A general's mission
Wesley Kanne Clark, first in his class at West Point and a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, had an unusual role for a young man who had not yet been to Vietnam: He was asked to speak to groups in England in support of the US war. So when it came time for Clark to go to Vietnam himself, he was gung-ho for action. After six months in an Army bureaucratic job in Vietnam, Clark finally saw combat: a firefight in which he was shot four times.
Clark received the Silver Star for bravery, but after returning to the United States was dismayed to find that the war had become so unpopular in his homeland. And the more he learned, the more he became upset at the way the war had been waged. While he always supported the US policy of acting in Vietnam, he became convinced the US military had blown its strategy. Clark, ever the intellectual, studied for months in an effort to understand the mistakes. He read David Halberstam's "The Best and The Brightest," which told how the United States had become involved in Vietnam. He read the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the war. Over the years, he came to conclude that US policy makers could make tragic mistakes. What was needed, he believed, were military officials who were willing to tell the policy makers when they were wrong.
It is a judgment that has shaped the latter part of Clark's military career and has informed his presidential bid.
"My view on the war was this: It was the right thing to try to contain communism," Clark, 59, said in an interview. "The Army basically disintegrated in the process of fighting the war. The military strategy was improper. You should never commit American troops or American prestige unless you intend to win."
Clark's military career benefited from the support of his longtime friend and fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton. As the supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Kosovo war in 1999, Clark sought to put his theories into practice, pushing strongly for military action. The top officials at the Pentagon were mostly against the war, while those at the State Department were for it. Clark provided a vital link to the White House, and President Clinton ultimately decided to go to war.
But the war was not as easy as first envisioned. Clark thought it could have been over in days, but it lasted several months. Clark wanted to bomb Serbian troops in Kosovo, while the Air Force wanted to immediately attack targets in Belgrade.
The war should have been the crowning achievement for Clark. No US soldiers were killed in combat, and Kosovo today is considered a US foreign policy success. But after the war ended, the Pentagon brass who had disagreed with Clark about the war ousted him. Clark was scheduled to leave his position in a few months, anyway, but he believed he was being treated unfairly, and he carried his anger with him. His autobiography, "Waging Modern War," is in some ways a lengthy form of retribution, giving his side of the squabbles he had with the Pentagon. But a careful reading of the book also shows that it is often as much about Vietnam as it is about Kosovo. Clark is consumed at every stage of the conflict with not repeating the mistakes of Vietnam.
Although he has plenty of experience with war, Clark has no background in politics. He had never run for public office, and he did not register with the Democratic Party until recently. In the past he has supported Republicans, including Richard M. Nixon, but he says he twice voted for Clinton.
Clark's father, Ben Kanne, who died when Wesley was 4 years old, was an active Chicago Democrat. After his death, Veneta Kanne moved with her son back to her native Arkansas, where she met and married a local banker named Victor Clark. Wesley Clark grew up during Little Rock's desegregation crisis and says that his view of racism during that time shapes him to this day.
Determined since childhood to enter the military, Clark spent a year at Castle Heights Military Academy in Tennessee. Although he abhorred the endless inspections and parades, he loved the sense of discipline and mission, telling a cousin: "I want to be a general."
Now, the retired general wants to be president.
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com 