U.S. Navy (Chad Runge)

Reconsidering The Armed Forces Officer of 1950 he 1950 edition of The Armed Forces Officer is the best book by the prolific military writer Democracy, Dialogue, T S.L.A. Marshall, and it is prob- ably the best book on military leadership ever written by an American.1 In this article, I briefly describe how the timing and circum- the Humanities, and stances of the composition of The Armed Forces Officer helped Marshall to write his the Military Profession masterpiece, and then go on to illuminate the book’s innate, enduring, and timely strengths. This book represents a significant By Reed R. Bonadonna and perhaps still-unmatched achievement in uniting the form and content of the values and outlook required of an officer serving in the armed forces of a democracy. The Armed Forces Officer emphasizes both the acces- sibility and complexity of military leadership. Colonel Reed R. Bonadonna, USMC (Ret.), is the In The Armed Forces Officer, the profession Director of Ethics at the U.S. Merchant Marine of arms itself becomes an interdisciplinary Academy. subset of the humanities, connected to both

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military professionalism. On the one hand, Marshall rejects the narrow, technocratic approach to professionalism that had over- taken the German officer corps and General Staff in the later 19th century, in effect reach- ing back to an older, more humanist, and ethical model (represented by Gerhard von Scharnhorst and the other Prussian reform- ers of the Napoleonic period). Moreover, he takes into account American culture and conditions. Marshall may also have been aided by the fact that he was writing before the field of “leadership studies” and military professionalism had come to be dominated by sociologists, psychologists, and others in academe, so that there was still room for eclecticism, even eccentricity. As opposed to the prevailing social science model of the officer as a “manager of violence,” Marshall’s officer is much more a leader, an in-person figure and not a faceless member of a bureau- cracy.5 The book reflects the era of the common man in which it was written. With liberal 20th-century ideas of education in the air, such as those of John Dewey, Marshall writes of the Armed Forces as a school in liberal democracy whose subjects include citizenship, virtue, self-knowledge, and even creativity and self-invention. It is no coincidence that The Armed Forces Officer was written just a few years after Navy and Marine Corps officers toss hats World War II. World War II was a life-chang- during graduation and commissioning ing event for Marshall, as it was for the U.S. ceremony for Naval Academy Class of 2011 Army (in which he served intermittently for three decades), for the Armed Forces, and for the Nation. Marshall had created and devel- a canon of writing on military leadership Printing Office editions of the book. Writing oped on World War II battlefields the method and officer education, and most importantly without his own name dampened Marshall’s of small-unit combat analysis that would to the larger culture, past and present. strong inclination for self-promotion, allow- make him famous. He would go on to write Marshall’s approach to the paradoxes of the ing his undoubted abilities, which included about the next war. His postwar works Men citizen-soldier and the commissioned elite a prolific, although not infallible, memory Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in the service of a democracy is dialogic to dominate.3 The Marshall of The Armed in Future War and The Soldier’s Load and the and inclusive. The book merits widespread Forces Officer was just nearing 50. His lively Mobility of a Nation were explicitly intended to reading and reconsideration at a time when mind was full of his readings and of the prepare the country for wars to come.6 the American military profession is beset by scenes and voices of his recent war experi- If these works prepared the Nation great challenges and confronted with formi- ence, and he was not yet as curmudgeonly or for future wars by addressing tactical and dable adversaries. reactionary as he sometimes seems in some logistical challenges, The Armed Forces later writings.4 The tone of this book is decid- Officer can be seen as having a similar Marshall and the Army of a Democracy edly democratic and egalitarian. purpose concerning officer leadership and How did it come about that this book, Perhaps partly due to the instructive military professionalism. In World War II, Guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey apparently written at speed in 30 days after experience of World War II, The Armed the United Statesunder had createdway in Mediterranean an enormous Marshall (at least by his own later account) Forces Officer is very non-Prussian, rejecting officer corps almost from scratch. Prewar had assumed responsibility for a languish- militarism, dogmatism, and other forms of regular and reserve officers provided the ing Department of Defense (DOD) project, professional insularity in favor of one more cadre, but the great majority of junior offi- come to be his tour de force?2 One important suited to America’s Army. The book eschews cers had no military experience or training element might be that Marshall was an the German model that sometimes seems before the war. These were the products of anonymous author in the earlier Government to be the dominant historical example of the various officer candidate schools, the ndupress.ndu.edu issue 68, 1 st quarter 2013 / JFQ 65 COMMENTARY | Reconsidering The Armed Forces Officer of 1950

