American Generalship: Character Is Everything: The Art of Command - Softcover

Puryear, Edgar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0891417702 ISBN 13: 9780891417705

Publisher: Presidio Press, 2001

Synopsis

“What does it take to make a great general or a great leader in any field? . . . An excellent contribution to the study of leadership among those who make life-and-death decisions in the most challenging situations—one that could well serve as required reading in both military and business schools.”—Kirkus Reviews

Throughout his life, Edgar F. “Beau” Puryear has studied America’s top military leaders. In his research for this book, he has sought to discover what allowed them to rise above their contemporaries; what prepared them for the terrible responsibilities they bore as the commanders of our armed forces during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and on to today; how they are different from you and me. Ultimately, first and foremost, Dr. Puryear discovered that character is the single most important and the most distinctive element shared by these individuals: that character is everything!

“Beau Puryear again reaches into his gold mine of research and comes forward with the essence of great generalship. . . . Well-done and a worthy read.”—General Colin L. Powell

“We can always learn more about the importance of character to successful leadership. With this book, we do just that.”—General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

About this title

About the Author:

Edgar F. Puryear, Jr., is a graduate of the University of Maryland and earned an MA from the University of Denver, an MA and PhD from Princeton University, and an LLB from the University of Virginia. A professor emeritus at Georgetown University, he is the author of Stars in Flight and American Generalship.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction
 
 
 
This study of leadership represents thirty-five years of research on how one leads successfully in the U.S. military. Over this period of time, I have had personal interviews with more than a hundred officers of four-star rank, and interviews or personal correspondence with more than a thousand officers of the rank of brigadier general and higher. In addition, I have sent and received more than ten thousand letters and consulted many diaries and hundreds of autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, and military histories.
 
In 1971 I wrote a book entitled Nineteen Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership, a comparative study of the leadership of four of the most outstanding American generals of World War II, of what made them good leaders and how they led. For this comparative study I selected General of the Army George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the U.S. Army from 1939 to 1945; General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, commander in chief in the Far East, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces for the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Europe—the greatest invasion in the history of warfare; and Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., commander of the U.S. Army I and II Corps in North Africa, the Seventh Army in Sicily, and the Third Army in Europe.
 
The reasons for the selection of these four personalities is too obvious to deserve more than a cursory mention. Marshall, MacArthur, and Eisenhower held the most responsible military positions of World War II, and Patton was the best-known combat general of the war. The title of the manuscript reflects the total number of stars, nineteen, earned by these four great leaders. Nineteen Stars is still in print, having had numerous reprints, and is still in demand by individuals interested in military leadership.
 
Since the publication of Nineteen Stars, I have given hundreds of talks on leadership to military and civilian audiences. During these presentations, I have been asked frequently to say more about recent U.S. military leaders. These inquiries have encouraged me to write a sequel to Nineteen Stars, to bring the leadership study up-to-date by interviewing or researching military leaders for the period from World War II through 1999. My personal one-on-one interviews, with more than a hundred four-star generals and admirals, include chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, army commanders of World War II, commanders of various army commands and air force units, chiefs of staff of the army and air force, commandants of the Marine Corps, and chiefs of naval operations. The research also includes interviews and correspondence with more than a thousand officers of the rank brigadier general, and higher, and correspondence with more than ten thousand people who served with, under, and above the generals. All this in an effort to answer the question of how one becomes a successful leader in the American military.
 
Since Nineteen Stars was published, hundreds of new books have appeared on American military leaders, including autobiographies, memoirs, biographies, and military histories. In addition, I have had access to many diaries and the letters and speeches of the key generals, all of which have provided considerable new resource material.
 
World War II, the Cold War and post–Cold War, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq offered great challenges for American military leadership. Upon the quality of this leadership rests the freedom of the United States and the world. In a Pentagon office in 1946 after World War II was over, Winston Churchill spoke informally to a group of thirty of the most outstanding U.S. Army and Army Air Force leaders of the war. With his chair tilted back, his feet propped up on the desk, and a glass of brandy in one hand and a big black cigar in the other hand, he told this group that he had believed that the United States had the materiel and manpower to swing the fate of the war to the side of the Allies, but he was truly amazed that we produced such superior military leadership.
 
The United States during World War II and the postwar period has had a wealth of brilliant military leaders who devoted their lives to serving God and country. When war was forced upon America, we were ready to provide military leadership unequaled anywhere in the world. This book provides readers with the thoughts and insights of these generals on how leadership has won our wars and preserved freedom for the West.
 
