Captain John Paul Jones – Conflicted

by Bill Doughty

When Thomas Jefferson's letter to Captain John Paul Jones arrived asking him to lead an expedition against Islamic Barbary Pirates in North Africa it was too late. Jones had died days before the letter arrived.

No doubt John Paul Jones would have jumped at the chance to deploy and fight again. After all, he had earlier taken Jefferson's advice to become an admiral in the Russian Navy and serve under Tsarina Catherine in the Black Sea. Two decades earlier he had served under George Washington and other Founders in missions attempting to rescue prisoners of war, even deploying forward into the littorals of England, Ireland and his native Scotland.

Mutinous crews, weather, political circumstances and Jones's own ego often hampered the ship captain's success, however, according to biographer Evan Thomas in "John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy."

David McCullough, author of "John Adams" and "1776," endorses Thomas's book, and that's high praise. "Evan Thomas captures all the incongruities, vanities, blazing ambition, and phenomenal courage of his subject. And, importantly, he writes with vigor and a sailor's knowledge of the sea. The accounts of Jones's historic triumphs in battle and of one terrible storm are brilliant, unforgettable."

Thomas describes life in the age of sail – the stink, disease, rum allowances, cruelty of the lash and close combat. 

Two hundred and thirty-five years ago this week (Sept. 23, 1779) aboard the merchantman Bonhomme Richard, Jones achieved immortality in his seemingly hopeless battle against the larger Royal Navy HMS Serapis, cannons muzzle-to-muzzle, a "battle of the tops" – snipers on the sails, cutlasses in hand on deck, Jones standing in the face of fire, fearless, unwavering, victorious.

Born from a fleet of privateers the new American navy was a handful of sailing ships whose mission was to intercept British ships. Jones was a gifted seaman, navigator and commander. His patron in the Continental Congress, Robert Morris, saw in Jones "a quality that was utterly missing from the minds of most men of the new Navy." Jones was a "strategic seer."

Jones was effective despite veins of bad luck and occasional bad behavior running through his life. Among the author's descriptions of the great captain/commodore: "thin skinned," "far-sighted but with resentments," "lover of poetry," "whose highs and lows bordered on the manic," "futurist," "shrewd and prescient," "self-centered," "resilient," "articulate," "fastidious," "demanding and brooding," "always keen to burnish his reputation," and "tactless, vain and selfish."

"All through his life, Jones struggled to put forth his more virtuous ... self, his capacity for self-sacrifice and noble-mindedness. But his anger and insecurity eventually showed through. He would have had faster and better ships to sail in harm's way if he had followed Franklin's advice and shared credit more generously and if he had been less prickly and pushy with his superiors. Jones was sufficiently self-aware to know what to do, but tragically incapable of doing it. His ambition rendered him both gullible and self-absorbed. His sarcastic asides and demanding perfectionalism often defeated his efforts to show 'cheerful ardor' and reach out to colleagues. And, yet, his pride masked sensitivity and a longing to be loved and forgiven ... If only Jones had been able to take his own advice and hid his contempt for others, they might have forgiven him. But he could not, and they did not."

Roosevelt speaks at a Jones commemoration at the Naval Academy, 1906.

Jones had busts of himself made in the later years of his life (the ultimate 3D selfie) and sent them to Washington, Adams, Jefferson and other statesmen. He "rarely conceded error," according to Thomas, and "His sense of grandeur, his belief that he strode on a great stage, allowed him to appreciate the larger stakes."

Jones's self-awareness helped him sense change and purpose in the world in the wake of the Enlightenment. He was a true patriot fighting for freedom and against despotism. A contemporary of Thomas Paine, Jones said, "I have drawn my sword in the present generous struggle for the Rights of Men."

Reading about Jones's ego makes a quote that opens the Thomas book all the more poignant. It's from 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, a man who had a similar driving personality and, as revealed in the recent Ken Burns series on PBS, "The Roosevelts," plenty of personal demons to outrun. Roosevelt, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, said, "Every officer in our navy should know by heart the deeds of John Paul Jones."

Another book about the deeds and the man – not the myths – was written by the great naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison. He received the 1959 Pulitzer prize for biography for "John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography." Like Thomas, Morison looked behind the curtain of fabrication and fiction to reveal the complicated character of the naval hero.

