Joint Chiefs of Staff Quotes

Wilson had been successful in getting money and arms to the Muslim Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight the Russians who had invaded and occupied the country. But the Russian armed helicopters gave the Russians control of most of the company. Wilson wanted to send Stingers to the Mujahedeen, but the agencies were worried that the missiles might fall into the hands of anti-American radical Muslims. It turned out that the agencies were correct and after the defeat of Russia, many of the Mujahedeen then, buoyed by their great victory over a Superpower, came after the United States and Western nations who were “occupying Islamic land”. The terrorist tactics, that the United States ignored when the Russians were the victims, became the major military and foreign policy problem of America and the West.

MacArthur had been the Commander of our Military Forces in Korea. He had a huge ego, and he wanted to cross the border and attack China since Chinese Troops were aiding the North Vietnamese. He had previously assured the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President that the Chinese would not send troops into Korea, but he was then wrong. And when they had attacked, they had erased the territorial gains that MacArthur had previously gained. The Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State had decided upon a strategy which this time did not follow MacArthur’s strategic advice. The President approved the strategy, but MacArthur spoke and acted contrary. The President met with MacArthur and reiterated the strategy that the President approved. But MacArthur did not follow the orders of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, he and Eisenhower were America’s two most famous military leaders, and of the two MacArthur was senior and thought that he should be President. After he was fired, MacArthur addressed a Joint Session of Congress and gave his "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech which was his first active step towards the Presidency. It was a very sentimental speech with little content and nothing about why he had disobeyed orders. He was totally shocked when it was Eisenhower who was selected to run for President and not him.

While running for office he was trying to win the support of Republcian Conservatives who were very unhappyt with their percieved lack of progress in fighting ISIS. However, this was insulting to many military people--especiually since ISIS was being deprived of they sources of funding and oil trade, their leaders were being killed at a rapid rate, and they were losign most of their territory. After he won the Presidency, on the very night of his inaguration he then flip flopped and paraised the general leadship of the military with this quotation. While most politicans had a certain degree of hypocricy, Trump could make totally contrdictory statements without any embarassment. See his earlier contracictory Quote 644332.

The general’s view was that if the Secretary found something unacceptable in one of his direct subordinates, then there was something unacceptable about him as he supervised the man and approved of his work. Rumsfeld backed down.

When McNamara was itemizing the list of dangers with the Joint Chiefs’ Cuban invasion plan, McGeorge Bundy told the not to forget the possibility of a nuclear exchange. The Joint Chief’s plan and recommendation was to invade Cuba, which could have been accomplished with relative military ease they thought. However, they had not gone the next steps and had no planned responses to the various possible Russian responses. The Chiefs of Staff were senior battle hardened WWII and Korean War veterans whose tactical knowledge and leadership was as good as there was. However, none of the had any experience or training with the strategic aspects of military planning the way senior military officers did in the next generation of military leaders. The civilian leadership had to put the breaks on the Joint Chief’s notion of simplistic invading Cuba.

The “surge” was the short term injection of a large number of American combat troops into Iraq when the Iraq War was going badly. President George W. Bush, who at the urging of Vice President Cheney and the neoconservatives had invaded Iraq and while the invasion went well the administration botched the so-called peace and America was in the midst of a Iraqi civil war. Bush went ahead with the surge despite the advice of the Joint Chiefs. What makes the quotation particularly interesting, beyond the fact that the senior military advice was ignored, was that the President had always campaigned on the principle that the President should listen to the senior American Military officials on military tactics and strategy. He like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and other presidents found that the military leadership perspective was often very narrow and not even militarily infallible. The Iraq War turned in our favor after the surge albeit that there have been arguments since then as to whether or not the surge was the reason or was it due to other factors which occurred at the same time. Probably, all were factors.

While running for office he was trying to win the support of Republcian Conservatives who were very unhappyt with their percieved lack of progress in fighting ISIS. However, this was insulting to many military people--especiually since ISIS was being deprived of they sources of funding and oil trade, their leaders were being killed at a rapid rate, and they were losign most of their territory. After he won the Presidency, on the very night of his inaguration he then flip flopped and paraised the general leadship of the military. While most politicans had a certain degree of hypocricy, Trump could make totally contrdictory statements without any embarassment. See Quote 644331..

During the Vietnam War the Joint Chiefs of Staff wished direct access to President Johnson. The Secretary of Defense advised the chiefs:

The President told McNamara that if the administration does not send the troops the Generals want, they will be blamed for any military failures that occur. If they do send all the troops that the Joint Chiefs wanted, they would be going far beyond the limits that the Defense Secretary recommended and the President would have preferred. JBJ felt he really had no political choice. He authorized the wanted troops further escalating the war. See his special assistant’s question about that decision in {617151}.

Describing General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: