Posted on 11/10/2006 11:39:03 AM PST by 68skylark
Retired Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Landon Lecture Series Kansas State University
It’s a real honor to be here and it’s an honor to introduce the Secretary of Defense. Most of you know the basics of his biography, naval aviator -- we sometimes quibble over the difference between naval aviation and Air Force aviation – you know he was a member of Congress, several jobs in the White House to include White House chief of staff, Secretary of Defense in two different centuries. He doesn’t like it put that way, but those are the facts. Very successful business man, chief executive officer of (G.D. Searle & Company) pharmaceuticals, and those are the basics. I’m going to go into a little bit more detail here in just a minute, but first let me add something about Joyce Rumsfeld. Joyce has been his rock through what I consider in my view the most challenging years for our democracy and our way of life since the Civil War. The rock at his side has been Joyce Rumsfeld. She has a balance and a ballast that keep her perspective pretty clear no matter what the tides of praise or criticism might be. That’s a very useful thing to have in Washington D.C., by the way, when you have high public office. She has a joie d vivre – yes you do Joyce -- that quickly captures those around her and helps them enjoy life the way that she enjoys life. Mary Jo and I are deeply honored that you would be accompanying the Secretary here to Kansas State University today. Thank you, Joyce.
I know an introduction is not supposed to be a lecture, but I’ve got the podium and I don’t see a hook. Let me talk about two things about Secretary Rumsfeld that I think the pundits get very, very wrong.
One is the enormous task of trying to drag the Department of Defense out of the Cold War into the 21st century. This takes enormous physical energy. It takes enormous intellectual effort. The Department of Defense, as you all understand, is a huge bureaucracy resistant to change just by the way it’s designed. But the Secretary had the energy, the perseverance and the vision, and he had the support of the senior military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior military leaders, to try to change the Department of Defense. And I would say that in his tenure as Secretary of Defense, that the Department has undergone more profound change in the last six years than in any time in its history since the National Security Act of 1947, and I think history will record that.
A couple of examples, our force posture around the world dramatically changed. It hadn’t changed basically since World War II, but now it is changed. Our posture in Korea dramatically changed from what it was six years ago -- another posture that hadn’t changed for 50 years. A NATO that’s beenreinvigorated -- which takes a lot of effort, a lot of intellectual energy, which the Secretary brought to that. So I think as you sit there and think about are we better prepared today to meet the uncertainties of tomorrow, in my view, you can say yes, and a large part of that is the hard work, the perseverance of Secretary Rumsfeld.
The second thing I’d like to talk about is the Secretary’s relationship with the senior military. Here again, I think the pundits get it absolutely wrong. And I don’t know why they do. But bits of information put together without context usually doesn’t bring much meaning, and we’ve had a lot of that lately.
I’ll make a couple of statements here that I think are statements of fact. I have worked with several secretaries of defense. I have never worked with one that has spent more time with the senior military leadership than this Secretary of Defense. More time. In fact, he used to quip that he spent more time with me than he spent with his wife Joyce during the waking hours. And I think that is absolutely another fact.
The president yesterday talked about the Secretary’s loyalty to him. Another thing that’s not understood or talked about is the Secretary’s loyalty down the chain of command, which he is squarely in. I remember as (Army) General (Tommy) Franks left the office to go to the Middle East to begin combat operations in Iraq, it was one of the more poignant moments. It was General Franks, Secretary Rumsfeld and myself, as I recall the only three in the office, maybe the military assistant was there as well, and the Secretary said, “Well, we’ve done all the planning. We’ve been planning for over a year. The president’s given us his decision, and win, lose or draw, we’re all in this together and we’ll stand together as we take on this adversary.”
He has had many opportunities to deflect the arrows coming his way to the military. Many opportunities. He’s never taken one of those opportunities. If you go back and read a little bit about Abu Ghraib and people wanting to place blame, it would have been easy for the Secretary of Defense to deflect it to the Department, to individuals. He never did that. He sucked up all those arrows and continued to lead the Department in the way that he knew was right.
