TIME: Desert Storm - The War in the Persian Gulf/TIME: Desert Storm - The War in the Persian Gulf.iso/time2_04/cf040042.t04

Text File | 1991-06-27 | 9.5 KB | 222 lines

DATE: JAN. 24, 1991       14:45              REPORT: 1
TO: SPL
FOR: BIRNBAUM
CC:
BUREAU: WASHINGTON
BY: BRUCE VAN VOORST
IN:
SLUG: THE GENERAL

 America's commander in the Gulf War, General Norman
Schwarzkopf, is a military history buff, and it's not
surprising that his favorite battle was Cannae, where
Hannibal in 216 crushed the forces of Rome. What
attracted Cannae to Schwarzkopf, says his West Point
roommate, general (ret) Leroy Suddath, was that "Cannae
was the first real war of annihilation--the kind Norman
wanted to fight."

 The truly eery thing about Schwarzkopf is that he, like
Charles De Gaulle (see LeTourneau's recent biography),
early saw himself leading his nation's armed forces into
a major battle. "We'd talk about these things in the wee
hours," recalls Suddath,"and Norman would predict not
just that he would lead a major American army into
combat, but that it would be battle decisive to the
nation." This was not mere midnight chatter. "Norman
believed in this," says Suddath, who roomed with
Schwarzkopf for four years and graduated together in
1956,"and he was preparing for this even then."

 "Norman read widely on war, including Alexander the
Great," says Suddath,"and he saw himself in the lineage
of the great Captains of War. He literally saw himself as
a successor to Alexander, and we didn't laugh when he
said it." As the son of a West Point graduate, and
extremely successful soldier (Gangbusters and all that)
"Norman just assumed he would be an outstanding
success."

 Schwarzkopf was a whiz at West Point. General (ret) Ward
LeHardy, another roommate for a couple years (they bedded
down three to a room in those days), says that
Schwarzkopf stood 43 in his class of 480. (LeHardy knows
because he was 430th. "You don't have to be an
intellectual to be a general.") Suddath claims that
Schwarzkopf's IQ is 170, but says in any case "he did
everything with such ease." Suddath says Schwarzkopf
could have been first in his class,"but he did a lot of
other things except study."

 Other things included soccer, wrestling, weight-lifting
and football (the latter not varsity but Plebe). The
future commander of Central Command was also in the cadet
chapel choir all four years at West Point, and in the
final year the "Cadet in Charge." He's said to have a
fine tenor voice. At West Point he was also active in the
German club. Despite his size, he played tennis on his
own.

 Despite his West Point success, the Corps' annual
managed to misspell his name--it appears Norman H.
Schwarzkopf instead of "H. Norman." The "H" is for
Herbert; "Norman hates it," says another friend.

 While at West Point Schwarzkopf spent hours listening to
classical music ("1812 Overture and classical things like
that," according to Suddath). Schwarzkopf likes
"uplifting" music, particularly Wagner, "the sort of
music which makes you feel on the top of the world," says
Suddath.

 Schwarzkopf was strong in math and physics. "He's got an
uncannily orderly mind," says Suddath. Later Schwarzkopf
earned an MA in nuclear engineering at the University of
Southern California.

 The notation in Schwarzkopf's yearbook (written by a
friend,usually), reads,"Schwarzie's far-flung travels
form New Jersey to Iran have made him a connoisseur of
life. His afternoons at West Point were filled by soccer,
tennis and wrestling. An excellent capability in ability.
His general personality have won him many friends. His
sprit is his greatest asset and will assure him
success."

 It would be easy to ridicule Schwarzkopf's military
ambitions, except that they came true. He appears to have
mesmerized his West Point classmates and later army
colleagues. General LeHardy says he's "this generation's
Doug MacArthur. He's got the tactical brilliance of
Patton, the strategic insight of Eisenhower and the
modesty of Bradley." Wow. But others share this view.
"Norm's bigger than life," says Suddath.

 Suddath and Norm became Brigadier Generals together and
went to the "General Officer Orientation" class,
popularly called the "Charm School" by Pentagon officers.
It's where the freshly baked one-stars learn which fork
to use and the finger-bowl ritual. "Norm's view was that
being a one-star was a piece of cake," said Suddath,"he
was already pointing to four stars." "The funny thing
is," says Suddath,"we never doubted he would."

 From the beginning Schwarzkopf wanted to be army--not
the other services. A third of his graduating class went
into the Air Force, and he could have as well. And not
only Army, but Schwarkopf wanted infantry, although once
again his grades would have gotten him into the
engineers, where all the "brains" of the service tended
to go.

