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| Why presidents no longer fire generals | |
| 2008-07-09 | |
.... Wilson and his administration also supported, among several others, the semi-official organization known as the American Protective League. This was a group whose quarter-million members took it upon themselves to conduct warrantless searches, phone tapping, arrests (they would be called kidnapping now, because these were civilians arresting civilians), interrogations and a host of other activities we now would see as outrageous. Atop all of this, Wilson’s administration created the Committee for Public Information, a domestic propaganda organization designed purely to whip up and maintain support for the war effort, with more than 75,000 employees. In effect, Wilson established as close to a police state as this nation has ever known. It meant, in effect if not by intent, that the political cost for the relief of generals, either by Wilson or by the armed forces, was effectively zero. The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, Gen. John Pershing, therefore had the ability to send no less than 32 of the generals sent over to him packing back home, or doing the general’s equivalent of counting towels at the gym.... Truman, despite abysmal polls, was unequivocal when he decided finally to relieve MacArthur from command in 1951 for his repeated insubordination and blatant political maneuvering with the Republican Party. Just before that, the commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgeway, had relieved five division commanders in combat on his own authority (apparently over the screaming protests of the general officer personnel management back in Washington). But those would be the last division commanders relieved so far in our history. Truman had been at the top of the political game for decades at that point, and arguably was more interested in adhering to his Midwestern values than he was in any re-election he might contemplate. He was famously willing to take the hit, epitomized by his desktop sign, “The Buck Stops Here.” Discussing MacArthur, Truman told the then-influential Time magazine, “I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.” And take the hit he did. In the wake of the overtly political MacArthur’s relief — MacArthur had not-so-privately maneuvered for the Republican Party presidential nomination as early as 1930, while he was chief of staff of the Army — Truman’s opposition made mincemeat of the president. There were calls for impeachment, his popularity dropped to 22 percent, and he lost the first round of his party’s primaries.... | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 does getting sh*tcanned from head of NATO count? |
| Posted by: Injun Sniting5564 2008-07-09 22:28 |
| #1 Not a single general, not a brigadier, a major general, a lieutenant general or a full general, nor any naval officers of the same grades, has suffered any serious adverse consequences for failure upon the field of battle since World War II. It's also fortune. Walker died in an accident during the debacle and retreat in Korea and Ridgeway [the Petraeus of that conflict] stepped in and turn the collapsing American/ROK/UN army around. General Dean was captured in the early days during the confusing and losing fight around Taejon, to spend the rest of the war as a POW. Being dead or captured sorta rates a little higher on the penalty category than being fired. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-07-09 14:25 |