Taps For Military Decisiveness
HUNTINGTON, SAMUEL P.
Taps For Military Decisiveness Countdown for Decision. By Major General John B. Medaris. Putnam. 303 pp. $5.00. Reviewed by Samuel P. Huntington Associate Director, Institute of War and Peace...
...This post went unfilled for a few months and Medaris asked the Defense Department missile chief why this was the case...
...His is a personal account all the way, focusing primarily, however, on his post-World War II experiences in the Ordnance Corps and the critically important role which he played in the development of Army ballistic missiles...
...Perhaps because of his own character, perhaps because of the level at which he operated, his is by far the most bitter of the four memoirs...
...The hesitations, vacillations, timidities of the politicians of the Fourth Republic were one factor which led the French Army to bring to power the mid-20th century's most notable Man of Decision...
...As Medaris emphasizes again and again, the continuing division and conflict among the military services, the in-ablity of the military to decide among themselves, has been the primary factor enlarging the powers and influence of the civilian secretaries, bureaucrats and pressure groups...
...The initial financial sacrifices they make in taking a Government job are part of the problem, but more important is the mental attitude they bring to it...
...Such has not been the case in Eisenhower's America...
...With respect to high-level civilian appointees, Medaris echoes the conclusions of many social scientists that businessmen are "fish out of water" in the defense establishment...
...In many respects Taylor is the most intelligent, able and articulate American military leader of the cold war...
...First, to what extent are the aspects of the decisionmaking process of which he complains so bitterly inherent in the nature of the American governmental system, and to what extent did they simply reflect the values and methods of the Eisenhower Administration...
...and only at the last moment was he informed of decisions on other programs which directly affected his own actions...
...The "permanent Civil Service staff," Medaris argues, interprets the recommendations of the military to the civilian Secretaries "in accordance with their own ideas...
...It raises two key questions...
...With General Medaris, we move down one more echelon to a man whose most distinguished service was not on the General Staff in Washington but in command of an operating organization in the field...
...As such, it is indispensable and one of the most significant books on military affairs to be published since World War II...
...In the prolonged struggle over intermediate range missiles, no one could "by any stretch of conscience" cancel the Army's Jupiter...
...General Ridgway's successor, General Maxwell Taylor, on the other hand, was much more the sophisticated military statesman...
...Throughout his book he articulates in his own way the dogma of decision which 20 years of hot and cold war have made characteristic of the "military mind" in most Western democracies...
...The great opportunity which a new Administration has is not to reform the process fundamentally but to bypass it temporarily...
...The latter replied, "That's easy...
...The immediate result was a draw, with both missiles going into production...
...He attributes his frustrations as chief of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to the "morass of discussion, argument, delay, and indecision" which prevailed "at the Washington level...
...General John Medaris is the fourth important Army general to write his memoirs in as many-years...
...Standing out in sharp contrast are the last few chapters of his book, in which Ridgway describes his encounters as Chief of Staff from 1953 to 1955 with Secretary Charles E. Wilson...
...The dis-ingenuousness of Wilson, the complexities of Washington politics, the pressures for economy in the military establishment outraged but, more important, simply baffled this great combat soldier...
...Here, he voices a complaint much more often heard within the Army, which lacks strong industrial allies, than in the Air Force and Navy, which have them...
...His sharpest words, however, are reserved for the civilian scientist appointed Director of Research and Engineering...
...Two factors, however, distinguish their situation from that of their continental brethren...
...He gets fed up...
...As Medaris' book demonstrates, this yearning for leadership, clear-cut choices and precise authoritative policies is also present among American officers...
...They retire and write books...
...Secondly, frustrated though the American officers may be within the executive branch, the varied opportunities offered by a pluralistic society impel them to appeal their case to Congress, the press and public opinion with some expectation that the latter, in turn, may condition future executive decisions...
...As his title implies, Medaris believes that the "key to success is decision...
...Field Marshal Montgomery's Memoirs are one extended essay on the virtue of decision and the absence of this quality in General Eisenhower and many civilian statesmen with whom he had to deal...
...Herbert F. York was appointed...
...Too often, our programs seem "to be shaped to suit the needs of specific industries rather than being tailored to the dictates of weapons requirements...
...He wants out...
...Fundamentally, what they object to is the introduction into the executive branch of the processes of bargaining and compromise which have long characterized the legislature...
...General James M. Gavin's volume, War and Peace in the Space Age (1958), makes a similar case with less logic and more passion...
