FIRING GENERALS
"Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?" A. Lincoln
On November 5, 1862, President Lincoln relieved General George B. McClellan of command of the Union Armies, for the second time.
Following the Union disaster at the First Battle of Bull Run, on July 21, 1861 then head of the Army, General Winfield Scott, was sent into a badly needed retirement. Lincoln plucked the young McClellan, known as the “Young Napoleon,” for the post following reports of his success in West Virginia. McClellan proved to be an excellent organizer and trainer. He rapidly built up the Army of the Potomac into an enormous fighting force with excellent training and equipment. They drilled beautifully, and the men loved him. However, Lincoln desperately needed him to advance on the Confederacy, something McClellan never seemed ready to do.
In March, 1862 Lincoln demoted McClellan from “General in Chief” to commanding only the Army of the Potomac, while Lincoln moved resources to General Pope’s command in the Army of Virginia. McClellan spent the bulk of the Summer months of 1862 marching up and down the peninsula between the York and the James River in the disaster that became known as the Peninsula Campaign. Following the Seven Days Battle, McClellan eventually retreated from the gates of Richmond and returned to camp outside Washington DC.
The Army of Northern Virginia, now under command of the Confederate legend, Robert E. Lee swung north and embarrassed Pope’s army at the Second Battle of Bull Run. The defeat was so powerful that Lee went on the offensive and crossed into Maryland. With Union resistance collapsing, Lincoln had no choice but to return McClellan to “General in Chief.” The two armies fought to a standstill on the banks of Antietam Creek in Central Maryland on September 17 in what would be the bloodiest day in American military history after 22,717 men were left dead, wounded or missing.
Lee had no choice but to retreat back across the Potomac. While Lincoln saw this as the opportunity to deliver the fatal blow to the Confederacy, in the days that followed, McClellan refused to pursue leading Lincoln to send his famous telegram: “Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?”
Days turned into weeks and while McClellan continued to ignore the orders, he had no problem privately (and sometimes publicly) disparaging Lincoln, often calling him a “baboon” and a “gorilla.” Finally, in late October, the Army of the Potomac crossed weakly into Northern Virginia. But after taking nine days just to cross the river, Lincoln had finally had enough and he canned the General on November 5. Failure to accede to the orders of the President is a violation of the oath of office - period.
Almost a hundred years later, a similar situation developed between President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur (What is it with these Scottish generals?). The Korean “Police Action” unfolded as a drama in three parts. Part One began on the 25th of June, 1950, when North Korean forces began the “Fatherland Liberation War,” crossing the 38th Parallel and marching south. The South Koreans were quickly overwhelmed and driven back and within two months, the South Koreans and a few American troops that had been airlifted in from Japan were cornered on the toe of the Peninsula in an area known as the “Pusan Perimeter.”
General MacArthur, then the Supreme Allied Commander of Occupied Japan, was given command of US and Allied forces in Korea. Truman had made it very clear to MacArthur that he was NOT to cross into China and he was to stay out of the diplomatic/political nettle of relations between China and then Formosa, where Chiang Kai-shek had fled following the communist takeover of mainland China. His orders were the “destruction of the military forces of North Korea.” MacArthur violated the second of these orders in an August statement to the American Veterans of Foreign Wars where he made it clear that Formosa should be defended and that any concession would be viewed as weakness by the Chinese. He would violate the first in a few months.
Part Two began when, against Pentagon opposition, he engineered the daring landing at Incheon in September which put a large force behind the North Korean Army forcing them to begin a harrowing retreat back up the Korean peninsula. On October 19, 1950, US and South Korean forces captured Pyong Yang and were marching toward the Chinese border. MacArthur ordered pursuit of any aircraft that engaged in the conflict even if they crossed back into Chinese territory and it was on this basis that the Chinese ultimately justified their entry into the war.
The Chinese grew increasingly nervous about the collapse of their communist neighbor and on October 25th, they launched a massive offensive against US, UN and South Korean forces along the Chinese/Korean border. This began Part Three of the conflict. Ultimately, Allied forces were driven back across the 38th Parallel to where the current “Demilitarized Zone” sits today. As the two sides began negotiations in the Spring of 1951 for a cease fire, MacArthur issued an unauthorized and inflammatory statement in a florid proclamation to the Chinese Communists, in essence an ultimatum. He taunted the Chinese for lacking industrial prowess and for the overwhelming losses they had incurred against far fewer numbers. More seriously, he threatened to expand the war. He stated that he would be expanding the war beyond the areas of Korea and would pursue destruction of Chinese coastal and interior bases. At the end, MacArthur said he personally “stood ready at any time” to meet with the Chinese commander to reach a settlement. General Whitney, MacArthur’s long-trusted aid, would later say that it was a bold attempt to intervene in American diplomatic policy to prevent appeasement to the Chinese.
