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American Morning
Wartime Criticism, an American Tradition
Aired March 27, 2003 - 08:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, ANCHOR: A full week into Operation Iraqi Freedom, some say this war isn't going according to plan. But our Jeff Greenfield is here to tell us that this sort of skepticism is nothing new. Good morning.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN ANALYST: Good morning. In fact, the skepticism may seem surprising but it is a very new chapter, perhaps, but in a very old story. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we were told we would then get the big picture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A seeming contradiction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are not hitting their targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lines that don't go off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you made the wrong decision?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What other options are there?
GREENFIELD (voice-over): Skeptical questions from the press.
GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We've placed ourselves in a risky proposition.
GREENFIELD: Somber warnings from the experts.
Isn't the country supposed to come together when a war begins? Isn't that part of our history?
Well, as a matter of fact, no. Whether it's right or wrong, criticism in wartime is an American tradition.
All through the Civil War, Abe Lincoln was savagely attacked as a fool, an incompetent leader. In fact, his first commanding general, George McClelland, ran against him in 1864 as a peace candidate. And, but for victories by General Grant, McClelland might well have won.
All through World War II, FDR's political and journalistic opponents kept up a barrage of criticism. They attacked him for everything from wartime shortages to seeking special favors for his sons in the military.
His 1944 rival, Tom Dewey, said, "This is a campaign against an administration which was conceived in defeatism."
HARRY S. TRUMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are fighting in Korea for our own national security and survival.
GREENFIELD: During Korea, President Truman was attacked for pursuing a no-win policy and when he fired General Douglas MacArthur, Truman's foes brought MacArthur to Congress for a speech. Some Republicans even threatened impeachment.
In 1952, Korea, corruption and communism was the Republican campaign slogan.
As the war in Vietnam dragged on, the opposition grew.
SEN. ROBERT F. KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And together...
GREENFIELD: Senator Robert Kennedy broke with Johnson. Eugene McCarthy and then Kennedy challenged him in the primaries, and Republican nominee Richard Nixon made Vietnam a campaign issue.
He said in his acceptance speech, "If after all this time and all of the sacrifice and all of the support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership, not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past."
And once Nixon became president, Democrats showed no hesitancy in attacking the war, even speaking out at anti-war demonstrations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now, as for the press, at one point during World War II, President Roosevelt got so fed up with one New York daily news columnist, at an informal White House news conference, he presented the columnist with a medal, an Iron Cross from Nazi Germany.
I don't think we're going to see President Bush or Defense Secretary Rumsfeld doing that any time soon, Paula, but the second- guessing goes with the territory in a free country.
ZAHN: And it strikes me, the second guessing really began in earnest a couple days ago, when you look at the tone of the kind of questions that are being asked at these briefings.
And this morning was a perfect example, when Michael Wolf of "New York" magazine with his colleagues cheering him on basically said ABC News has pulled a correspondent out of here, because they don't think you're giving us any more information than we've already been given from the Pentagon. Is there any truth to that?
GREENFIELD: Yes. And I think there are two quick points to make.
One is today, some of the most hawkish of writers are starting to say that the Pentagon is lousing this up, including Harlan Allman (ph), who's a national security expert, who was one of the authors of the "shock and awe" theory. And he's basically saying they're not shocking and awing.
And you've got Ralph Peters, a retired military officer, who's written extensively about this war, extremely pro-war. Now we're turning to a theme we heard about Rumsfeld before 9/11, that the Pentagon thinks he doesn't know what he's doing, that he didn't put in enough guys.
What's different here is that the compression of time; the war's a week old. And you're starting to hear all this second guessing already, because everything is sped up in this 24-hour age. It's astonishing how quickly...
ZAHN: It is astonishing. And the admission that Barbara Starr pointed to only yesterday, that some Pentagon officials were admitting to underestimating the strength of some of these Iraqi paramilitary groups.
GREENFIELD: But you have to remember that, you know, if this had been World War II, for six months all the news was bad. German U- boats sinking American ships, the Japanese in all through Asia sweeping through unmolested. This is a week old.
