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Sometime next month, as soon as he's finished promoting his book, retired general Colin Powell will announce whether he will seek the presidency in 1996.
A major promoter of a Powell candidacy is Stephen Ambrose, historian and biographer of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who went from generalship to the presidency. Ambrose professes to find many of Ike's virtues in Powell; this invites contemplation of generals and the presidency.
Most presidents had some military experience, although
Bill Clinton isn't the first draft-dodger.
Grover
Cleveland avoided service in the Civil War. He also
performed hangings, fathered a child out of wedlock and
married a 21-year-old when he was 49. Those straitlaced
Victorians were obviously more tolerant than we moderns --
try to imagine him being elected today.
Oddly, the presidents during the three biggest wars had little military experience. Abraham Lincoln spent three months in the local militia during an Indian scare, and was court-martialled at that. Woodrow Wilson never wore a uniform, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's military experience was an office job as assistant secretary of the navy.
Our first president, though, was also the military commander during the Revolutionary War when the nation was formed. But it's not useful to look for parallels from Washington. He wasn't a career soldier. The same holds for Andrew Jackson, another general turned president. His victory at New Orleans in 1815 made him famous, but he was essentially an energetic Tennessee politician.
Gen. William Henry Harrison was as much politician as general, with stints as a governor, senator and ambassador when he wasn't fighting Indians in the Midwest. His presidency lasted only one month -- he caught pneumonia at his inauguration on March 4, 1841 -- and so there's little to learn from his career.
Zachary Taylor, elected president in 1848, was a career
soldier: 40 years in the Army, culminating in his victory
at Buena Vista, Mexico, when his forces were outnumbered
four to one. An encyclopedia notes that he had no
political experience, belonged to no political party, and
never voted.
Nonetheless, he was nominated by a desperate Whig party. He served just a little more than a year, though, before dying of a stomach ailment.
Not much to learn there, but U.S. Grant's presidency might be instructive. Grant, a failure in every civilian enterprise he tried, was an innovative general whose campaigns are still studied for their brilliance.
But as a president, well, H.L. Mencken once remarked that it would have been worth losing the Civil War if that would have spared the nation from Grant's presidency. Grant was personally honest, but his staff and cabinet gained fame for the Whiskey Ring, the Santa Fe Ring, the Black Friday gold-corner crash and the Credit Mobiler bribe of Vice-President Schuyler Colfax (namesake of Denver's Avenue).
Almost a century elapsed before America elected another war hero to the presidency, and similar problems plagued Dwight D. Eisenhower, though not to the same degree.
Sherman Adams, his chief of staff, got expensive presents from a financier and intervened with regulators on the financier's behalf. Robert Anderson, Ike's secretary of the treasury, made about $300,000 doing favors for oilmen. Robert T. Ross, assistant secretary of defense, gave contracts worth millions to a company headed by his wife.
Why does this happen to generals? The modern military command structure, which began in Grant's day, means that a commander relies heavily on his staff.
So also must a president. But the military has schools to train staff officers; we have no civilian equivalent. One intelligence officer or quartermaster might be better than another, but they all know their business, something you can't say for deputy White House counsels or economic advisors.
Further, the military has inspections and reviews, neither necessarily present in a civilian environment, to examine and evaluate staff performance.
So a general is accustomed to relying on a competent and honest staff. He carries that habit to the White House, where his staff is a collection of idealists, opportunists, political hacks and the like -- and the predictable result is scandal.
If Powell does seek the presidency, I hope he's aware of that potential for problems.
As for his possibility of turning into Ike II, the omens are dismal, even if Newt Gingrich says his ideal America is a 1955 Saturday Evening Post during the Eisenhower years.
Back then, 25 percent of the workforce was unionized; it's 15 percent now. The minimum wage then was 11 percent of the average doctor's income; now it's 3.8 percent. (If it had risen proportionately, the minimum wage today would be $12.30 an hour, not $4.25). The top income tax rate then was 83 percent; now it's 38 percent.
In brief, a return to an Eisenhower America would mean abandoning the Republican Revolution and its Contract with America. I'm ready if Newt is.
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