David Hackworth Quotes
We don’t need corporate generals. We need warrior generals…. Many of our military leaders are like car designers who have never driven a car….they go along to get along.
He was objecting to the current crop of senior military officer who have little experience in fighting and much in academic, strategic and technical training. Many however see him as a dinosaur who does not realized the complex nature of the modern military missions. In general, we have won almost all of our fighting battles but often failed in our maintaining civil society, occupation, nation building, military procurement, preventing sexual assault of our own troops by our own soldiers, assuring mental health of our soldiers. Hackworth, detractors argue, wants to change what already works and ignore what does not.
David Hackworth, Highly Decorated Military Officer, Journalist, Interview, C-SPAN Booknotes, July 27, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Monroe was then Secretary of State and Jefferson an ex-President.
Attlee was not the first person who observed this phenomenon about peace and war politics but his articulation of it is classic.
The General refused. He had already achieved a strategic victory and it was only a matter of time when the Dutch would withdraw on their own as their supply lines were cut off and the populations wanted them out.
Written when he was forced to share command with General Francois Kellerman.
Generally, the American military is much more optimistic of its ability to accomplish its objectives as that it the way they have been trained. The General warns that the same attitude will make them more optimistic and willing to tackle a very difficult if not impossible problem than most would be. So civilians in America have to question what they are doing. At the same time, there have been a number of highly sophisticated military officers who have both a military and civilian perspective and education. They tend to be more realistic and at times argue against military deployments and missions that are being considered. However, once deployed and committed, it is culturally difficult or impossible for a member of the military to be pessimistic about the eventual
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}.
On military or foreign policy matters his view was that presidents ought not to rule anything in or out so that he/she can keep all the options open and not reduce future flexibility.
David Haskell Hackworth also known as Hack, was a prominent military journalist and a former United States Army colonel who was decorated in both the Korean War and Vietnam War. Hackworth is known for his role in the creation and command of Tiger Force, a military unit which was formed in South Vietnam to apply guerrilla warfare tactics against Viet Cong guerrilla fighters.
