Generals Need Checks and Balances Too
Lt. Col. Joe Doty, USA Ret.
Maj. Gen. Rich Longo, USA Ret.
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Some generals have made the news lately for behaviors that violate the professional ethic. Although this trend seems new or current, it isn’t. Thomas E. Ricks, a well-published author on defense matters, wrote “General Failure” in the November 2012 issue of The Atlantic and in the same year published a book, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today, on the same topic. His critique focused on a perceived lack of accountability in our armed forces at the general-officer level.
In June 2008, Lt. Col. Robert Bateman wrote “Cause for Relief: Why Presidents No Longer Fire Generals” in Armed Forces Journal. And in May 2007, then-Lt. Col. Paul Yingling wrote his (in)famous “A Failure in Generalship,” also in Armed Forces Journal. Our national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, in 1997 wrote Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. The book talks about failures at our highest officer and political levels up to and during the Vietnam War.
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