Post Scripts: Support the war

As this is written Thursday for next week’s Wednesday publication, I am quite limited on what I can predict about the war. By next Wednesday the war could be over for all practical purposes, or else our troops could be engaged in battle under horrific conditions. However, there are several things I want to make clear. Now that we are at war, I will support the president and our troops one hundred percent. No matter what my personal feelings might be about America’s first preemptive war, once our troops were committed to battle, I and all other Americans should do all possible to support the effort to subdue the enemy.

I love my country and I do not take our freedom lightly, or for granted, in these perilous times. I will never forget my leaving home, my parents, and my future wife, Kathy, in November, 1941, and the impact it had on my mom and dad. I later learned my mother had set my place at the table for weeks after I had left, hoping against hope I would somehow come in the door. Then, during the Korean "police action," I not only had to leave Kathy and my parents, but also my daughters Kathy Ann and Cindy who were quite small. That was really tough!

I dread to think of the children who might lose a parent in this conflict.

General Eisenhower once said: "I have pondered the question of leadership a lot, and I always come back to what Napoleon is reputed to have said: "Genius in leadership is the ability to do an average thing when everyone around you is at least hysterical."

The position of command, whether you are the president, a four-star general or a sergeant commanding a platoon, is a lonely one. At no time does a leader feel more alone than when making a critical decision, whether in the White House or in a foxhole in the New Guinea jungle with leeches feasting on your legs. It is an overwhelming responsibility that few people choose and for which even fewer people are fully qualified.

Making decisions, tough decisions, is a part of leadership whether you are the president of a nation, or in time of war a general who, if he does not have the strength to make quick and correct decisions, does not long remain in command. Unfortunately, a president does not have the kind of information today that a historian will have a few years from now. It is so easy to criticize but how many of us could do better if placed in a similar level of responsibility.

There is always a third factor in high command decision-making. A president and a general can select his key staff people, probably the most competent and dedicated people he knows. One cannot take the advice of such people lightly. When all or most of them are opposed to a general’s or president’s conclusion, the decision-making process becomes much more difficult.

In the first month after becoming president, Harry Truman faced an awesome number of key decisions, one of which was to drop the atomic bomb. In his book, "Year of Decision," he wrote: "The presidency of the United States carries with it a responsibility so personal as to be without parallel." I agree and no matter how much I regret this war I simply must support the president and all those who are thus affected by it. The quest for world peace must never end.