...The Army memoirs differ greatly in quality and in content, but in varying degrees they all contain elements of personal autobiography, descriptions of the cold war policy-making processes, and prescriptions for what American military policy ought to be...
...Medaris' comment is: "A few weeks later Dr...
...On the other hand, the Air Force's Thor was "a major bid by an airframe manufacturer to help capture the missile business for that industry...
...The dominant tendency, he alleges, is to "bureaucratic dominance and day-today operation of the Armed Forces by professional civil servants whose main objective in life is the protection of their own position and the perpetuation and growth of their personal empires...
...Given this perspective and this opportunity, American generals, unlike their French counterparts, do not revolt...
...Significantly, however, no such outpouring has come from either retired Air Force generals or Navy admirals...
...It includes a little bit of everything: early autobiography, World War II experiences, the general evolution of military policy during the "decade of dilemma, 1945-1955," his personal experiences in developing policy during this period, and an impassioned presentation of a "strategy of peace" for the "decade of decision, 1955-1965...
...As a result, "the Secretary of Defense is effectively isolated from responsible military opinion...
...Significantly, however, many sophisticated and informed civilian observers have voiced criticisms very similar to Medaris...
...In Bismarck's Germany generals had little incentive to do so...
...Pressure groups, Medaris holds, are "divisive" and their activities produce a "balance of compromise dictated by expediency" and "relative inaction...
...Finally, General Medaris directs his wrath at the role of domestic pressure groups in shaping decisions on weapons...
...Given the nature of the issues which now must be fought out within the executive branch, improvements in the policy-making process are likely only within the existing framework...
...The first to appear, General Matthew Ridgway's, in 1956, was largely a colorful account of his battle experiences in World War II and Korea, alive with the drama and lonely courage of combat...
...The long-range result, however, was a victory for the Air Force, achieved, however, only at the price of "becoming almost a slave of the aircraft and associated industries, subject to endless pressure and propaganda...
...He did carve out a notable role for himself in research and development, however, and his book is largely concerned with problems in this area...
...Whether legislators or executives direct the military establishment, the problems of the commanders do not seem to have changed much over the centuries...
...The responsibility for this situation he assigns primarily to three groups: the political leaders of the Administration, civil servants and pressure groups...
...His book is a coolly analytical description of policy-making, and a brilliant logical presentation of the Army's case...
...Medaris' indictment is significant both for what it reveals about our decision-making processes and also for what it reveals about the state of mind of the Army officer...
...Unlike Generals Ridgway and Taylor, Gavin did not reach the Army's top position, and his viewpoint is more limited than theirs...
...Secondly, to what extent is Medaris' impatience with the policymaking procedures characteristic of the officer corps in general...
...Supporting the civilian political appointees are the Pentagon's civilian bureaucrats...
...He gets mad...
...The hard-driving manager who has fought his way up a business hierarchy and who is used to prompt obedience from his juniors soon finds himself bedeviled on all sides by Congressional committees, bureaucratic rivals, budgetary officials, semi-autonomous subordinates...
...The answer to this question presumably will come in the next four years...
...Every man who is smart enough to do the job well is much too smart to accept it...
...Much better than the businessman, Medaris argues, is the lawyer who comes to Government accustomed to think "horizontally," to negotiate, and to argue his position in a competitive atmosphere...
...Reviewed by Samuel P. Huntington Associate Director, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University "A PRUSSIAN GENERAL dies," General von Alvensleben once observed, "but does not leave any memoirs...
...As General Medaris describes it, the Pentagon was incredibly slow in producing decisions...
...Taylor's book, The Uncertain Trumpet, published in 1959, does not touch at all upon his own fascinating experiences in World War II and Korea, but deals almost entirely with national security policy between 1955 and 1959 and the processes by which it is made...
...Despite his attacks on the civilians, he gives first priority to the reunification of the Army and the Air Force and the creation of a single Chief of Staff for the Armed Services...
...The civil service staff in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, he urges, should be reduced to about one-tenth its present size...
...In the first place, they perceive only too well that the characteristics which they criticize among the civilians are no less present in the military...
...on his own initiative he had to go ahead with the satellite program without Pentagon approval...
...Specifically, Medaris has only the highest praise for Army Secretary Wilbur Brucker, a lawyer, but views somewhat differently his two superiors as Secretary of Defense, industrialists Wilson and Neil McElroy...
Vol. 43 • December 1960 • No. 48
