I have been reading Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson. There is a lesson which I suspect I should have already known. President Lincoln thought he was a military expert because he read some books on military strategy after becoming President. The politicians he appointed to his cabinet all thought they were military experts, based on almost no preparation in military strategy. The leading generals, especially at the beginning of the war, thought they were much smarter and better prepared than the civil authorities to define the objectives of the war and the way it should be prosecuted. All those prima donnas made it almost impossible to prosecute the war well.
Are we reminded of the General MacArthur in the Korean War, the U.S. leadership in the Korean War, or the U.S. leadership in the wars of the last decade?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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The book makes it clear that Lincoln was dealing not only with the military prosecution of the war, but with the politics of support for the war in the Congress and in the general population. He was dealing with the economics of fighting a war, and with the need to recruit enough people and gather enough material to prosecute the war successfully.
Lincoln wanted his generals to attack when they felt their troops were unready and when their intelligence said they were outnumbered. The author thinks Lincoln was right, while I see the political reasons why he might disagree with the strategic views of his field commanders.
In my view, Lincoln's greatness was due to his belief in the Union, to his willingness to forgive those who fought against the Union when the war was won, and his respect for freedom. He seems to have grown greatly under severe pressure.
The people who knew him best respected him most!
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