Still clasping your hands and sighing?
_________________________________________________________
Clark's rise in military impressed and rankled observers
By DEIRDRE SHESGREEN - ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
Some called him brilliant,
while others say he grated
on people, was too ambitious
ND P HILIP D INE
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Wesley Clark, the
retired general who wants to be president, has captured the imagination of many
Democrats who oppose the war in Iraq and exult at the prospect of a military
hero carrying their message.
That yearning has helped boost the political neophyte, a latecomer to the
Democratic primary campaign, to the top of several polls.
Yet Clark's impressive, 34-year military career - first in his class at West
Point, decorated Vietnam veteran, supreme allied commander of NATO - has
garnered criticism as well as commendations.
After prosecuting NATO's first war by uniting its 19 countries and defeating
the Yugoslav Army with no alliance casualties, the four-star general had
ruffled enough feathers at the Pentagon that his career abruptly ended.
The views of two men who met Clark in the fall of 1965, as he began his senior
year at West Point, and who have followed his activities since reflect the
divergent views of his career.
Retired Army Col. Bill Taylor was Clark's debate coach at West Point,
became a close friend, and has since informally advised him at key moments.
"Wes could not possibly be a better leader," Taylor said. "I really respect Wes
in a very special way for his brilliance. But he's also a man of real character
and high personal values."
Any problem Clark had with higher-ups in the Pentagon was due to "professional
jealousy" by officials who had trouble with a highly intelligent man who made
his case with solid evidence and debated vigorously, Taylor said.
Gregory Davis met Clark briefly while visiting friends at West Point. Davis
went on to serve 23 years in the military; he was often attached to the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He now runs a
counterterrorism software firm in Reston, Va., and has watched Clark's career
from a distance as well as through friends who worked for Clark.
Davis likens Clark to "a popinjay - a bird kind of like a peacock which struts
about." He says Clark's foray into politics suits him, because "he was known
pretty much as a political animal in the military. He punched all the tickets,
got all the right support."
Overall, the perceptions of Clark by military officers tend to coalesce around
these points: A smart, brave soldier and an extremely capable commander who was
unafraid to challenge higher authorities; someone who could grate on people,
didn't necessarily like having his own views challenged and was personally
ambitious.
Meanwhile, Clark's outsider status, which helped spark the intense interest in
his candidacy, has led to problems. Last week his campaign manager quit,
accusing Clark of ignoring activists who led the effort to draft him into the
race, and campaign finance experts said Clark may have violated election laws
by giving paid speeches - something Clark denies.
"I just think we're going through some natural growing pains," said his
campaign spokeswoman, Mary Jacoby. "It's only been a little over three weeks,
he's not a career politician and it's taking place under a spotlight. Most
campaigns have the luxury of starting slow."
The day after announcing his bid, Clark said he "probably" would have voted for
the congressional resolution giving President George W. Bush authority to
strike Iraq. The next day he reversed himself, saying he "never" would have
voted for it.
That, combined with his meteoric rise in the polls, led other Democratic
hopefuls to pile on Clark at Thursday's debate in Phoenix. Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., said he was "very disappointed" in Clark for allegedly
shifting his position on the war. Clark retorted that it was "embarrassing"
that his attackers couldn't get their facts straight.
This is a new world for him, Clark acknowledged in an interview, one he hadn't
considered entering before retiring in 2000 and returning to Little Rock, Ark.
At that time, "My wife said, 'You don't know anything about partisan politics.
You don't understand it,'" said Clark, 58, a trim man with silver hair.
Swimming upstream
Born in Chicago, Clark was 3 when his father, Benjamin Kanne, a lawyer, died.
His mother, Veneta, moved to her native Little Rock, where they lived in her
parents' home. She married Victor Clark, a small businessman.
Dinner-table talk rarely turned to politics, Clark said. "Hunting, fishing and
banking" were the main topics, as his stepfather was an "avid outdoorsman."
Clark excelled academically and in swimming in high school. During the state
championship in his senior year, 1961-62, a team member was sick. Clark
prevailed upon officials to let him swim two legs of the relay - and his team
won the championship.
"The guy, when he starts doing something, is exhaustively focused on achieving
the mission," said retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who has known Clark since the
two taught at West Point decades ago. He preceded Clark as commander of U.S.
Southern Command.
Clark's mother was a Methodist but he grew up as a Baptist, because he wanted
to attend "the beautiful church with the big stained-glass window," Jacoby
said. He converted to Catholicism while serving in Vietnam, drawn by the
"structure of the church and the beauty and structure of the Mass," Jacoby
said.