90-day wonders—“gentlemen by act of Con- to adopt an ethos of duty and service, and to since Cicero, through medieval manuals on gress”—who attracted considerable derision communicate freely on these matters within chivalry and kingship, to Baldesar Casti- for their growing pains and inexperience. the military and with the civil community. glione’s The Book of the Courtier (1528) and The United States and its allies won most of He introduces the idea in the very first the “self-help” genre named if not started by the battles and the war, but it was obvious words of chapter 1, “The Meaning of Your 19th-century Englishman Samuel Smiles. The that some of the leaders could have been Commission”: best of the works on military leadership draw better prepared for their responsibilities. In on larger intellectual currents and traditions. The Armed Forces Officer, Marshall focuses Upon being commissioned in the Armed They contain explicit and implied reminders on certain challenges to the performance Services of the United States, a man incurs of the officer’s civic role and responsibilities, and perception of officer candidate school– a lasting obligation to cherish and protect and of his obligation to acknowledge ties with trained junior officers in particular, but also his country and to develop within himself the culture, government, and populace of his of American officers in general. that capacity and reserve strength which will society. As works of literature concerned with One of the main difficulties addressed enable him to serve its arms and the welfare the education and betterment of the indi- in The Armed Forces Officer is an American of his fellow Americans with increasing vidual and of society, they form a link to the discomfort with hierarchy and elitism. The wisdom, diligence, and patriotic conviction.8 classical conception of the humanities as not rigidly stratified structure of an army, and in only a set of academic disciplines, but also an particular the elevated, even privileged status Humanities and the Profession of Arms education for public life and leadership. of junior officers over men sometimes older Marshall’s approach to officership In The Armed Forces Officer, officer and more accomplished, had struck earlier builds on a venerable canon of works on education, and the military profession itself, generations of Americans as paradoxical military leadership. Earlier works on this is a branch of the humanities. The book is and even untenable in a democracy. This subject had taken pains to establish the terms open-ended, creative, and inquisitorial more perception had been sharpened in the citizen of an officer’s right to command, wage war, than it is prescriptive. By reaching outside army of World War II, which drew on an enjoy privilege, and compel obedience. In itself to a broad culture, in the form of fre- American society grown more egalitarian. writing his work, Marshall is adding to a quent quotations and allusions, it stresses If the military community seemed to World distinguished tradition of works on military the human, humanistic, literary, and artistic War II British novelist-turned-officer Evelyn leadership, sometimes inspired by defeat, aspects of leadership and officership. The Waugh as a “happy civilization” in which but sometimes by the cost, consequences, or allusiveness of The Armed Forces Officer is “differences in rank were exactly defined and imperatives of victory. This body of work can one indication that it is not meant to com- frankly accepted,” the military insistence on be traced at least as far back as Xenophon, plete even a junior office’s education, but hierarchy struck some Americans as anach- through many other Greek and Roman to inspire a beginning, a journey of experi- ronistic and artificial.7 Part of Marshall’s task writers to include Vegetius, author of the ence, reflection, and discovery that ideally was to establish a hierarchical basis for officer enduring De Re Militari. The catalogue of will last a lifetime. The narrative voice is status and authority that was acceptable in a writers on military leadership should not well-read and even cultivated, but it is also democracy while maintaining professional exclude medieval works such as Christine de unmistakably the voice of an officer and of an American. From early in his book, Marshall one of the main difficulties addressed in The Armed Forces in effect makes