History lesson first
Before getting to the current concerns, we'll step back 200+ years to the start of the country and mention some relevant command reliefs through President Clinton, to give a perspective on the issue. These are not all of the flag officers to have been relieved, but because of space limitation, are representative of different eras.General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War, relieved Brigadier Charles Lee of command following the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey, 1778). Washington had ordered Lee to attack, but he chose to retreat. When relieved of command, Lee criticized Washington, and was court-martialed. Some suspect Lee had been compromised during a period of captitivity a few years earlier.
President Lincoln relieved General George McClellan in the middle of the Civil War (1863) because of his reluctance to fight aggressively. McClellan became the Democratic nominee for President in 1864, but was handily defeated by Lincoln.
Days after the attack on Pearll Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt relieved Admiral Husband Kimmell and Lieutenant General Walter Short because of the destruction of the fleet at Pearl Harbor. Their actions were investigated and they were found guilty of "dereliction of duty," and reduced one pay grade. They both chose to retire in 1942.
Many generals were relieved of various commands during the course of World War II, but not removed from the military. During the course of the war in Europe, sixteen of 155 Army division and five corps commanders were relieved for cause. The 'cause' primarily being failure to suceed in their assigned positions as combat leaders.
The most famous relief of duty in the last half of the 20th Century was, without doubt, President Truman relieving General Douglas MacArthur of command in 1951. MacArthur was adamant about repelling North Korea from the south, but in driving the Chinese out of North Korea as well. Truman, on the other hand, concerned about a full-scale war with China and possibly the Soviet Union. Perhaps a legacy of Truman's action is the fact that over 60 years later, there is still only an amistice with North Korea, no peace treaty has been signed.
There were a few general officers relieved of command in Vietnam. The closest a general came to relief but avoiding it was Major General Samuel Koster. He was the commander of the Americal Division at the time of the My Lai massacre in 1968. By 1970, the story had unfolded and Koster and several other officers were charged with covering up the incident. Eventually, those charges were dropped against Koster, but he had been denied a promotion to Lieutenant General and was demoted to brigadier general. He retired, as a BG in 1973. A little noted footnote to the My Lai Massacre is the role played by Major Colin Powell. As a staff officer with the Americal, he made only cursory inquiries and dismissed the incident as insignificant, which is exactly what his superiors wanted.
Air Force General John Lavelle was relieved and demoted two-stars for conducting an allegedly rogue bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Lavelle argued to his dying day that he had been authorized, if not ordered, to conduct the bombings by General Creighton Abrams. President Nixon refused to intervene.
President Clinton relieved an Air Force Major General for comments made at a State dinner in the Netherlands in 1994 or '95. The general, having had a few too many toasts, commented on Clinton's draft dodging and skirt chasing. Totally inappropriate and the President was fully justified in relieving the officer from his command.
The important thread to remember is, that with the exception of MacArthur, these officers, with a few exceptions, were relieved from command because of incompetence. MacArthur is the only one that was relieved because of serious disagreements with the President. Tomorrow we will look at the reliefs under President Obama.
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