On the Right

So Secretary of State George Shultz told the NATO commander-in-chief to shut up about his objections to the INF agreement, and here and there the flag was hoisted to our tradition that the civilian will rule over the military and not vice versa. They remembered President Truman telling General MacArthur to shut up and come home from Korea, the sooner to fade away. They remembered President Carter telling General John Singlaub, our commandant in South Korea, to shut up about Carter’s plans to withdraw all our ground forces there. It is, however, one thing to uphold the right of the civilian head of state to exercise his authority, as Commander-in-Chief, to rebuke and even to recall his officers in the field; but it is something else to assume that because he has this authority, he is necessarily right when he exercises it.

And anyway, General Bernard Rogers can’t very well be demoted inasmuch as he is retiring in any event. He is 65 years old, he has been Supreme Allied Commander of NATO for eight years, and he shows no signs whatever of stopping his criticism of the ill-designed, ill-fated agreement to withdraw our Pershing missiles from Central Europe in return for the Soviets’ withdrawing their missiles. As things currently stand, one hundred Soviet SS-20s will be taken from the Western front over to Siberia, where they will peer inquisitively over the politics of South Korea, China, and Japan; we will withdraw our 108 Pershings to the United States. Given their range of two to three thousand miles, they will prove handy if Key West or San Francisco should get out of hand.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

So Secretary of State George Shultz told the NATO commander-in-chief to shut up about his objections to the INF agreement, and here and there the flag was hoisted to our tradition that the civilian will rule over the military and not vice versa. They remembered President Truman telling General MacArthur to shut up and come home from Korea, the sooner to fade away. They remembered President Carter telling General John Singlaub, our commandant in South Korea, to shut up about Carter’s plans to withdraw all our ground forces there. It is, however, one thing to uphold the right of the civilian head of state to exercise his authority, as Commander-in-Chief, to rebuke and even to recall his officers in the field; but it is something else to assume that because he has this authority, he is necessarily right when he exercises it.

And anyway, General Bernard Rogers can’t very well be demoted inasmuch as he is retiring in any event. He is 65 years old, he has been Supreme Allied Commander of NATO for eight years, and he shows no signs whatever of stopping his criticism of the ill-designed, ill-fated agreement to withdraw our Pershing missiles from Central Europe in return for the Soviets’ withdrawing their missiles. As things currently stand, one hundred Soviet SS-20s will be taken from the Western front over to Siberia, where they will peer inquisitively over the politics of South Korea, China, and Japan; we will withdraw our 108 Pershings to the United States. Given their range of two to three thousand miles, they will prove handy if Key West or San Francisco should get out of hand.