Jefferson

In 1792 Thomas Jefferson, who dealt with his own character inconsistencies as a slaveowner, wrote to ask John Paul Jones to deal with Islamic states and Barbary pirates in North Africa who had captured American sailors and held them for ransom. Thomas writes:

"For years, Jones had been corresponding with Thomas Jefferson about the fate of 'our poor countrymen' imprisoned by the Dey of Algiers. Jones had been all for raising a fleet to put down the Barbary Coast pirates (hearing of Jones's agitation and employment with the Russian infidels, the Dey had put a price on Jones's head). Lacking the will or funds, Congress had dawdled. But now some thirteen American prisoners, sailors seized from merchantmen and thrown in grim cells of Algiers, were writing pleading letters, saying they would have to covert to Islam if help did not come soon. In the late spring of 1792 Congress was at last moved to create a delegation to negotiate with the Dey. Remembering Jones and his deep concern for the fate of prisoners, Jefferson, the first American Secretary of State, appointed Jones to lead the American delegation. But Jones was dead by the time his commission and instructions reached Paris at the end of July."

Jones died at the age of 45. Congress authorized payment of "tributes" as ransom to Barbary Coast Pirates. But, when more tributes were demanded, Jefferson called for a strong naval response, which led to the First Barbary War in 1801.

'Invisibles,' Led Zeppelin and Loving Your Job

Review by Bill Doughty

Led Zeppelin both opens and closes this remarkable book about "the power of anonymous work in an age of relentless self-promotion" (subtitle of "Invisibles," a 2014 book published by Portfolio/Penguin).
You'll want to crank up "When the Levee Breaks" when you read about the role of sound engineer Andy Johns, who is responsible for the sound of John Bonham's drums, Eric Clapton's and Van Halen's sounds, and the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers."
Johns is one of several invisibles profiled – people who work behind the scenes and find satisfaction in what they they do and create, not in fame, fortune or recognition. 

Invisibles are new master craftsmen who value artisanal workmanship over the limelight. Think of some of the best staff non-commissioned officers, executive officers and assistants, boatswain's mates, and special operators. Their focus is on team success and quiet competence.

David Zweig, author of "Invisibles" quotes a former Navy SEAL who said he prefers the anonymity of the early 90s – prior to the explosion of the Internet – over the "seemingly incessant fascination with the SEAL Teams."

Zweig evaluates three traits of Invisibles: ambivalence toward recognition, meticulousness in their work, and a savoring of responsibility. He shows how "flow" – "the trance-like state mental that occurs when a person is completely immersed in an activity" – brings them joy, satisfaction and pride.

"If you have a pride and confidence in what you do, as Stumpf so clearly does, the rewards you reap come from within, which are, perhaps, the only true and lasting rewards. In this regard pride – and I'm not talking about the biblical connotation of pride as sin, but pride as respect for yourself, your work, your effort – is just an extension of the Invisible core treat of drawing fulfillment from the work itself, not outside acknowledgment of it."

Author David Zweig

Zweig's eclectic examples of Invisibles include a New Yorker magazine fact checker, airport wayfinder, U.N. interpreter, cinematographer, perfumer, architect, guitar technician and piano tuner. He makes references to Homer's "Iliad," Susan Cain's "Quiet," David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest," Alice Marwick's "Status Update," Adam Grant's "Give and Take," and Jean Twenge's "The Narcissistic Epidemic," as well as other texts and literature. And he takes the reader to Atlanta, New York, Shanghai and places in between.

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Taking a global perspective, Zweig compares the United States, where the focus is on the "vertical individualist," with much of the rest of the world, where the emphasis is on the overall collective, the entire team.
In the "so-called Confucian Belt" (which includes Korea, China, Vietnam and Japan and other nations in the region), self-promotion and attention-seeking are frowned upon and seen as immature, Zweig reports. The Japanese phrase en no shita no chikara mochi means, loosely, what's beneath the stage has great strength or power. Those behind the scenes make those on stage successful.
Zweig's insights would be useful to any student of innovation, and "Invisibles" would fit nicely on the book shelf of supporters of Secretary of the Navy Mabus's new Task Force Innovation. Zweig shows how countries that shy away from flashy individualism value soft power and quiet influence over aggressive bullying. 
His insights generate questions:

John Paul Jones met by President Obama after Kennedy Center Honors in 2012.

Is narcissism at the root of moral decay in society? Does extreme individualism fuel the wealth gap and crush the middle class? Could growing self-promotion and the need for more election money be damaging the political system and preventing consensus-building? What happens when the levee breaks?

Zweig has his own epiphany while writing this book, finding joy in the work and not in the accolades.

