http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128008712
Stanley McChrystal is not the first general to get into trouble for questioning the authority of the president.
"You hate to think it's sort of an American tradition," says Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. "Certainly we have had, going back at least to the Civil War, situations where commanders in the field have challenged the policy and authority of civilian leadership."
McChrystal joined this fraternity after a Rolling Stone magazine profile in which he and members of his staff were quoted disparaging President Obama, Vice President Biden and other administration officials. McChrystal apologized for the comments but on Wednesday was relieved of his duties as the chief U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
It has not been common for generals to publicly challenge policies set by the president, but it has happened. In such cases, they've usually been fired.
The bedrock American concept of civilian control over the military essentially demands it, says Richard H. Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina. "A culture developed on [McChrystal's] staff of contempt for the political leadership," Kohn says
Commander: Gen. George McClellan
Year: 1862
The dispute: Two weeks after becoming chief of all the Union armies in 1861, McClellan refused to meet with Abraham Lincoln when the president came to his house — the first of many snubs and refusals to follow orders. After some months of conflict, Lincoln finally had enough after McClellan refused his entreaties to attack the forces of Robert E. Lee. McLellan sought revenge as the Democratic nominee for president in 1864. Lincoln won the election.
Maj. Gen. George McClellan didn't fight hard enough, President Lincoln decided.
Engraved by George E. Perine/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Maj. Gen. George McClellan didn't fight hard enough, President Lincoln decided.
Generals Can't Set Policy
Military commanders must carefully negotiate the discrepancy between the enormous power they wield in the field and the deference they must show to their civilian superiors — the president and the secretary of defense. Sometimes, they slip.
During the Revolutionary War, the "Conway Cabal," named for Brig. Gen. Thomas Conway, was a conspiracy that attempted to oust George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. After Conway's letters were forwarded to Congress and the cabal became public, he resigned.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln grew frustrated by Gen. George McClellan's refusal to engage the Confederate Army. McClellan referred to Lincoln in letters as a "well-meaning baboon" and an "idiot."
His disdain was made evident by his public actions as well. Lincoln's war council came up with various plans of attack that McClellan refused to carry out. "My dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the Army, I should like to borrow it for awhile," Lincoln wrote in a note to the general. Eventually, Lincoln relieved McClellan of command and ended up running against him in the election of 1864.
If Lincoln was angry that his general would not fight, President Harry S. Truman had the opposite problem with Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. MacArthur wanted to escalate the war well beyond Truman's limited designs, talking up use of the atomic bomb.
Commander: Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Year: 1951
The dispute: MacArthur wanted to expand the scope and aim of the Korean War. As with McClellan, he enjoyed considerable public stature. But within a couple of weeks of MacArthur’s demand that China admit defeat, Truman fired him. MacArthur came home to an enormous outpouring of support, but other military brass, led by Gen. Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, backed the president in what American Heritage once called "the severest test" of civilian control over the military.
Enlarge AP
President Truman (right) pinned the Distinguished Service Medal on Gen. Douglas MacArthur in October 1950. Six months later, the general was fired as commander in Korea because he was openly opposing the president's policies for the war there.
AP
President Truman (right) pinned the Distinguished Service Medal on Gen. Douglas MacArthur in October 1950. Six months later, the general was fired as commander in Korea because he was openly opposing the president's policies for the war there.
Truman fired him, saying he had acted because “General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is unable to give his wholehearted support to the policies of the United States and the United Nations.”
"When Lyndon Johnson appointed William Westmoreland as commander in Vietnam, he told him to his face, 'I don't want you pulling any MacArthurs on me,' " Krepinevich says. He was making sure Westmoreland knew his job was "to execute policy, not to make it or challenge it," Krepinevich adds.