an instructive example of his own broad, selective reading. Officer is an American discomfort with hierarchy and elitism Chapter 1 contains quotations or cita- tions from Voltaire, Bertrand Russell, the standards. In common with the works on civil Pizan’s Book of Acts of Arms and Chivalry or British politician Lionel Curtis, Confucius, conduct and self-improvement of which it Honoré Bonet’s Tree of Battles.9 The genre Thomas Jefferson, William James, Theo- may be said to be a close relative, Marshall’s experienced its own renaissance following dore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and an book is about locating and promoting oneself Niccolò Machiavelli’s Art of War (1521), anonymous admiral. Tellingly, only two of on a hierarchy. As in many other accounts of a rebirth that gained momentum during those cited are professional officers. Unlike social existence, this is not merely a matter of the early modern “military revolution” of most more recent writers on military leader- ambition, but of legitimacy and authenticity. 1550–1650.10 During the 18th century, written ship, Marshall makes it clear that an officer’s Marshall provides the bases for an officer’s works centered in France where a reexamina- education consists of much more than military authority, right to lead, and even entitlement tion of military practices would follow French knowledge, and that an officer’s values are not to certain privileges and deference. The reader defeats by the British and Prussians.11 One a thing apart from those of the civilization that is given to understand, in a manner urbane of the best 19th-century books on military he or she serves. The officer is a human being and commanding, that the commissioned leadership, a work that anticipates Marshall and a citizen serving in the armed forces. person must constantly and restlessly acquire in its emphasis on cohesion and morale (and In a refreshing relief from uncritical and reacquire the justifications for officership which he cites more than once), is French and repeated references to Servicemembers in order to be worthy of the title of officer. army Colonel Ardant du Picq’s Battle Studies: as “warriors” among current writers, Marshall Marshall emphasizes that the officer’s posi- Ancient and Modern Battle.12 notes that the American military does not tion is actually dependent on a willingness to As a genre, works on military leader- produce “warriors per se,” but instills in its acquire knowledge, to assume responsibility, ship may be linked to works on civil behavior members a sense of “the right thing to do” in

66 JFQ / issue 68, 1 st quarter 2013 ndupress.ndu.edu BONADONNA the “long run.”13 Marshall explains the need Brigadier General for the armed forces to instill values, saying S.L.A. Marshall, USA DOD they have a greater need to do so than “gentler institutions” because of the unregimented character of American citizens and the demands and pressures of war and combat. In these settings, “all barriers are down” and only a strong internal sense of right and wrong will prevent atrocity and disorder.14 Not only are officers accountable to their society for their own moral conduct, but they are also in a position to articulate and exemplify moral standards. Officers are not a group apart, not a “guardian class,” but “a strong right arm.”15 Finally, officers require broad educations because the demands of their calling are often novel and unexpected. An officer must antici- pate encountering the enemy’s opposing and unpredictable will, the ways and manners of unfamiliar cultures, technological change, the inherent chaos of the battlefield, and human nature at its most beleaguered. Marshall pres- ents this as a fascinating challenge. He writes:

If he has the ambition to excel as a com- mander of men, rather than as a technician, then the study of human nature and of individual characteristics within the military on all of one’s capabilities, knowledge, and to scrupulously avoid patronizing them or crowd becomes a major part of his training. emotional and intellectual depths. addressing them as other than his “intel- That is the prime reason why the life of any lectual and political peers from any walk of tactical leader becomes so very interesting, The Dialogic Form life.”18 Characteristically, Marshall quotes provided he possesses some imagination. In The Armed Forces Officer, the educa- both soldiers and civilians on dialogue. He Everything is grist for his mill.16 tion of officers, and their roles as educators, is cites William Hazlitt on developing one’s largely a matter of dialogue. Officers should own strength by testing it against others: As the list of quoted writers from chapter talk with subordinates, superiors, peers, and “A Man who shrinks from a collision with 1 indicates, Marshall only lightly draws on the the people. Perhaps the most important reason his equals or superiors will shrink below writings of officers and other military writers. for open speech by officers is the fact that himself.”19 This observation is echoed by What connects his diverse citations is that they American officers are servants of a democracy. Marshall Saxe, who asks that the assurance all underscore the value and character of the Officers must not be “intellectual eunuchs” with which he expresses his opinions not civilized works, practices, and attitudes that who remain aloof from debate out of either be taken amiss by “experts”: “They should the military officer must sometimes paradoxi- an exaggerated sense of infallibility, a habit correct them; that is the fruit I expect of my cally use force to protect. For Marshall, that of obedience, or because they do not believe w or k .” 