General failure; what the press doesn't tell you about America's military leaders

Washington Monthly, March, 1991 by Scott Shuger

General anesthesia

Of course with the imminence and then the onset of war, this inattention changed a little. Now, every night you can summon up a general by remote control. There's General George Crist and the banished Dugan on CBS, Admiral William Crowe and Lt. General Bernard Trainor on ABC, and Lt. General William Odom on NBC. Presumably, when they hired these men, the networks were concerned with the quality of their minds and their understanding of the complexities of war. How come the programmers didn't have this same interest when these men were still in uniform, when they were principal determinants of our war-fighting ability rather than sideline observers? General Crist, for example, was, in his last command "CentCom," which he turned over to the Desert Storm commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf), in charge of all military plans and operations in the Middle East. In that job, Crist was responsible for the basic war plans out of which Desert Shield evolved. Why weren't the networks interested in him then? Now, it's true that the Pentagon can make access to active-duty and field generals difficult, but is there any evidence that, in more peaceful times, anybody in the media tried all that hard?

And even under the pressure of war, the attention given to active-duty senior officers is mostly cosmetic. This is easily verified in the cases of the Gulf war's field commander, General Schwarzkopf, and his boss, General Colin Powell, the chairman of the joint chiefs. Waiting until the day after the war started to run its profile of Schwarzkopf-this is akin to waiting until the day after a presidential election to profile the candidate who wins-The Wall Street Journal tells us that Schwarzkopf's father was a general in the Army and was the head of the New Jersey state police investigation of the Lindbergh kidnapping, that his nicknames are "Stormin' Norman" and "The Bear" and that he "has the build of a football player, a 170 IQ, and a passion for Tchaikovsky symphonies." That day's USA Today observed that Schwarzkopf is "bear-like" and a "big fellow." When a day later, The Washington Post decided to run its profile of Schwarzkopf, the newspaper informed readers that the general is nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," goes 6-3 and 240, and referring to the Journal as a source, noted that he had a 170 IQ. In a late-breaking bulletin, thirteen days into the war, The (yawn) New York Times used its first profile of Schwarzkopf to reveal that he is nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," and "The Bear," and that his father was a general in the Army who investigated the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

After months of unprecedented military build-up, generals finally made the covers of U.S. News & World Report (Powell) and Time Schwarzkopf). But even at that late date, there was nothing new on the war's military leadership. Instead, the generals started getting reviews": USA Today rated Schwarzkopf "tough, compassionate, humorous, sincere." "Captivating," said Tom Shales of The Washington Post. What's next: "I laughed. I cried. What a poignant general staff!" -Rex Reed? Indeed, Time's cover piece read pretty much like a checklist of every piece on Schwarzkopf ever written: Stormin' Norman? Check. Lindbergh baby kidnapping? Check. IQ 170? Check. 6-3, 240? Check.