 Along the way Schwarzkopf, who was called "Schwarzie" in
his West Point annual, became known as "The Great Bear."
In part this stemmed from his bulk--6'3" and 240
pounds--which is his most sensitive personal
characteristic. "Norm's been fighting weight as long as
I've known him," said LeHardy.

 But the Bear had two sides. There was "Teddy Bear," the
gregarious, outgoing, enormously personable person who
loved to slip out of West Point with friends on the
weekend taking in musicals in New York. But there was
"Grizzly Bear," a man of ferocious temper, short on
patience with lesser critters. Fortunately, "Storm'en
Norman" as he came to be called, threw fits of short
duration, returning to normal as fast as he accelerated
to a fury. Afterwards, says LeHardy,"no grudges."

 Schwarzkopf is widely described as a "workaholic." He
never took time off, even on weekends. Once, however,
LeHardy and his wife managed to persuade Norman and his
wife Brenda to stop over for a night at their South
Carolina home. Norman arrived driving a Mercedes, windows
up, air conditioning on, and accompanied by jut one
daughter. A few minutes later, Brenda arrived, driving an
old station wagon, windows down, sweating up a storm and
harassed by two other kids, a hamster and a dog. "Brenda
cussed a bit," said LeHardy,"but Norman said he needed
the Mercedes to listen to music."

 Enroute to becoming a general, Schwarzkopf became a
master parachutists. Later in the 70's, after he'd fought
in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf told LeHardy "I just got to have
my back looked at." Doctors at Walter Reed found a broken
back (lower), and Schwarzkopf underwent an operation
involving the graft of bone from both hips to his back.
He spent six months in the hospital, much of the time
mending the spirits of other Vietnam veterans healing
there. "Norman used to have tears in his eyes telling me
of the plight of some of these guys," recalls LeHardy.

 Schwarzkopf can be extremely secretive. While he was
commander of the 24th Infantry Division in Ft. Stewart,
GA (which is a key force under his command in Saudi
Arabia), guests arriving for dinner were astonished to
find the host gone. Wife Brenda calmly announced that,"A
helicopter picked up Norman this morning and I don't have
a clue where he is." Norman was in Grenada, helping to
patch up the pieces of that miserably run operation.

 (Schwarzkopf has two girls and a boy--but for security
reasons his wife--who is at their home at the Central
Command hqs at McDill AFB in Florida--asks that we not
give their names or where they are.)

 Schwarzkopf was late in marrying. In 1966, for the
ten-year class book, he penned some lines:

 "At Benning, Campbell, Berlin and California's sunny
climes,
 At West Point and South Vietnam, I've served my time,
 It isn't that I don't eat well and my apartment's not
dirty,
 It's just there's something suspicious at a bachelor
over thirty...."

 "Norman was just wedded to the U.S. Army," says Suddath.
But a year later that changed. Norman met and married
Brenda, a TWA stewardess he met flying in to West Point.

    ----O---

 Within the Pentagon, there's an interesting question
regarding Schwarzkopf:Why did this guy, obviously one of
the finest officers, take the Central Command job? It's
important to note that when Schwarzkopf took Centcom in
1988 this was something of a back-water assignment.
Centcom was little more than an office building in Tampa,
Florida. The Centcom commander had no troops; everything
he has is on loan from the other commands. Schwarzkopf
inherited file cabinets full of plans-- mostly on how to
deal with a Soviet thrust into Iran. Only at the time of
the reflagging program in July 1987 did anybody really
begin to take seriously other dangers in the region.

 Schwarzkopf can answer this for himself, but his old
buddies don't feel Central Command was all that bad an
assignment. "There aren't that many four-star slots,"
explained one. In any case, his decision to take that
command was a monumental turning point for the new
general.

 Nobody in Washington noticed Schwarzkopf, of course,
until August 2nd. And then for some time the notices were
mixed. Congressmen (including Les Aspin) returned from
the initial briefings somewhat skeptical of Schwarzkopf's
"Big Bear" image. They complained his briefings were
non-informative.

 All that's changed. "Schwarzkopf is ten feet tall in
Washington right now," said one Armed Services Committee
staffer,"everybody thinks he's doing just right."

 By this the professionals mean Schwarzkopf, allied with
Powell, is fighting just the right "smart war." "Nobody's
going to fight the war of attrition Saddam Hussein hopes
for," explained one hill source,"we're doing it our
way--bleeding him, not us."

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