Clark's Army records released by campaign
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY 17 Oct 03
WASHINGTON — Wesley Clark's presidential campaign released records of his 34 years in the Army on Thursday, but the 200-plus pages shed no light on the high-level bickering that ended his career.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton listens to NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark in Germany in 1999.
By J. Scott Applewhite, AP
The campaign said that the release was not a response to remarks last month by Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who questioned Clark's character and integrity. "We wanted his record to be available for public scrutiny," said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Clark.
But the release of the complete records clearly was designed to counter suggestions that Clark was a flawed officer.
Clark's appeal to Democratic voters is based on the fact that he is an exemplary military man who cannot be accused of being soft on defense.
The papers detail Clark's wounds in Vietnam, as well as his various medals. The Army's annual "efficiency reports" for officers are much like those used in the business world.
On the two-page forms, supervisors rank performance by checking boxes and also write brief summaries of their findings and recommendations.
Many former superiors, including another general-turned-politician Alexander Haig, praised Clark as he rapidly climbed the ranks.
"Poise, thoroughness, loyalty, brilliant insights and a deep sense of professionalism and commitment to the Army and western security have been the hallmarks of his service," Haig wrote on a 1979 annual personnel report.
At the time, Clark was a rising major. Haig, later President Reagan's secretary of State, was the last four-star general to run for president, in 1988.
Clark received similar praise throughout his career, which took him from West Point through the jungles of Vietnam and the palaces of Europe. Even when just a captain he was pegged as a future general.
But the records end after Clark was a two-star general. Above that rank, officers no longer fall under the normal personnel system, and their duties most directly reflect national policy. And it was as a three-star general that Clark ran into public controversy.
As the Pentagon's point man for Bosnia in the mid-1990s, Clark visited that war-ravaged nation to pressure the Serbs for a peace deal. In a major lapse, he let himself to be photographed exchanging caps with Gen. Ratko Mladic, later indicted for war crimes.
The Army planned to end Clark's career, nominating someone else for promotion to one of the few four-star general positions. But Defense Secretary William Perry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili intervened. The Army's choice for that slot, Lt. Gen. Marc Cisneros, later said that Clark lied to him about competing for the job.
When the war to stop the Serbs in Kosovo was launched in 1999, Clark was NATO's top commander. Perry and Shalikashvili were gone, replaced by Defense Secretary William Cohen and Gen. Shelton.
Clark and his new superiors clashed repeatedly over the war's direction. Clark persisted in seeking a ground campaign to go with bombing long after he was told no. Shelton found him arrogant and disloyal.
"I've known Wes for a long time. I will tell you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart," Shelton said in a speech last month, quoted in the Los Altos Town Crier in Los Altos, Calif. "I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote."
Shelton has refused to say more. Cohen has declined comment. But other retired Army officers confirm that Clark became known as a gadfly, with an independent streak — some say arrogance — inappropriate for an Army officer.
Retired lieutenant general Dan Christman, a Clark friend who explained the records on behalf of the campaign Thursday, says the top ranks can be cutthroat. "There is no small amount of jealousy" aimed at fast-risers like Clark, he said. "In some cases it spills out."
In the case of Kosovo, Christman says Clark was not only a U.S. general, but had to serve the best interests of the NATO alliance. That meant sometimes modifying the war plan to accommodate France, Germany and others. Senior officers complained that key bomb targets were avoided because of allied objections.
The Serb-dominated Yugoslav regime capitulated, but despite the victory bad feeling toward Clark lingered — even into the current administration and Pentagon leadership.
In an article a year ago in The Washington Monthly, Clark himself recalled how he visited the Pentagon soon after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001. He had ideas to share on the war against terrorists. Yet his wisdom was not welcome.
"We read your book" on Kovoso, Clark writes that he was told. "And no one is going to tell us where we can or can't bomb." |