20 Eisenhower is quoted (in fact, slightly an officer understand and exemplify these they have a right to express an opinion on misquoted) on the importance of enlisted civilized values hardly takes second place to the policies it may be their professional duty men talking naturally to officers so that the an understanding of the use of force itself, to enforce.17 Even in their areas of expertise, “product of their resourcefulness becomes since only a civilized person will appreciate the officers should be prepared to have their available to all.”21 For the officer uninterested depth of the officer’s commitment to use force views questioned. Marshall offers arguments in or unconvinced of the value of dialogue, only as consistent with the mission, propor- supporting officers engaging the open market Marshall offers two observations. One is that tionately, and even with reluctance—certainly of ideas, and he gives many examples of how “fully half of boredom comes from lack of with a desire to see peace restored as soon as to talk in various settings and to a variety of the habit of careful listening.” The other is possible. Only in this way will the officer keep audiences and interlocutors. an anecdote about a newspaper editor who faith with his or her constitutional oath, and Marshall provides both precept and greeted enthusiastically the dubious ideas of only in this way is the officer distinguished as example on the art of conversation. He his juniors, encouraging them to develop a an educated professional from a mere techni- cautions against the temptation to score completed plan, and allowing them in effect cian or “manager of violence.” The military off seniors as shortsighted and unwise. He to discover the flaws in their ideas for them- profession is a branch of the humanities encourages officers to talk to their subordi- selves. The need for an exchange of words and because war is such a human activity, calling nates about their families and interests and ideas is upheld by Marshall’s insistence—in ndupress.ndu.edu issue 68, 1 st quarter 2013 / JFQ 67 COMMENTARY | Reconsidering The Armed Forces Officer of 1950 another valuable holdover from World War II atomic bomb, had been built by an unprec- country. Unlike the post–World War II experience—that an officer must be receptive edented alliance of industry, academe, gov- period, the military has neither a “nation of to new knowledge and attainments, seeking ernment, and military. The 1950s would see veterans,” nor numbers of former officers in or creating knowledge along with greater a series of best-selling books on the lives of prominent nonmilitary positions, nor a recent responsibility, rather than relying on a narrow Soldiers and Sailors by veterans such as James example of large scale and highly public specialization. The officer’s education should Jones, Leon Uris, Norman Mailer, James civil-military cooperation on which to form a give him or her cognitive and linguistic tools Gould Cozzens, Herman Wouk, and Thomas foundation of understanding and trust. to question old ideas and new, to articulate Heggan. Many of these became popular and Admiral Mullen’s concern with the lack change and adaptation, and to process and critically well-received feature films. South of communication between the American to channel experience rather than to rely on Pacific was both on Broadway (1949–1954) military and its nonmilitary citizenry struck formulas or conventional wisdom. and on the screen (1958). The Nation was a chord with his distinguished audience of military educators. Indeed, except for Army second maintaining the relevance of its warfighting lieutenants capability, communication with the rest of commissioned America may be the great challenge facing at Indiana War the military profession in the coming decades Memorial of the 21st century. While it is not possible

U.S. Army (John Crosby) to recapture a lost age, a consideration of Marshall’s work points a way to alleviate the estrangement of civil and military. Marshall’s CAPTION view of the profession of arms is in essence a branch of the humanities. His emphases on the need for dialogic communication and on a daily recognition of the American officer as a servant and exemplar of democracy address the challenges of our time as I have depicted them above, and in other ways I discuss in the rest of this article.

