Lawrence J. Korb: History Shows Civilian Leaders Are Better Off Ignoring Advice of Generals

[babylonsister]

Military Leaders Make Weak Advisers
History Shows Civilian Leaders Are Better Off Ignoring Advice of Generals


From Top Left: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Adm. Arthur Radford, Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy

By Lawrence J. Korb 08/04/2008


Over the past 18 months, anyone proposing any policy for extricating the United States from the Iraqi quagmire has been told by critics that the proposal should be vetted by Gen. David Petraeus, who took command of the U.S. forces in Iraq in February 2007. For example, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, criticized his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, for revealing his plan to end the war in Iraq before sitting down with Petraeus.

The assumption behind this line of thought is that political leaders should defer to the military commanders when it comes to issues of war and peace, especially in the middle of a war. But American history tells us that, in the postwar period, military leaders from Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Korea to Petraeus in Iraq have more often been wrong than right when it comes to dealing with threats to U.S.national security. In fact, America's civilian leaders have usually been better off ignoring their advice.

In October 1950, for example, President Harry S. Truman traveled to Wake Island to meet with MacArthur, the commander of the forces in Korea, to ascertain whether the U.S. military's headlong rush to the Yalu would provoke China to intervene. MacArthur assured him it would not, and predicted that the war would be over by Christmas. One month later, the Chinese launched a massive attack on the advancing, widely dispersed U.S. forces and sent them reeling back into South Korea.

MacArthur then advised Truman to attack the Chinese mainland with nuclear weapons, and surge hundreds of thousands more U.S. troops into the theater. In January 1951, MacArthur referred to the war in Korea as a crusade. He said that in Korea, Washington was fighting for a free Asia. Fortunately, Truman realized that Europe was the central front in the Cold War. He fired MacArthur and began negotiations with North Korea that ultimately restored the status quo ante bellum.

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http://washingtonindependent.com/view/military-leaders

[muntrv]

1. "Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and the first President Bush were correct in ignoring the advice

of flag officers like MacArthur, Radford, Westmoreland and Powell."

Doesn't the writer mean Eisenhower ignoring Radford and JFK ignorning Maxwell Taylor? Because I don't think LBJ ignored Westmoreland.

[babylonsister]

3. I don't know what he meant, but

this is who he is. I've seen him interviewed occasionally; pretty no-nonsense kind of guy.

Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information.

[anonymous171]

2. Thank God Truman ignored MacArthur.

MacArthur may have been brilliant but near the end of his career he became full of himself.