While presidents have always kept a watchful eye on the military,
our generals have been equally vigilant in assessing the
commander-in-chief. Their views, however, have been relatively
neglected in the literature on civil-military relations. By taking
us inside the military's mind in this matter, Dale Herspring's new
book provides a path-breaking, utterly candid, and much-needed
reassessment of a key relationship in American government and
foreign policymaking.
As Herspring reminds us, that relationship has often been a very
tense, even extremely antagonistic one, partly because the military
has become a highly organized and very effective bureaucratic
interest group. Reevaluating twelve presidents-from Franklin D.
Roosevelt to George W. Bush-Herspring shows how the intensity of
that conflict depends largely on the military's perception of the
president's leadership style. Quite simply, presidents who show
genuine respect for military culture are much more likely to
develop effective relations with the military than those who
don't.
Each chapter focuses on one president and his key
administrators--such as Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, and
Donald Rumsfeld--and contains case studies showing how the military
reacted to the president's leadership. In the final chapter,
Herspring ranks the presidents according to their degree of
conflict with the military: Lyndon Johnson received exceedingly low
marks for being overbearing and dismissive of the armed forces,
further aggravating his Vietnam problem. George H. W. Bush inspired
respect for not micromanaging military affairs. And Bill Clinton
was savaged both privately and publicly by military leaders for
having been a "draft dodger," cutting Pentagon spending, and giving
the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" tag an unnecessarily high profile.
From World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Herspring clearly
shows how the nature of civilian control has changed during the
past half century. He also reveals how the military has become a
powerful bureaucratic interest group very much like others in
Washington-increasingly politicized, media-savvy, and as much
accountable to Congress as to the commander-in-chief.
Ultimately, "The Pentagon and the Presidency" illuminates how
our leaders devise strategies for dealing with threats to our
national security-and how the success of that process depends so
much upon who's in charge and how that person's perceived by our
military commanders.
General
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