He wraps up with an unintentionally ironic mention of John Paul Jones – not the flashy, flamboyant and forlorn hero of the early American Navy, but the creative British bass player who, along with John Bonham, backed up Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

In Shadow of ... America's Longest Wars

Review by Bill Doughty

Women and men of the Class of 2002 may think they are in the shadow of their grandparents -- "The Greatest Generation" who beat fascism, crushed nazism and crossed the Pacific to avenge Pearl Harbor and win the war in the Pacific in less than four years.

"In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America's Longest War" is a compilation by or about members of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2002. Put together with love and appreciation by Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz and Graham Plaster -- and including a foreword by David Gergen -- the book is filled with essays and memories by and about members of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2002. The authors set the stage with a look back to the past:

"The magnitude of World War II provided the opportunity and experiences that shaped twentieth-century American leaders. As men served abroad, women provided support at home. All overcame great odds and faced adversity that gave them confidence and shaped their outlook in the decades to come. This 'greatest generation' returned from war, took advantage of the educational benefits offered through the GI Bill, and advanced the country's economy and transformed its society. World War II veterans, while fueling economic advancement, remained resolute in their  value system: service, sacrifice, and community."

Among "Shadow's" contributors are aviators, surface warfare officers, submariners, U.S. Marines and mothers of junior officers killed during training or in action.

The book is filled with first-person, heartfelt accounts of triumph and hardships: what it's like in humanitarian assistance missions, duty at sea, Search and Rescue operations, and combat; what it means to face family separation, "setting aside the comforts a normal life in service to our country and the Constitution. The dark sides of these sacrifices are broken marriages, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and estrangement."

But there is plenty of triumph here, too, focusing on why and how Navy and Marine Corps leaders choose to serve -- "not for self, but for country."

USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53)

A highlight is the account by Meghan Elger Courtney, who served aboard USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) of her commitment to promote warfighting readiness for Sailors aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. Courtney recognized a need to improve shipboard physical fitness opportunities to help Sailors who would deploy forward -- either aboard ship or as individual augmentees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the blessing of her commanding officer and strong support from the command master chief and Chief's Mess, j.o. Courtney planned for, procured and arranged for installation of a new fitness center that replaced outdated insufficient gear and space.  Courtney writes, "Almost immediately, I saw a positive renewal in people's attitude toward fitness, healthy eating, and incorporating workouts into their daily routine as a way to relieve stress and stay in shape."

"What some may have viewed as my silly pet project, the command master chief took seriously, and he became my closest ally in seeing it through. I never really knew how much the experience had impacted him until I saw him become visibly choked up recollecting it during his closing remarks when he transferred off the ship. I don't think he thought that a young officer like me could have cared about his crew so much, but I did, and I still do..."

Explorer Robert E. Perry

Courtney said she was inspired by a quote by explorer Robert E. Peary on a motivational placard in Halsey Field House at the academy: "I will find a way, or make one."

Other essayists share their sources of inspiration as President Teddy Roosevelt, President Dwight Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy, Senator Daniel Inouye and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, among others. 

One essayist quotes the last two lines of a poem by Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day" in pursuing a life of purpose, wanting to make a difference:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

The authors and essayists show how core values of honor, courage and commitment make up an ethos that "forms the fabric of people's personality and drives them to a life of service, in and out of uniform."

"'In the Shadow of Greatness' was envisioned to recognize and chronicle the service of brave men and women and through their stories establish connections with the broader, nonmilitary community. These first graduates of the Naval Academy after 9/11 entered a global war at sea, in the air, and on land. This war would last more than a decade and define the United States in the early part of the millennium. The actions of the select few profiled here represent those of a much broader spectrum of patriots."

Attacks on 9/11/2001 changed the lives of the Class of 2002.

In a short introductory piece, "Inside the Gates of Annapolis," Adm. Sam Locklear (now Commander, U.S. Pacific Command) writes about the investment the country makes in the women and men who attend service academies, including the Naval Academy, reflecting on the morning of September 11, 2001 when he sat at his desk as commandant of midshipmen.

"I recall vividly watching the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. When the images reached the Brigade, and the uncertainty of the events rapidly became reality, I asked myself, Are these men and women, these young patriots, ready for the challenges that most certainly lay ahead. A decade of war has proven that they were more than ready. Fortunately for us all, they remain ready today. We are extremely proud of all they have accomplished and thankful that we chose the right men and women to lead the next great generation."

The book, published by the Naval Institute Press, is a key title on the CNO's Professional Reading Program essential list.

Faith, Fear and Tom Hanks

by Bill Doughty

Tom Hanks was a military dependent, a Navy family member whose dad served in the Pacific in World War II.   

