Reply #61: Colonel David H. Hackworth on General Wes Clark

[Tom Rinaldo]

Above on this thread someone is pushing the meme that Wes Clark is some type of smooth operator who is trying to slide something by on all of us, saying among other things:

"Can't you people see when you're being played or is "that class" and "polish" blinded you to the underlying persona. A persona that I do not care for."

That meme has been attempted against Wes Clark before, Republicans in particular love to trot it out. It was discussed at length a while back on a DU thread; "The Swiftboating of Clark has already begun:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=321522

Rather than trust the many long standing members of Democratic Underground who have personally spent considerable personal time with Wes Clark on numerous times, a poster who says "I've briefed my share of General Officers" insists that he or she is the one who REALLY knows who Wes Clark is.

OK then, let's look at what the soldier's soldier, David H. Hackworth has to say about General Clark. If you don't know who "Hack", who in his later years became a military journalist, was, here are some excerpts from his Wikipedia Biography:

"Military decorations:
Hackworth earned over ninety decorations, including numerous individual citations for valor as well as unit citations earned by units he served in or commanded. He was proudest of his Combat Infantryman Badge, which he frequently wore on the lapel of his civilian sports jackets in retirement"


..."Hackworth was assigned to a training battalion at Fort Lewis, Washington, and then returned to Vietnam to lead elements of the 9th Infantry Division. He next served as a senior military advisor to the South Vietnamese. His view that the U.S. Army was not learning from its mistakes, and that South Vietnamese ARVN officers were essentially corrupt, created friction with Army leadership.

Hackworth's disgruntlement ultimately culminated in a television interview with ABC. On June 27, 1971 he appeared on the program Issues and Answers and strongly criticized U.S. commanders in Vietnam, said the war couldn't be won and called for U.S. withdrawal.

The interview enraged senior U.S. Army officers at the Pentagon. Hackworth was nearly court-martialed for giving the interview, and found himself ostracized in the defense establishment. At the same time, he was experiencing personal problems that resulted in divorce. He soon retired at the rank of colonel, and in an effort to rebuild his life, Hackworth moved to Australia."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hackworth

One might say that Colonel David H. Hackworth knew his share of General Officers, and that he wasn't likely to be blinded by polish, wouldn't you agree? In fact Colonel Hackworth at one point before he did a little research on Wes Clark and subsequently met him in person for the first time actually had some dismissive words for the General that, oddly enough, some opponents of Clark both on the political Left and the political Right still love to quote. Hackworth coined the phrase "The Perfumed Prince" about Wes Clark, a phrase he later disowned. Quoting Hackworth:

"No doubt he’s made his share of enemies. He doesn’t suffer fools easily and wouldn’t have allowed the dilettantes who convinced Dubya to do Iraq to even cut the White House lawn. So he should prepare for a fair amount of dart-throwing from detractors he’s ripped into during the past three decades.

Hey, I am one of those: I took a swing at Clark during the Kosovo campaign when I thought he screwed up the operation, and I called him a “Perfumed Prince.” Only years later did I discover from his book and other research that I was wrong – the blame should have been worn by British timidity and William Cohen, U.S. SecDef at the time.

At the interview, Clark came along without the standard platoon of handlers and treated the little folks who poured the coffee and served the bacon and eggs with exactly the same respect and consideration he gave the biggies in the dining room like my colleague Larry King and Bob Tisch, the Regency Hotel’s owner. An appealing common touch.

But if he wins the election, don’t expect an Andrew Jackson field-soldier type. Clark’s an intellectual, and his military career is more like Ike’s – that of a staff guy and a brilliant high-level commander. Can he make tough decisions? Bet on it. Just like Ike did during his eight hard but prosperous years as president."

In this 9/22/03 column by Col. Hackworth, he recounts at length reports of the serious wounds Wes Clark suffered in combat and how Clark continued to lead his men on the field after suffering them, after which he reports asking Clark:

"I asked Clark why he didn’t turn in his bloody soldier suit for Armani and the big civvy dough that was definitely his for the asking.

His response: “I wanted to serve my country.”

He says he now wants to lead America out of the darkness, shorten what promises to be the longest and nastiest war in our history and restore our eroding prestige around the world.

For sure, he’ll be strong on defense. But with his high moral standards and because he knows where and how the game’s played, there will probably be zero tolerance for either Pentagon porking or two-bit shenanigans."
http://www.sftt.us/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks+Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=35&rnd=908.3537190930426

So folks can look at Wes Clark's life story, and his accomplishments, and his sacrifices for his nation, one can listen to the personal experience of fellow DUers who actually have spent considerable time with Wes Clark, one can read a ringing endorsement of Wes Clark from someone who fought his way up from the bottom in the military and never took shit from anyone, or one can accept the words of a DU poster who says he or she briefed his/her share of General Officers, and therefor knows that those who speak highly of General Clark must be blinded by his polish.

It's your choice.