What his mother kept secret from him was that his father was Jewish.
Not only was anti-Semitism rampant during the early 1950s, Jacoby said, his
mother realized her son "had so much heartbreak already, he was a new kid in
Little Rock, he was a Yankee, he was adjusting to all sorts of new things."
But once Clark found out, Jacoby said, "he sought out his Jewish family in
Chicago. He was pretty curious."
A Rhodes scholar, Clark got a master's degree from Oxford University. He rose
steadily through Army ranks over the next three decades, winning plaudits for
creating a combined services training system in the 1980s, and later directing
strategic plans worldwide for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the mid-1990s and
heading the Southern Command.
Yet, after leading Operation Allied Force to victory against the Serbs in his
NATO post, his career faltered. Some military observers questioned his response
when Russia sent armored personnel carriers to the airport of Kosovo's capital
just after the war ended. Clark ordered a British general to block the runway,
but the man refused, declaring, "Sir, I'm not starting World War III for you."
Retired Maj. Gen. David Grange, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division, said
both men overreacted. "I think they both probably got a little more excited
than either one of them needed to," he said.
"Because he is so smart, he's thinking ahead two or three phases beyond the
issue," Grange added. "When you're dealing with foreign officers, sometimes
you've got to slow down so they can buy into it. He just rubbed people the
wrong way at times because he appeared like he didn't want to hear their
opinions."
The tension with Washington stemmed partly from the failure of bureaucrats to
give Clark resources he needed as the commander on the scene, Grange said.
During and after the conflict there was friction between Clark and his
superiors, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton and Defense
Secretary William Cohen, apparently over Clark's high-profile persona and his
willingness to challenge them.
The result was that Clark was eased out of his NATO command three months early
by Pentagon officials to make way for a successor, forcing his retirement.
Last month, Shelton was asked about Clark during a California appearance.
"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, declining to elaborate.
At the root of this conflict, Taylor said, was jealousy of a "superstar" by
Clark's superiors at the Pentagon. "Shelton and Cohen didn't like Wes being
direct with them, arguing his case," Taylor said. "They wanted someone they
could tell what to do."
After returning to Little Rock, Clark worked as an investment banker and
consultant, was a CNN commentator and wrote two books.
"Waging Modern War" is an account of the campaign in Kosovo and a call for
limited, carefully restrained efforts to nip problems in the bud. "Winning
Modern Wars," published this month, is Clark's critique of the Iraqi war
effort.
Skillful or opportunistic
Retired Joint Chiefs of Staff [JU]
Chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili promoted Clark several times. "He did truly a
superb job," Shalikashvili said. "Clearly, you don't become the fast-rising
star that Wes has been most of his life if you're sort of a milquetoast. He's
clearly brilliant, but that doesn't mean he can't be abrasive at times, that he
can't be overly ambitious at times."
Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments, is a former special forces officer who developed future
warfare plans for the Pentagon.
"He is unquestionably intelligent and a quick study, but that doesn't mean that
he always has the best strategic or operational judgment," Vickers said. While
Clark was a "better-than-average" commander of NATO, "There's not a lot of
evidence that he's a bold thinker or a real innovator."
Tim Lomperis, chairman of St. Louis University's political science department
and a former military intelligence officer, is an expert on the intersection
between politics and the military.
He described Clark "as one of those political generals, known to have angled
and tried to manipulate forces toward his assignments. You're not supposed to
be overt in jockeying for these top positions, these major commands."
Clark's stellar military record should have positioned him to head the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, but a reputation for self-promotion hurt, Lomperis said.
"Instead, he was decidedly snubbed."
Presidential politics
Clark's status as a newcomer to the process and to the Democratic Party - he
declared his party affiliation only recently - has provided openings for his
rivals. He says he voted for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
At a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington on Oct. 3, Clark tried
to establish his Democratic bona fides, saying he was pro-choice,
pro-affirmative action, pro-environment, pro-education, pro-health care and
pro-labor.
His campaign has been light so far on specifics. When asked in the interview
what he meant by saying he's pro-health care, he discussed preventive medicine
but didn't mention how that might translate into policy.
Addressing the Military Reporters and Editors annual convention Oct. 3 in
Virginia, Clark suggested the administration's prewar handling of intelligence
on Iraq might have been criminal. Asked by a Post-Dispatch reporter to
elaborate, Clark said only that any attempt to deceive the public is "a very
serious matter."
Jacoby said later, "Gen. Clark has called for an independent commission to
investigate the Bush administration's handling of intelligence. We should let
that commission handle these questions."
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