Tom Hanks has acted in some of the most memorable films of our time — Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Apollo 13, Sleepless in Seattle, The Green Mile and Charlie Wilson’s War.  He produced From the Earth to the Moon, Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, David McCullough’s John Adams and the controversial, powerful The Pacific.  And, he’s no doubt achieved immortality -- as the voice of Woody in the Toy Story trilogy.  

Tom Hanks transcends genres.  

He is a champion of history and reading, and he frequently encourages people to pick up a book.  Reading — especially reading nonfiction — has nourished his intellectual curiosity and ability to put history in context.

Former Navy Captain NASA astronaut James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr.,
makes a cameo appearance in Tom Hanks' Apollo 13.

Yale University invited Tom Hanks to speak to its 2011 graduating class recently where he said their imprint on history would be determined by how well they handle fear and inspire faith.  Here’s what Yale Bulletin reported: 

In the ceremony... (May 22), Hanks urged the soon-to-be graduates to begin their future by coming to the aid of the U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars, whose "faith in themselves is shadowed by the fear of not knowing what is expected of them next," he said.

Hanks spoke about the positive and negative aspects of technology for the perpetually plugged-in and connected graduates.  While Facebook and Twitter and other e-media ensure “boredom is vanquished” and certainly help us communicate, there’s a certain shallowness to the celebrity-driven culture that’s being created, he said.

Again, from the Yale Bulletin:

The continual instant access and instant communication, Hanks suggested, has also created a world where fear easily becomes contagious and divisive.

"Fear has become the commodity that sells as certainly as sex," Hanks told the seniors. "Fear is cheap, fear is easy, fear gets attention.... It's fast, it's gossip and it's just as glamorous, juicy and profitable. Fear twists facts into fictions that become indistinguishable from ignorance."

Tom Hanks on Navy’s John Paul Jones and faith and fear:

Hanks... told the seniors that he has a passion for history because of the lessons it teaches. He quoted American naval commander John Paul Jones: "If fear is cultivated, it will become stronger. If faith is cultivated, it will achieve mastery."

"Fear or faith — which will be our master?" Hanks asked the seniors.

"Throughout our nation's constant struggle to create a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure our domestic tranquility, we battle fear from outside our borders and within our own hearts every day of our history," Hanks commented. "Our nation came to be despite the fear of retribution from the king across the sea. America was made strong because people could live free from the fears that made up their daily lives in whatever land they called the ‘Old Country.' Our history books tell of conflicts taken up to free people from fear — those kept in slavery — in our own states, and to liberate whole nations under the rule of tyrants and theologies rooted in fear...

Tom Hanks on a commitment to Veterans and service:

"But we live in a world where too many of us are too ready to believe in things that do not exist," Hanks continued. "Conspiracies abound. Divisions are constructed and the differences between us are not celebrated for making us stronger but are calculated and programmed to set us against each other."

Tom Hanks at Yale: "Move forward, move ever forward."

Hanks told the seniors that they will make choices between fear and faith every day of their lives. He urged them to "take the fears [of U.S veterans] head on" for at least four years — the same amount of time they've been at Yale.

"Whatever your opinion of the wars, you can imprint the very next pages of the history of our troubled world by reinforcing faith in those returning veterans," Hanks told the seniors. "Allowing them rest, aiding in their recovery ... empathizing with the new journey they are starting even though we will never fully understand the journey they just completed, even though we will never understand what they endured. We will all define the true nature of our American identity not by the parades and the welcome-home parties, but how we match their service with service of our own."

The soon-to-be graduates' new "career," Hanks said, is a permanent one: "To stand on the fulcrum between fear and faith — fear at your back, faith in front of you.

"Which way will you move? Move forward, move ever forward," he encouraged them, "and tweet out a picture of the results."

According to Douglas Brinkley, in an insightful profile last year in Time magazine, “Hanks has become American history's highest-profile professor, bringing a nuanced view of the past into the homes and lives of countless millions. 

Brinkley reported that Hanks became intensely interested in military history after reading the two-volume, 1,882-page Library of America Reporting World War II: American Journalism (1938 to 1946).

Hanks read William Manchester and John Hersey.  His Pacific is based on Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed and Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow.  He was inspired by McCullough, Ambrose, Barbara Tuchman and Doris Kearns Goodwin.  According to Brinkley, “Leon Uris's fact-anchored novels — Mila 18, Armageddon and Exodus — taught Hanks to feel history in a way no high school teacher ever did.”  

According to Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, “There's no such thing as a definitive history. But what was once a passing interest for Hanks has become an obsession. He's a man on a mission to make our back pages come alive, to keep overhauling the history we know and, in the process, get us to understand not just the past but the choices we make today.”

