he was being lied to – came close to losing it; no one would tell him “no.”
Vladimir Putin, ingloriously losing a horrible war, ignores casualty reports and goes on TV again smirking and spouting wished-for platitudes. Sometimes one man may be courageous enough to pierce fantasy and speak truth. For Johnson, this was Marine Corps Gen. “Brute” Krulak, whose son Charles later became Commandant (but “Brute” did not.)
Krulak’s short stature had produced his nickname at Annapolis; veteran of Korean War horrors at Chosin Basin, he stood before LBJ and said “Sir, you cannot win in Viet Nam this way….” And told the President exactly where his pet strategy would result in thousands more deaths. “Brute” was plain-spoken, delivering harsh truth as he saw it. His son commanded a Marine unit in the war. So did the President’s son-in-law.
Johnson listened, his collar becoming steadily tighter; he was furious. Rising to his full 6’ plus height, he placed his hand on the smaller man’s back and ungently escorted him OUT of the Oval Office. He was never welcome again.
Johnson, and Kennedy before him, believed that stopping the North Vietnamese would halt the spread of Communism. That both were mistaken proved a lasting blow to the tall Texan’s self-esteem; 50,000 + American dead did democracy no good.
Johnson, doggedly pursuing a failing war strategy, was tragically wrong. Gen. William Westmoreland, commanding USA Viet Nam, was wrong to shade his reports. Recalled, he received a promotion to Chief of Staff.
Each man was gifted in leadership, but an important element of this is willingness to see the truth and tell it, examining history with wisdom instead of wishful interpretation. History judges greatness by these benchmarks.
Westmoreland strove to produce the heroic picture that the President wished – willed! – of battlefield success. So many Americans were jolted out of complacency at this point, as needless fatalities piled up and protesters at home ramped up marches and noise, that Johnson saw he presided over a maelstrom of anger at home, with voters calling out a scandal his office could not evade; he did not run for another term.
Abraham Lincoln’s maxim “If the truth brings me out wrong……..12 angels swearing I was right would make no difference” is apt. Americans are, certainly with internet, teachable; most of us learn from mistakes.
As the Ukraine war shows, events drive history, requiring us to see that something must be examined larger than one man’s opinion, be he president or king. Russia’s brutality in war has long been known. It cannot win with an army gutted by self-dealing corruption: guns that do not shoot, failed missiles and Russian guerilla attacks by other Russians who hate Putin.
With Gorbachev, this ancient land enjoyed a brief period of Glasnost democracy, from which get-it-while-you-can oligarchs emerged like snakes from a hole. In 20 years of Putin’s rule, corruption – not least his own – devoured the military from within. The Russian Federation’s desperation reveals the truth; the great Bear is fangless, but still snarls.
I have known Russians and Ukrainians from the then-“Newly Emerging States” days. Good and decent people. Let us recall this, when the hideous war ends. It will not end in Russia’s favor.
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
