Leadership: The Lessons Of Vietnam Forgotten
28th March 2016
Micromanagement, first seen during the Vietnam War when advances in communications allowed someone in Washington to communicate directly with commanders in combat, has reached new heights and is causing major headaches for another generation of battlefield commanders. The latest disaster is a combination of still better communications in addition to growth of White House staffs. In particular an advisory group like the NSC (National Security Council) has been overwhelmed many additional personnel, most of whom have only opinions to offer, not advice based on long experience. In the beginning, when the NSC was created in 1947, it consisted of senior military and State Department officials based in Washington. These original NSC members all had long experience in their fields and the president used the NSC for advice and to test new ideas. But over the next fifty years more support staff were added to the NSC and after the end of conscription in the 1970s fewer of these staffers had any military experience and even less understanding of how diplomacy actually worked. When the NSC got so large (about fifty members) that the staff seemed to be getting in the way some directors sought to reduce the size. But after 2001 NSC growth got out of control and is currently about 400 people. As a result the experienced people are so outnumbered that they are often considered “the enemy” by the inexperienced (in national security and diplomacy matters) “support staff”. The tail was truly wagging the dog. This type of NSC has become an embarrassment and seemingly invulnerable to reform. This mutant NSC is one reason U.S. military and diplomatic policy seems so random and aimless. No one in the government can muster sufficient support to change the situation and return the NSC to its original usefulness.