I heard the Tom Hanks Yale address on one of my favorite podcasts, Tom Ashbrook’s On Point, from WBUR Boston.  Tom is also a big champion of books, authors and reading. 

McChrystal: 'Leadership' Includes Self-Serving, Evil Leaders

"My Share of the Task: A Memoir," by General Stanley McChrystal, 2013, Portfolio/Penguin.

Review by Bill Doughty

Gen. Stan McChrystal, the cat who caught the rat Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has a tale to tell. The chase after the "itinerant terrorist" Al Qaeda operative takes up a good part of this book, which focuses on service, sacrifice and the true meaning of leadership – a "crushing burden" that can be good or bad, depending on the leader.

McChrystal follows Gen. David Petraeus's footsteps in several positions. Adm. Mike Mullen, one of the most respected Chiefs of Naval Operations and Chairs of the Joint Chiefs, selected McChrystal as director of the Joint Staff (chief of staff to the JCS). In this memoir McChrystal takes readers from Fort Benning to Fort Bragg and from Iraq and Afghanistan to NATO and Washington D.C.

"At the heart of the story is Afghanistan itself, a complex swirl of ethnic and political rivalries, cultural intransigence, strains of religious fervor, and bitter memories overlaid on a beautiful, but harshly poor, landscape. Without internal struggles or outside interference, Afghanistan would be a difficult place to govern, and a challenge to develop. And there have always been struggles and interference. But it's not just that. In her beauty and coarseness, in her complexity and tragedy Afghanistan possesses a mystical quality, a magnetism. Few places have such accumulated layers of culture, religion, history, and lore that instill both fear and awe. Yet those who seek to even budge her trajectory are reminded that dreams often end up buried in the barren slopes of the Hindu Kush or in the muddy fields alongside the Helmand River."

Winter on the Parwan Plains and Hindu Kush mountains Jan. 2, 2010, viewed from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Photo by Capt. Thomas Cieslak, DVIDS.

He shows how dealing with fatalism and pessimism and "a sense of insecurity" was key to the success and viability of the mission. First step, drive out fear and lead with honor and a sense of duty.

But throughout this important book, McChristal shows why we cannot oversimplify war, surrender to hostage-takers or create a "false drama" through fear and tyranny.

The killing of Zarqawi, after bringing down walls of his hideaway, reads like Tom Clancy:

"At 6:12 p.m., a laser-guided, five-hundred-pound GBU-12 bomb traveling nine hundred feet per second hit the house. The explosion flashed, turning our screens in the JOC white for a split second, as smoke and dust burst up and out laterally in three columns, like the prongs of a toy jack. The F-16 circled again, and a  minute and thirty-six seconds later, using GPS coordinates, a GBU-38 hit the same spot.Thick billows of smoke streamed diagonally up from the house and frontage road, thinning over the tops of the palm grove..."Our medic leaned over the Man in Black, who was alive, but barely. Under the medic's forefingers, Zarqawi's carotid artery was deflated. His breathing was shallow, and blood seeped out of his nose and ears. The pressure caused by the blast waves had cascaded through the concrete walls of the house and pulsed through his chest cavity, bursting vessels and air sacs in his lungs..."The medic continued to work on Zarqawi. When he cleared his airway, the Green team had descended, under an orange evening sun and the long shadows of palm trees extending across the crater, beneath the clenched faces of the operators standing over him, Zarqawi's lungs failed. At 7:04 p.m., our medic called it. Zarqawi was dead."

Wyeth's Navy hero John Paul Jones

We read McChrystal's thoughts about the capture of Saddam Hussein, decision-making of President Obama, the tragic death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the relationship with generals Charlie and Mike Flynn, the fallout from the Rolling Stone interview and his leadership influences, including John Paul Jones, George Washington, Horatio Nelson, the Scot Robert Bruce and Ulysses S. Grant.

At the end of "My Share" McChrystal shares what he learned about being a leader. Leadership, he says, "is the single biggest reason organizations succeeded or failed." In hindsight, one need only see how the leadership of Gen. McChrystal and Adm. McRaven trumps that of Gen. Mike Flynn.

"Leadership is the art of influencing others," McChrystal writes, acknowledging "it is difficult to measure and often difficult to adequately describe."

