RESPONSIBIITY

 

RESPONSIBILITY

On the night of June 5 1944 Allied Commander General Eisenhower gave the command, “Okay, we go”. Those simple words launched what would ever after be known as D-Day. Over 150,000 men, some 5,000 ships, and about 10,000 airplanes were unleashed onto the beaches of Normandy. If they failed, if they were thrown back into the sea, the results of World War II would be in peril, the outcome unknowable.

From the moment he uttered those simple words the Commanding General lost all control. Whatever happened, whoever failed in their duty, whichever part of the plan was flawed, there was nothing he could do about it. Failure would not be the personal fault of guy who gave the order, but it would have forever been his responsibility.

Eisenhower recorded two statements for public distribution. The first announced the beginning of the invasion. In the second never needed statement he took total and personal responsibility for all failure. The commander cannot say “No, I’m not responsible at all”, that is a recourse of failures. Taking responsibility is what the person in charge does, the credit for success is given to those “who are actually in the arena”.

As a society we accept the person at top is of whom we demand responsibility. Holding the person at the top responsible for failures not their fault is the reason baseball managers or business CEO must resign when the team or business fails.

Thus, as a nation the President of the United States bears ultimate responsibility for failure, even where he is not personally at fault.

Take the case of the Vietnam war. Eisenhower started it. Kennedy is said to have wanted out, it’s not his fault he was assasinated. Johnson, scholars contend, did want a war. Nixon was convinced by the military it could be won. When all was lost, failure was the responsibility of President Gerald R. Ford, who had come late to the game at best.

As this is being written hearings on going on in the U.S. Senate examining the ‘story’ of American withdrawal from Afghanistan. One political side seems almost desperate to assign fault, the other to determine responsibility. As it was in Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, the military just wants somebody to fight. [SIDEBAR: If in November 1962 President Kennedy had followed the advice of military advisors regarding the Cuba Missile Crisis, nuclear war would have followed. It would have been Kennedy’s responsibility, and he knew it.]

Seventy-five years later it remains true that no one will ever tell all the story of World War II. I await to see whether the whole story of Afghanistan may ever be told.

Given that part of the story I know, of only this am I sure: A vast chasm exist between responsibility and fault. At fault is failure, not at fault is not. Not accepting ultimate responsibility when ultimate responsibility is yours, that is failure in every arena, whoever be at fault.