So it is my honor to introduce a very dedicated public servant. A man who has the greatest of integrity, and who has, I believe, led the Department from the Cold War, shook off all those old vestiges, and brought us into the 21st Century. A tough man. The Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. Secretary Don Rumsfeld.
I'm a big fan, and I'm sorry he's leaving.
Ditto that. Anyone have a sense of whether Gates will continue the process of dragging the military into the 21st Century?
Ditto...
I liked the guy too. Felt he was made the scapegoat for anything that was "wrong" in Iraq and did not get the credit for all the good things.
Well, that would not include me. Every once in a while, during the particulary bad times, I would send an email message to the DOD in support of the SecDef. I don't know if he ever saw any of them, but I felt good about it anyway.
I agree. I'm a fan and I'm sorry he is leaving. On the good side his 'Rummyisms' will be around to enjoy for a long while. I don't think we will see another man with the stamina and the work ethic of the SECDEFs for a long while.
He graduated from K-State in the late 60's and, as I understand it, recently returned to the faculty there.
Glad to see him set the record straight on Rummy.
Bravo, General Myers. And thanks for being a great American and a standup fellow just like Mr. Rumsfeld.
In my mind his one mistake was a doosy. His fatal flaw was buying into Air Force propaganda that wars can be won solely by application of devastating strategic air power. There has always been a struggle between the AF and Army/Marine Corps concerning that particular theory, but starting with AF CoS Gen McPeak, the theory really began to be in vogue despite the objections of the ground services. Budgets reflected that buy in. It was very apparent, well before 9/11 that Rumsfeld bought into that theory. He had very little use for the advice of senior Army and Marine Corps officers who ended up being correct in their assessments. One more division (thank you Turkey) would likely have snuffed out the insurgency before it could start, since there would not have been a axis of escape and we could have controlled the Iraq/Syrian border.
Despite the miscalculation, Secretary Rumsfeld's ability to battle the insurgency and move toward success in Iraq and in the war on terror has been awesome. He is well respected by almost all who wear/have worn the uniform.
I thought Rumsfeld did a very good job up until General Myers retired and Bush put in the Marine Corps general. General Myers and Rumsfeld made a great team IMHO.
The current Chairman does not work well with the Air Force or the Navy unlike General Myers who worked well with all of the services. General Myers was a total class act, still is, and hope someday to see him as Secretary of Defense or in some capacity in a Republican Administration in 2009.
Thank you for posting this.
This is an excellent rejoiner to the arm chair generals and admirals here on FR, who want to fight WWII and the Cold War over again with an enemy who is there yesterday, here today and somewhere else tomorrow.
I'm a big fan, and I'm sorry he's leaving.
Ditto that.
I take the other view. The culture in the Middle East is horrible -- a rancid mix of rage, passivity, self-pity, ignorance and misogyny. One more division in Iraq wouldn't have put a dent in a 5,000 year history of barbarity.
I think a lot of Americans really underestimate how truly ^&$%#ed up the rest of the world really is.
The public perception of Rummy - created for the media by the American leftists and their Dimorat friends - is so far from the actual man that they are two different people.
As I said in another post today - the two huge, immensely important, immensley current priorities of (1) the transformation of our defense establishment and (2) the war in Iraq could have, in my book, only been undertaken simultaneously by Rummy.
At the same time, and as well as Rummy did with trying to keep the defense establishment moving on both tracks, they both suffered somewhat and, in my mind, it was unavoidable and while unavoidable was responsible for some of the errors in Iraq.
2 Tenures as SecDef, both times spent modernising the Military. Granted he bought into the Air Power wins all theory, but still did alot to bring the Army/Navy/Marines up to modern standards this last go around. Very warm and genuine to the troops for those who have not had the Pleasure. I'm gonna miss him.
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