"All leaders are human. They get tired, angry, and jealous and carry the same range of emotions and frailties common to mankind. Most leaders periodically display them. The leaders I most admired were totally human but constantly strove to be the best humans they could be..."Leaders make mistakes, and they are often costly. The first reflex is normally to deny the failure to themselves; the second is to hide it from others, because most leaders covet a reputation for infallibility. But it's a fool's dream and is inherently dishonest... "There are few secrets to leadership. It is mostly just heard work. More than anything else it requires self-discipline. Colorful, charismatic characters often fascinate people, even soldiers. But over time, effectiveness is what counts. Those who lead most successfully do so while looking out for their followers' welfare... "In the end, leadership is a choice. Rank, authority, and even responsibility can be inherited or assigned, whether or not an individual desires or deserves them. Even the mantle of leadership occasionally falls to people who haven't sought it. But actually leading is different. A leader decides to accept responsibility for others in a way that assumes stewardship of their hopes, their dreams, and sometimes their very lives. It can be a crushing burden, but I found it an indescribable honor."

McChrystal is agnostic about whether leaders can be good or evil.

He uses Adolf Hitler and Zarqawi as examples of effective leaders who had a sway over believers. Bad leaders can be elected to lead nations or closed-minded minions at least for a time. "Self-serving or evil intent motivates some of the most effective leaders I saw," he said.

More recently, McChrystal – writing with former Navy SEAL and Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jeff Eggers and former United States Marine Jason Mangone – published "Leaders: Myth and Reality," a book in our Navy Reads reading queue.

Gates presents McChrystal with Distinguished Service Medal in 2010.

He and his co-authors examine both tyrannical leaders and leaders of principle, with some eclectic choices: Walt Disney, Harriet Tubman, Zheng He, Robespierre, Robert E. Lee and, yes, rat-leader Zarqawi, among others.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates calls "Leaders: Myth and Reality" "a superb, thought-provoking challenge to conventional understandings of the nature of leadership. An enlightening, entertaining must-read about why we revere so many leaders who are often deeply flawed and even unsuccessful, and the lessons for thinking about and teaching leadership in the future."

In "My Share of the Task" McChrystal reveals: Evil or incompetent leaders can be shut down by honorable and ethical free-thinking leader-followers who realize that strong leadership is not the same as being a "good" leader.

Rise and Fall and Rise of John Birchers

Review by Bill Doughty––

Welch with portrait of Birch

Robert W. Welch Jr. attended both the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Law School, but finished neither. He abandoned careers in the Navy and in law and became a wealthy candy manufacturer. He also started one of the most divisive groups in American history, the John Birch Society. Welch named JBS for Christian missionary and U.S. Army Air Forces Capt. John Birch, who was killed by Chinese communists in 1945 –– what the society considered the start of a “Holy War.”

Emerging from the ashes of a long history of racist, nationalist, and populist movements, including 1950s McCarthyism, the John Birch Society dedicated itself to defeating global communism, propagating Christianity, countering civil and women’s rights, and promoting an America First agenda. The JBS latched onto the GOP like a sea lamprey and did not let go.

“By the early 60s Birchers had settled on the course they would follow in the decades to come. They would operate on the fringe of the conservative movement and, episodically and erratically, within the Republican Party,” according to Matthew Dallek, author of “Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right” (Hachette, 2022)

“Ideologically, the society flaunted its antiestablishment sensibility and pumped hot-button cultural issues –– patriotic eduction, moral library books, an end to teaching sex education in schools –– into local debates over their communities’ most valued and non-partisan institutions.” Past is prologue, as the saying goes.

After President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court, the Warren Court ruled progressively in favor of integration in Brown v. Board of Education. SCOTUS also upheld the wall of separation between state and church in banning prayer in public schools. So the Birchers targeted and smeared Earl Warren and called for his impeachment.

At the 1964 GOP Convention, Michigan Governor George Romney warned his colleagues and electors about the rise of populism and radicalism within the Republican Party, calling for more tolerance, inclusion, and respect for diversity in the Republican platform under Goldwater. "The strongest personality on earth cannot deal with the problems of this nation except upon the basis of correct principles. Our party was founded at a time of grave national crisis," Romney said, noting Abraham Lincoln's role in saving the Union. "The nation and its destinies were in peril, not only by the irreconcilable conflict between slavery and freedom, but also by the extremism of that time. And the extremism and lily-white Protestantism destroyed the Whig Party and brought the Republican Party into being."

Senator George Romney at the GOP Convention, 1968

But for most of the past six decades, according to Dallek, “Birch ideas were hardly dominant in the Republican Party.” Those ideas –– anti immigration, anti world alliances, anti feminism, anti abortion, anti gun safety, and anti integration –– were on the rise with Barry Goldwater and in reaction to the civil rights movement.