ZAHN: Yes. That's a very important point to remember. Thanks, Jeff. Always good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 27, 2003 - 08:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, ANCHOR: A full week into Operation Iraqi Freedom, some say this war isn't going according to plan. But our Jeff Greenfield is here to tell us that this sort of skepticism is nothing new. Good morning.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN ANALYST: Good morning. In fact, the skepticism may seem surprising but it is a very new chapter, perhaps, but in a very old story. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we were told we would then get the big picture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A seeming contradiction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are not hitting their targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lines that don't go off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you made the wrong decision?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What other options are there?
GREENFIELD (voice-over): Skeptical questions from the press.
GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: We've placed ourselves in a risky proposition.
GREENFIELD: Somber warnings from the experts.
Isn't the country supposed to come together when a war begins? Isn't that part of our history?
Well, as a matter of fact, no. Whether it's right or wrong, criticism in wartime is an American tradition.
All through the Civil War, Abe Lincoln was savagely attacked as a fool, an incompetent leader. In fact, his first commanding general, George McClelland, ran against him in 1864 as a peace candidate. And, but for victories by General Grant, McClelland might well have won.
All through World War II, FDR's political and journalistic opponents kept up a barrage of criticism. They attacked him for everything from wartime shortages to seeking special favors for his sons in the military.
His 1944 rival, Tom Dewey, said, "This is a campaign against an administration which was conceived in defeatism."
HARRY S. TRUMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are fighting in Korea for our own national security and survival.
GREENFIELD: During Korea, President Truman was attacked for pursuing a no-win policy and when he fired General Douglas MacArthur, Truman's foes brought MacArthur to Congress for a speech. Some Republicans even threatened impeachment.
In 1952, Korea, corruption and communism was the Republican campaign slogan.
As the war in Vietnam dragged on, the opposition grew.
SEN. ROBERT F. KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And together...
GREENFIELD: Senator Robert Kennedy broke with Johnson. Eugene McCarthy and then Kennedy challenged him in the primaries, and Republican nominee Richard Nixon made Vietnam a campaign issue.
He said in his acceptance speech, "If after all this time and all of the sacrifice and all of the support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership, not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past."
And once Nixon became president, Democrats showed no hesitancy in attacking the war, even speaking out at anti-war demonstrations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now, as for the press, at one point during World War II, President Roosevelt got so fed up with one New York daily news columnist, at an informal White House news conference, he presented the columnist with a medal, an Iron Cross from Nazi Germany.
I don't think we're going to see President Bush or Defense Secretary Rumsfeld doing that any time soon, Paula, but the second- guessing goes with the territory in a free country.
ZAHN: And it strikes me, the second guessing really began in earnest a couple days ago, when you look at the tone of the kind of questions that are being asked at these briefings.
And this morning was a perfect example, when Michael Wolf of "New York" magazine with his colleagues cheering him on basically said ABC News has pulled a correspondent out of here, because they don't think you're giving us any more information than we've already been given from the Pentagon. Is there any truth to that?
GREENFIELD: Yes. And I think there are two quick points to make.
One is today, some of the most hawkish of writers are starting to say that the Pentagon is lousing this up, including Harlan Allman (ph), who's a national security expert, who was one of the authors of the "shock and awe" theory. And he's basically saying they're not shocking and awing.
And you've got Ralph Peters, a retired military officer, who's written extensively about this war, extremely pro-war. Now we're turning to a theme we heard about Rumsfeld before 9/11, that the Pentagon thinks he doesn't know what he's doing, that he didn't put in enough guys.
What's different here is that the compression of time; the war's a week old. And you're starting to hear all this second guessing already, because everything is sped up in this 24-hour age. It's astonishing how quickly...
ZAHN: It is astonishing. And the admission that Barbara Starr pointed to only yesterday, that some Pentagon officials were admitting to underestimating the strength of some of these Iraqi paramilitary groups.
GREENFIELD: But you have to remember that, you know, if this had been World War II, for six months all the news was bad. German U- boats sinking American ships, the Japanese in all through Asia sweeping through unmolested. This is a week old.
ZAHN: Yes. That's a very important point to remember. Thanks, Jeff. Always good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
