General Norman Schwarzkopf: Addresses the West Point Cadets 1991

join me in welcoming general Norman Schwarzkopf please Lisi y'all have gotten bigger since the last time I talked to you I I distinctly remember the last time I had an opportunity to address the Corps cadets it was November 1967 and I was here as an instructor in the Department of mechanics which I understand is still the favorite Department of all of the people at least it was then anyhow alright but army had a great football team out here and they had been invited to go to the Sugar Bowl but as you recall in 1967 we also had something going on called Vietnam War a deadly serious battle that the army was very much involved in and for reasons and I think very good reasons the fact that the Secretary of the army then secretaries or felt that the frivolity of a bowl game was not important not really in keeping with the fact that soldiers were dying in Vietnam he decided that the army team would not go to the bowl game the week he made that decision I had been asked to speak in the then mess hall to the rally before the Pitt game it was significant that they were having the rally and the mess hall because up until we were going through the renovation and there was a tremendous amount of construction that was going on in the mess hall at that time expanding to another way and and so all the rallies have been moved elsewhere but this was the one rally of the year that was going to happen and they could have miss and I and of course been invited to speak and the afternoon I was getting ready to speak one of the rabble rousers came up to me and slipped me a note and it said major Schwarzkopf I just wanted you to know that tonight after your speech there is going to be a riot in the mess hall and we are going to tear down all of the new construction and oh by the way last night we stole all the sugar bowls out of the mess hall and they will never be returned again and I I began to really be delighted with the fact that I was going to be giving this speech before the rally to further compound my problems the kamidana cadet called me in and said what is it you're going to say tonight Schwarzkopf and before you say one word you better clearly understand that if there's a riot after your speech we're blaming you too you understand that I won't tell you the outcome but needless to say before I accepted this invitation I checked with the court and make sure there were no riots scheduled this evening and I expect to hold you to your promise one has to ask oneself what do you say to the leaders of the 21st century because that's what you are you are America's leaders of the 21st century I'm in the twilight of a mediocre career and in three short months I'm going because that's the army way and that's the right way because we can't have the top plugged up and block the upward movement of many many other outstanding leaders that are out there so what does an old warhorse and his last three months in the Army say to the leaders of the 21st century I've thought about this a lot but fundamentally it turns out that you are no different than I and therefore I think that some of the lessons that I have learned in 35 years in the Army are applicable to you who this year or next year or the year after or the year after are going to be leading the straight army of office and I thought I'd talk about him just a little bit first of all let me talk about the environment when I graduated we graduated in 1956 there weren't going to be any more Wars we had a President of the United States that was the last great military leader and he had adopted a military strategy of massive retaliation simply stated we told the world that anyone who dared attack the vital interests of the United States of America would be faced with nuclear destruction there were many in that day that were espousing that there is absolutely no need for an army we ought to get rid of it expand the size of our nuclear weaponry expand the size of our Air Force but ground battles will never be fought again I've been to war four times since then and I've been to war in four places that in 1956 no one absolutely no one would have ever predicted that we would go to war I can remember when I was a plebe there was something going on over in a place called yen Binh Phu and I don't really remember very well what it was because I wasn't interested in that after all who cared about a tiny little place way over in Southeast Asia someplace and when the NBN poo fell it didn't even impress us a couple of left-wing commie pinko social science instructors tried to get us interested [Applause] [Music] but of course we all knew what their politics were so we didn't pay any attention to them and certainly certainly we didn't know where Grenada was matter of fact when I was told I was going to Grenada I said that's great I've always wanted to go to Spain and there was a philosophy in the world at that time and particularly particularly in the United States of America that the United States of America would never ever ever get involved in a major ground war in the Middle East never and that's the environment that we the class of 56 graduated to a man with far more eloquent than I will ever have stood outside Washington Hall a few years ago and told the Corps of Cadets that ours is the profession of arms and told us that our mission would never change our mission was to fight our nation's Wars and he also told us that we could not fail in that mission I would tell you that there were many many hours during the planning for a Desert Storm that those words gave me great strength because they are basic truth about the United States Military Academy West Point and the long gray line you you out here will lead the thunder and lightning of this country in some future conflict history has proven to all of us that in your careers there will be another war and you will be the leaders so what about that a lot of people are calling the war that we just won the video game wars a lot of people are talking about the great technology but they've been talking about that since the day we graduate in the final analysis you should never forget that the airplanes don't fly the tanks don't run the ships don't sail the missiles don't fire unless the sons and daughters of America make them do it just that simple so entrusted to you the mothers and fathers of America will give you their sons and daughters and they will hand you their sons and daughters with confidence in you the leaders of the 21st century that you will not needlessly waste their lives and you dare not absolutely dare not and that's the burden that the mantle of leadership places upon you and it's lonesome let me tell you it's terribly terribly lonesome to realize that you could be the person that gives the orders it will bring about the death of thousands and thousands of young men and women whose lives have been placed in your hands it is an awesome responsibility and one that you must prepare yourself for and as MacArthur said you have no choice when that man live leadership has put on your salt childrens you cannot fail you dare not fail because