“In some communities, the society was very much in the ascendant. Its influence in the GOP in 1963 was also greater than at any time since its inception. But most Birchers had lost their elections, they failed to stop candidates such as (George) Romney from winning their races, and numerous Republicans from the Northeast to the Midwest to the West Coast remained vigorously opposed to their ideology and political style. Unbeknownst to the society, in the summer of 1963 the White House was preparing to launch an all-out assault that had the potential to knock the Birch movement to the ground. The society’s prospect remained uncertain and contingent. The struggle for power in the Republican Party –– and in the United States –– was heating up. Birchers warned of Armageddon, cast critics as traitors and degenerates, disrupted civic meetings, harassed teachers and principals, and hinted at physical violence. More than any other movement of the 1960s, the Birch Society ignited what they described as an end-times contest for the very soul of the United States.”

“The ideas, activism, and style that Birchers helped pioneer has continued to drive well into the twenty-first century.” George Romney’s speech in 1964 –– really a warning –– is chillingly relevant today.

The JBS wanted to ban alcohol, according to Dallek. They were also against Hollywood, the media, school integration, fluoridation of water, and teaching of evolution instead of creationism. “They sought to use the power of government to enforce Christian identity in American culture while repudiating allegedly alien values like pluralism and tolerance.” Dallek contends they “helped launch a culture war that reverberates today.”

Maddox and Wallace

One of the stars of intolerance and the culture war in the 1960s and 70s was Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, who became popular by wielding axe handles to chase black people out of his restaurant. Maddox was befriended and supported by JBS founder Robert Welch.

Welch endorsed Alabama Governor George Wallace’s run for president in 1968. Wallace was an avowed segregationist and racist. He chose as his running mate retired Air Force General Curtis LeMay, who Dallek describes as “the real-life inspiration for the cigar-smoking General Jack D. Ripper” of Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove.

“An architect of firebombing in World War II, LeMay had a fascination with nuclear weapons and drew howls of outrage when he endorsed their use while on the campaign trail. Although LeMay had a record of innovative military leadership, Wallace’s choosing him was a running mate was perceived as empowering Birchers and the far-right fringe.”

Dallek writes:

“Haltingly, over decades, this fringe usurped the party’s center. The trajectory was alterable, not inevitable, contingent rather than certain. Many Republican leaders worked to stop it, until they didn’t. The society fostered apocalyptic thinking about the country’s direction, mistrusted elites as traitors, and raised the specter that only drastic remedies, including violence, could save the country. Its brand of mass politics fed money, energy, and ideas to conservative Republicans. And by offering a home for conspiracy theorists, racists, and antisemites, some Republican leaders emboldened the rights most noxious and violent bigots. The GOP establishment’s effort to court this fringe and keep it in the coalition allowed it to gain a foothold and eventually cannibalize the entire party, Over time, this uneasy alliance came to seem commonplace, part of the zeitgeist –– more and more alarming yet no longer shocking.”

On the other hand…

Clinton and Carter

A goal of liberals and other anti-Birchers was “to build the world they wanted –– a world where pluralism trumped hate, science trounced unreason, and democracy conquered fascism.” Progressives witnessed how an “America First” fascist-friendly and non-interventionist approach, including appeasement, led to the Second World War.

Those on the Left also saw how the Birchers’ fervent and feverish anti-Communism and white Christian nationalism led the nation into the war in Vietnam, invasion of Iraq, and a culture war at home. By the early 1990s, the us-and-them influence of the Birchers, personified by politicians Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich, was rejected with the election of Navy Veteran Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in 1992.

“Clinton used his bully pulpit to tie the GOP to far-right militants like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City mass murderer, and Randy Weaver, the white separatist who triggered a bloody confrontation with the FBI at Ruby Ridge. After McVeigh’s powerful homemade bomb tore through the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Clinton attended a memorial service in Oklahoma City and urged Americans ‘to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil. They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life,’ and, he vowed, ‘we will stand against the forces of fear.’ Some right-wing talk show hosts and politicians, he added, had to realized that their ‘incendiary talk’ moved fanatics to action. Their ‘constant bashing of government, and relentless assumption that forces beyond our control run our government’ had spread dark views of federal employees and could trigger more bloodshed.”

That warning was nearly 30 years ago!

In the yin-yang of the American republic’s elections under the constraints of the Electoral College, George W. Bush was elected president. Bush’s presidency was the “most consequential chapter yet in the Birchification of the American right and the GOP.” Bush, whose father appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, chose John Ashcroft as his first attorney general. Ashcroft expressed his belief, shared by many on the far-right, that “Jesus is king,” reigning above the Constitution and civil authority.

