CRISES LEADERSHIP UNDER FIRE
It
was October 22 1962
at Lackland Air
Force Base
during my
first two weeks of Basic Training;
two weeks of
total isolation from the outside world. The meal ended and our
Technical Instructor (T.I.)
assembled us behind the chow hall.
In
an unusually soft voice the T.I. informed us the President of the
United States had ordered Defense Condition 4. The Russian Soviet Union had
been arming Cuba with nuclear missiles aimed at America. Friends he
knew and lived with were now aboard aircraft awaiting parachuting
into battle; we could well be at war within hours – nuclear war.
He
did not say it then, and succeeding generations may be unenlightened
at to the events; but October 1962 would prove to be the greatest
crises in human history.
Americans
get an image in their mind of what the President should be. For my
generation this was probably Kennedy. Sometime after that day at
Lackland I began collecting observations of what JFK did in the days
of great crises. These are some of those observations:
- Accepted the intelligence of known preliminary facts, and immediately put men in harms way by ordering further investigation and planning.
- Made himself aware of every detail of the threats and projected scenarios.
- Told by military leaders 30-million casualties in first salvo would be “acceptable”, he took personal command.
- Knowing he could not know everything, he delegated authority to others and never “upstaged” them.
- When the New York Times got hold of the story before Kennedy was ready to risk panic, the Times publisher took the word of the President and withheld their biggest “scoop” in history.
- Not waiting until the enemy was firmly entrenched, and with personal or political consequences unknown, he acted.
- He avoided panic by not saying everything he knew, but did not succumb to lying.
- Spoke eloquently, factually, and calmly to America; leaving everyone aware who was in command.
- As President JFK accepted personal responsibility for events and people he could not control, and for mistakes of others of whom he had no knowledge.
- Personally ordered that firing of the gun which would be first salvo of World War III to be done solely at his own voice command.
- Refused to leave the field of battle, the White House, until the outcome was known.
John
F Kennedy, we children of the 60’s later learned, was
a very flawed man. However, during the perilous days of
October 1962 he demonstrated to our
generation what real crises leadership looks
like.