The 21st-century Armed Forces Officer The prevailing attitude to military pro- Finally, for Marshall, talk and dia- crisscrossed by interconnecting networks of fessionalism may be inadequate to deal with logue are vital to the success of a unit in soldier-civilians and civilian-soldiers engaged the contemporary challenge of the need for combat. “Talking it up” is an essential part in a dialogue based on shared experience. a wider, discursive approach. In this context, of Marshall’s menu of actions (as argued at Soon after Korea, the military would deseg- the social science model for military profes- much greater length in Men Against Fire, regate, reluctantly at first but with growing sionalism could be described as necessary and running through his many works on progress, and nearly always in advance of the but insufficient. An example may be found small-unit combat) that a leader must take to rest of American society, playing a leading in the most recent edition of The Armed remove “the paralysis which comes of fear.”22 role in an important social issue. Forces Officer (2007). Compared to the 1950 Communication, practiced in peacetime, How different is the situation today? As edition, the range of reference and allusion in delivers its greatest rewards in battle. then–Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral the newer work is relatively narrow, drawing Mike Mullen noted at a conference on the mostly on American military history. The Armed Forces Officer, future of the military profession in January Although the book discusses the officer’s Then and Now 2011, the American people respect their role as a member of a larger society, it sets an Despite its occasional anachronisms, armed forces but scarcely know it. Although unsatisfying example in this area, suggest- Marshall’s book is probably needed now the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have ing by inference that the military profession more than when it was first published. In produced their share of literary and media should look mostly inward for example, 1950, Marshall’s emphasis on humanistic attention, the scale is much smaller, the inter- inspiration, and instruction. dialogue and democracy were underwrit- est more limited. The need for democratic The 21st century requires American mili- ten by America’s World War II experience and humanistic dialogue is greater because it tary officers to engage in continuous dialogue of a citizen army. George C. Marshall, the is too rare—and because we are in an era in both within and outside the ranks of their only American career Soldier to win the which the links between civil and military will profession. Officers have already recognized Nobel Prize for Peace, signed as Secretary of be tested and forced to grow or give way like that the “communicate” branch of the “move, Defense the first edition of The Armed Forces unexercised muscles. As in the 1940s and for shoot, communicate” trivium is assuming Officer. In 1952, the voters elected another most of the 1950s, the military is shrinking, greater importance in our times. Counterin- career Soldier to the Presidency. The machin- heavily deployed overseas, and demographi- surgency, humanitarian, security, and peace ery of war, to include the fearful, war-ending cally and geographically isolated in its own operations, contact with U.S. Government

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agencies, international nongovernmental as educated, but they must be educated, and MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, agencies, allies and coalition partners, and even learned, men and women comfortable 1957); and Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: even joint operations all stress the officer’s role and capable with words as well as deeds. The A Social and Political Portrait (Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960). as a professional conversationalist and facilita- officer may be a “manager of violence,” but 6 S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire: The Problem tor of dialogue: a lawyer, diplomat, or coun- he or she is more than that: part artist, part of Battle Command in Future War (Alexandria, VA: selor in uniform and under arms. Americans storyteller, part scholar, and part teacher. The Byrrd Enterprises, 1947, rpt. 1961); and The Soldier’s have had to slow their pace of conversation military profession is correctly conceived as a Load and the Mobility of a Nation (Quantico, VA: to come more in line with the allusive and branch of the humanities broad in both scope Marine Corps Association, 1950, rpt. 1980). 