During Bush’s presidency, another politician, far more conservative than Bush, made a name for himself. Ron Paul (father or currently serving Senator Rand Paul) marked the time when, Dallek says, the fringe became mainstream. “Paul’s influence was substantial, opening the Republican Party to previously unthinkable views.”

The senior Paul as countered, however, by statesman and Republican standard-bearer John McCain, a Navy veteran and former POW, who said those who engage “in the politics of division and slander” are “corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.” Although McCain called out Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance,” he would later backtrack and reconcile with Falwell, hoping to woo Christian fundamentalists.

Ultimately, according to Dalleck, “McCain saw that it was no longer possible to navigate the tension between the far right and the mainstream because by 2008, in the Republican Party, the fringe had begun to gain the upper hand. If he wanted to win, McCain had little choice but to violate his own principles.” He selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.

With Obama’s election, gun sales rose dramatically, militia membership increased, and “the far right was now entering the mainstream of the Republican Party, bringing with it the legacy of the John Birch Society.” Along with Pat Buchanan and Rand Paul, politicians supporting or condoning extremism in the GOP included Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson as well as “fringe” Representatives Jim Jordan and Michelle Bachman, according to Dallek.

Alex Jones

“Unlike in the mid-1960s, the Republican Party of the early 2010s failed to check the extreme right,” Dallek says. Instead, “social media and the ubiquitous, sophisticated right-wing amplified the far right’s most inflammatory claims.”

Media stars arose to spread the authoritarian populism of the far right: The Drudge Report, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and “breakout media star of the far right” Alex Jones, who as a young teen was influenced by John Birch Society PR director Gary Allen’s book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy.” Jones aligned with Roger Stone, a massive influencer of the extremist fringe right, even as Jones capitalized on conspiracies. Jones spread falsehoods related to the the 9/11 attacks, the Sandy Hook massacre, and supposed cannibalization of children by Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.

Conspiracies became part of the right’s bloodstream as it had been in the 1960s.

Just as the Birchers feared communists were in control of the civil rights movement, MAGA followers believed America’s first black president was born overseas and was not eligible to serve. While JBS followers feared adding fluoride in water as a government conspiracy, sixty years later many far right extremists feared COVID vaccinations and believed various pandemic-related conspiracies.

“Trump drew energy, as Birchers had, from white supremacists, militias, and nativists and brought them into his coalition. His alliances with the white nationalists who rioted in Charlottesville (‘fine people’), with the far-right, all-male Proud Boys (‘stand back and stand by’), and with the deep-state-obsessed, conspiratorial QAnon (‘people that love our country’) blended racism and conspiracy theories in ways that harked back to the mix of racism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories that drew many Birchers to their movement.”

And Dallek contends, “Just as Birchers took a dim view of democracy, Trump questioned the integrity of elections in which millions of people of color voted.” The conspiracy theory of a stolen election, though disproven in dozens of court cases and denied by sane Republicans in many states, led to the tragedy of the insurrection of January 6.

Dallek may be right in his overall thesis, that the United States is still under the influence of the John Birch Society. He believes the Bircher years/epoch/era started in 1958 and continues through today. On the other hand, it may have been with us for for far longer –– perhaps for centuries under different names: Slavery, Manifest Destiny, Know Nothings, Lost Cause, America First, and White Christian Nationalism.

Three events in the news coalesced over the past week or so as I finished this important book, bringing some of the book's points home:

First, President Joe Biden visited a memorial in Vietnam that honors a great American, late Senator John S. McCain III; when all is said and done McCain stood up for the Constitution.  McCain also stood up for democracy and against autocracy and theocracy. He conceded his election loss to President Obama in 2008. McCain even asked Obama to offer a eulogy at his funeral.

Second, last week I watched another Republican – American statesman Mitt Romney – announce he would not seek reelection. Romney is a former Republican nominee for the Presidency who won 47 percent of the popular vote but lost – and conceded gracefully – to President Obama in 2012. Romney acknowledges in a forthcoming biography by McKay Coppins, “Romney: A Reckoning,” that he does not recognize today’s GOP, where many of his Republican colleagues, he says, no longer support the Constitution.

Finally, I read with sadness that President Biden has called to offer his final good-bye to a dying former president with gold standard ethics and integrity: Navy veteran Jimmy Carter, despite being a victim of Birchers and their ilk more than four decades ago, conceded to President Ronald Reagan in 1980. During his naval career and presidency, Carter, a Navy submariner and commander in chief, literally protected and defended the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.