Truman was livid - he quietly referred to MacArthur as “Mr. Prima Donna, Brass Hat, Five Star MacArthur,” and it is believed that he began laying the groundwork to get rid of the enormously popular General. MacArthur, perhaps emboldened by surviving the fracas around his proclamation, stepped it up. He began communicating directly with opposition leaders in Congress. On April 5, Minority Leader Joe Martin took to the floor of the House and read a letter from MacArthur. In it, he decried the Administration’s failure to use Chinese Nationalist troops in Formosa, and for having a “defeatist approach” to the war. It was the final straw…on April 10, 1952, the order was issued. The “American Caesar” was fired.
Truman later remarked: “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.”
With the backdrop of Lincoln and Truman, McClellan and MacArthur, we now come to the affair of General Mark Milley (OK, what is it with insurrectionist Generals whose last name begins with “M?”). It has been alleged and not denied that in the waning days of the Trump administration, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley spoke to his Chinese counterpart to reassure him that the United States under Trump would not attack China and that if they were going to, he would give them a heads up. It is further alleged that he inserted himself into the chain of command for the deployment of nuclear weapons. Even vainglorious louts like LTCOL Alexander Vindman has said that Milley must resign if this is true.
The allegations are in a book by Bob Woodward due out later this month, so a good deal of caution should be used when visiting this information; Woodward has made explosive allegations in the past, only to be proven wrong. But if even partially true, these are very serious charges.
Let’s see we have 1) Communicating with an enemy without authorization (potential treason) 2) Usurpation of the command and control structure (obstruction and mutinous) and an obvious intent to 3) disregard orders received from a superior officer (insubordination).
Let’s review. The concept of civilian control of the military is at the very core of the relationship between a standing army and the civilians it protects. It is a foundational principal of our Constitution - remember, barracking soldiers in our homes was one of the key reasons we took up muskets to begin with. In our founding, we sought to keep a very small military footprint. As we grew so did our Armed Forces to protect interests stretched further apart. The concept of a large and permanent force was cemented during the Civil War with the birth of a large, bureaucratic “War Department. Yet, even then, it is in the American DNA to have our military shrunken rapidly in times of peace. We have reaped that whirlwind with the arrival of World War II and Korea. In the modern era with the globe steadily shrinking, the need for an ability to respond and deploy rapidly is paramount to success on the battlefield.
But sadly, like most other institutions in the Federal Government, the military has become bloated beyond recognition, has become increasingly politically partisan and is ruled by mandarins and untouchables like Mark Milley, who flaunt the rule of law and the Constitution. In the civilian world, advancement hinges on success. If that were the rule in the “Five Sided Nut House,” men like Milley would not be in charge. Watching his behavior last summer when he caved to the Woke Mob after walking behind the President to the burned Church, I knew then that this was not someone to be trusted. Like all the weak ones in Washington, it was more important to be liked than to do what is right. Voltaire once remarked “Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres,” which essentially translates as “shoot an admiral every once in a while to encourage the others.” We are well past that point. Our senior military leadership is an embarrassment.
Sadly, the current administration will almost certainly do nothing. Most of them emerged from the same slimy system and, after all, Milley was acting against the hated Donald Trump, so we’re good! Unpunished, just like MacArthur, the malbehavior will only increase, but looks like we will have to live with that for now.
What is desperately needed is a massive cleanup. Trump was too eager to believe the generals, not realizing that they were never on his side. If he does return, he will certainly be incented to start cleaning house. Whoever replaces the dementiadent Biden will need to do the same. The Constitution, as it is written, is not working. It can, but it will take some mighty cleaning to get it done. My father once told me that the thing that ruined the Constitution and republican government was air conditioning. The Founders put Washington on the banks of the Potomac in a fever swamp. No one would want to live there full time so on purpose, the legislation’s time together would be limited. The more time they have to spend together, the more they are susceptible to the special interests, the allure of the “fam glam” of it all and the need to justify their existence with more and more layers of bureaucracy. Tell me one thing you can say that Washington does well? (We used to be able to say the military, but that is no longer true.)
So crimes have been committed and they will go unpunished. The ruling class, will get away with it and we the people will continue to have to pay their salaries. They will perpetuate the irritation and division that has made our dialogue so toxic. It will not end well. It will end in some form of violence…it always does. Fire the general - it might help prevent that.