7 Evelyn Waugh, Officers and Gentlemen (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1955, rpt. officers must be equipped to engage in common speech, but 1979), 90. some must also be prepared to communicate with intellectual 8 AFO, 1. and political elites as equals 9 Phillipe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1985), 212–214. ruminative nature of Middle Eastern dis- and purpose, which are the study and the bet- 10 Since the term military revolution was first course. They have had to acquire knowledge terment of humankind. For S.L.A. Marshall coined by Michael Roberts in his inaugural address of customs, manners, social codes, habits of in The Armed Forces Officer, the profession of at Belfast University in 1955, many works have been mind, and religious beliefs, but it is even more arms and the people who make up the armed written on this idea. For a compendium of works on important that these diplomats in uniform be forces are a tremendous repository of knowl- the subject, see Clifford Rogers, The Military Revolu- able to serve as fit representatives of their own edge and belief, a great book to be read in tion Debate: Readings on Military Transformation in culture, its history, its literature, its values and crowded and in quiet moments: fight, endure, Early Modern Europe (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, aspirations. The role of talker may have struck reflect, grow wise. JFQ 1995). some officers as incongruous or unwelcome. It 11 R.R. Palmer, “Frederick the Great, Guibert, requires innovation, new skills, and personal Notes Bulow: From Dynastic to National War,” in Makers change, but it is in a sense a reconnection with of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear 1 a traditional role for the profession of arms as The Armed Forces Officer was first published Age, ed. Peter Paret, 93, 105 (Princeton: Princeton by the Government Printing Office in 1950. (This University Press, 1986). bearer of order and civilization. original version is hereafter referred to in endnotes 12 Ardant du Picq was killed in action during the Military officers need skill in dialogue as AFO.) Since then, it has gone through a number Franco-Prussian War in 1870. His book was post- and narrative to do their jobs, to tell their of reprintings and revisions. Marshall wrote an humously compiled from his writings (organized as stories, and to participate in the civic discourse expanded version published as The Officer as a he had outlined) and published in France in 1880. of a democracy. Officers must be equipped to Leader (Stackpole Books, 1966). The American The 1921 American translation of the eighth French engage in common speech, but some must also Forces Information Service published a revised edition by John N. Greely and Robert C. Cotton can be prepared to communicate with intellectual edition in 1975 and a greatly altered version in 1988. still be found in reprints today. and political elites as equals.23 The post–World The 1975 edition is especially good, leaving the orig- 13 AFO, 17. 14 War II alliance of civilian and military elite inal mostly untouched but adding sections based on Ibid., 14–15. 15 cultures was largely a casualty of the Vietnam Korea and Vietnam. A completely new edition was Ibid., 3. 16 Ibid., 169. War. It might seem that the differences are co-published by NDU Press and Potomac Books in 2007, although this copy contained chapter one of 17 Ibid., 8. insurmountable, but the post–“Don’t ask, don’t the original: “The Meaning of Your Commission” in 18 Ibid., 77, 190. tell” military offers the opportunity for a rap- its entirety as an appendix. 19 Ibid., 174. prochement with elite universities, the media, 2 The Officer as a Leader, 12–13. 20 Ibid., 113. and big cities such as Washington, DC, for a 3 This is noted by David H. Hackworth and 21 Ibid. Marshall quotes Eisenhower as stating, role in social change equivalent to the desegre- Julie Sherman in About Face: The Odyssey of an “There is among the mass of individuals who carry gation of the 1950s and 1960s. American Warrior (New York: Simon and Schuster, rifles in war a great amount of ingenuity and effi- 1989), although Hackworth is often S.L.A. Marshall’s ciency.” Eisenhower’s words in Crusade in Europe A Call to Arms and Letters: unsparing and even unfair and untruthful critic. (New York: Doubleday, 1949) are “ingenuity and Knight and Scribe 4 John Douglas Marshall, Reconciliation Road: initiative” (314). 22 A reading of Marshall’s magnum opus A Family Odyssey (Seattle: University of Washington AFO, 120. 23 See Charles Hill, Grand Strategies: Literature, can serve as a necessary and timely correc- Press, 1993). Grandson John Marshall identifies S.L.A. Marshall’s 1960 heart attack as a watershed, Statecraft, and World Order (New Haven: Yale tion to the narrowness and insularity that following which he became increasingly difficult University Press, 2010). This book is a compelling may afflict all professions or institutions in and inflexible. argument for the importance of the humanities tra- the course of their development, but which is 5 The social science approach to military profes- dition in developing sophisticated strategic thought. particularly insidious and undesirable in the sionalism may be traced back to some of the works Although aimed mostly at the civilian diplomat or case of America’s profession of arms. Com- of Max Weber, the seminal German sociologist. In statesman, the work has value for the military strate- mitted autodidact Marshall is also a corrective America, the classic works are probably still two gist as well. Hill teaches a highly selective, yearlong to the creeping anti-intellectualism that some- based on the post–World War II military: Samuel P. seminar on this subject at Yale. times seems to infect the American military Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory profession. Officers must be trained as well and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, ndupress.ndu.edu issue 68, 1 st quarter 2013 / JFQ 69