One of the purposes of this volume is to determine how these leaders developed and obtained their insights on how to lead successfully. The comment is often made that leaders are born, not made. If they are all born that way, what is the value of this book? The statement “born, not made,” if taken literally, would mean that at birth one’s ability to be a leader is already decided, that upbringing and environment have no role in the development of an individual. If the statement is interpreted less strictly, it might mean that a person is born with certain qualities that offer the potential, in a nurturing environment, for successful leadership.
 
I interviewed twenty of the thirty generals who were in the office with Churchill in 1946. One of the members of this group was General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, who during a discussion of leadership with me commented on the statement that leaders are born, not made. “I think,” he said, “that there is something to the expression ‘born to command’ or ‘born to lead.’ But there are many people who have the potential for leadership, just as there are probably many people born with the potential to be great artists that never have the opportunity or the training for the full development of their talents. I think leadership is a product of native ability plus environment. By environment, I mean training and the opportunity to exercise leadership.”
 
I interviewed Eisenhower’s American army field commander, General of the Army Omar N. Bradley. His answer to the born leader question was, “I would say some are born. A person can be born with certain qualities of leadership: good physique, good mental capacity, curiosity, and the desire to know. When you go to pick out the best pup in a litter of bird dogs, you pick out the pup even though he is only six weeks old. He is curious, going around looking into things, and that kind of dog usually turns out to be the best dog.
 
“But there are qualities one can improve on; a thorough knowledge of your profession is the first requirement of leadership, and that certainly has to be acquired. Observing others is important—trying to determine what makes them stand out. That’s why I think we can learn a lot by studying past leaders. Studying Lee, other Civil War leaders, Jackson, Lincoln. Trying to see what made them great.”
 
The question was put somewhat differently to Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe: “Do you think the ability to handle masses of men is something a young man can train himself to do?” McAuliffe, author of the most famous one-word speech of World War II (“Nuts,” in reply to a German order to surrender when his men were surrounded at Bastogne), said, “I think that’s a God given gift you are born with. People like General MacArthur, General Patton, Field Marshal Montgomery were actors in addition to being leaders. They had a sort of flair that had a great effect on masses of men.” McAuliffe said that the decisiveness of leadership was a quality a man could develop, but “you can improve it only to an extent; you have to be born with a large measure of it.” McAuliffe gave a qualification, however. “After character, knowledge is most important. Knowledge builds confidence and decisiveness. When you know your business thoroughly, I think you are encouraged to be bold and decisive in action. That has been typical of General MacArthur and General Patton. I think their broad knowledge of the military profession contributed greatly to their boldness in decision and their success as leaders.”
 
One of the strongest supporters of the born leader thesis was the commander of the VII Corps in World War II, Gen. J. Lawton Collins, who was chief of staff of the U.S. Army from 1949 to 1953. He said: “Only a limited number of people combine the necessary qualities of character, integrity, intelligence, and a willingness to work, which leads to a knowledge of their profession, to become our successful leaders. There are God-given talents we inherit from our forebears.” Still he does not believe that one is limited at birth: “There are, however, techniques of leadership that anybody can learn if given a modicum of intelligence and a willingness to work.”
 
Another successful corps commander of World War II, Gen. Wade H. Haislip, reflected: “One thing that disturbed me when I started out in this business was the old theory that leaders are born, not made. When I started studying, I tried to break down that theory; and I developed what I consider the basic elements with which anybody could be successful if they stuck to it.”
 
General Eisenhower was reported to have said of his World War II air commander, Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz: “He was the only general I had who never made a mistake.”
 
I also asked General Spaatz about the “why” of successful leadership. “I think leaders just happen to grow up,” he said. “I think you must be born with certain characteristics, but it’s more a case of what takes place after you are born that decides whether or not you are going to be a leader.”
 
General Mark W. Clark, commander of the Fifth Army in the invasion of Italy in World War II, concluded, “I would say that most leaders are made. A fellow that comes from a long line of ancestors with determination and courage has no doubt inherited some leadership qualities. I have seen many times in combat where somebody who is small and meek was given the opportunity and had leadership you never before realized he had, and he becomes a Medal of Honor winner. There are some qualities you inherit that make you a good leader; but many who don’t have these qualities develop them when opportunity knocks.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0891417702
• ISBN 13: 9780891417705
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400