this entire nation will depend upon you at that time what kind of a leader must a leader of the 21st century be you know they're having a big discussion about this in America today they're talking about how the army turned itself around how we changed and they're saying that because there's such a terrible lack of leadership at American industry today that perhaps the army should be studied to find out what our secret formula was that caused us to change the way we did business and get rid of all those lousy incompetent leaders that we had out there and come up with some leaders that could finally win a war I suppose we didn't lose in Vietnam not militarily I gotta tell you I never I never was in a single battle in Vietnam that we lost not a one Matta back we'd kicked the hell out of a BC on the NBA and every battle I was ever in well we did lose something in Vietnam we lost our integrity it was a terrible erosion of integrity within our leadership in Vietnam not everybody I'm not condemning everyone but I am saying that as a fact of life and we just just could not allow that to continue and you can't let it happen on your watch to be a 21st century leader you must have two things competence and character I've met a lot of leaders that were very very competent but they didn't have character and for every job they did well in the army they sought reward in the form of promotions in the form of awards and decorations in the form of getting ahead at the expense of somebody else in the form of another piece of paper that awarded them another degree and the only reason why they wanted that it was because that was a sure over too fast a promotion to somehow get to the top you see these were very competent people but they lacked character on the other hand I've had a lot of leaders out there who had superb character but they weren't willing they weren't willing to hold their own feet to the fire they weren't willing to pay the price of leadership they were not willing to go the extra mile to do the extra little bit because that's what it took to be a great leader and none of those leaders are with us none of those leaders would lead in battle because the bottom line to everything is again when you lead in battle when you lead in battle you are leading people you are leading human beings I've seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw it as a platoon but I've seen great leaders who stood in front of a platoon and saw it as 44 individuals each of whom has their hopes each of whom has our aspirations each of whom wants to live each of who wants to do good people don't join the military to do poorly nobody goes downtown and says gee I think I'll enlist in the army so I can screw up it'll do that they say I think I will enlist in the army because I want to do better and if they fail their leader fails so you must have competence and you must have character and some great man once said that character in a man is only seen a man or woman excuse me but character is only seen in a man or woman when nobody is watching them it's not what a man or woman does when they're being watched it demonstrates their character it's what they do when they are not being watched it demonstrates their true character and that's sort of what it's all about you are going to be the leaders of the 21st century and to lead in the 21st century to take soldiers sailors airmen Marines Coast Guardsmen into battle you will be required to have both competence and character and you say how do I do that how do I do that the answer is very simple and I guess this is what I really want to tell you most of all you're being taught every day here at this great institution how to do that I have a classmate well short fellow Jewish comes from New Jersey was what we call in the Army late bloomer but heroes the miraculous head of general one of those is one of the most ethical and moral people I've ever met and I was discussing with him one day what it is that gave him his great character and he said norm s easy he said you know when I went to West Point I was one of those guys that really believed what they told us up there and I still do out there among you there the cynics they're the people that scoff at what you're learning here is the people that scoff at character they're the people that scoff at hard work but they don't know what they're talking about let me tell you and I can assure you that when the going gets tough and your country needs them they're not going to be there they will not be there but you will what's the magic formula after Vietnam we had a whole cottage industry developed centered basically in Washington DC that consisted of a bunch of military ferries that had never been shot at at anger who felt fully qualified to comment along the leadership abilities of all of the leaders of the United States Army they were not Monday morning quarterbacks they were the worst of all possible kind they were Friday afternoon quarterbacks they felt qualified to criticize us before the game was even played and they talked about great operational concepts and plans and maneuvers never understanding never understanding that when the battle is finally fought the plan goes out the window when you cross the line of departure because there's always some son-of-a-bitch in this choreographed dance that you have planned who climbs out of the orchestra pit with a bayonet and chases you around the stage [Applause] and they're the same ones who were saying my goodness we have a terrible problem in the Armed Forces because there are no more leaders out there there are no more combat leaders where are the patents where are the eyes and ours where are the Bradley's where are the MacArthur's where the Audie Murphy's they're all gone we don't have any out there I say coming from the guys never been shot at in his entire life that's pretty bold statement but you see they were out there and they are out there and you will be out there because the patents and the Bradley's and the Audie Murphy's and the Joe Clemens they're not running around they're peacetime killing people I hope to hell it takes a war to demonstrate that we have these people in our ranks and our ranks are loaded with them they are loaded with them and you are going to be one of them when you join our ranks and if there's any doubt in anybody's mind or was any doubt anybody's mind they're sure as hell as many down now they could have took us 100 hours to kick the ass of the 4th largest army in world [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and how did we do it where do those heroes come from one more time they were you confidence with character that's what you must have that's what you're gonna carry with you from West Point those of you who really believe what you're learning here the hell will the sinning believe it believe it believe it believe it because you must believe it if you are going to be a leader of the 21st century military you must believe it if you leave here with a word duty and planned in your mind if you leave here with a word honor carved into your soul if you leave here with love of country stamped on your heart and you will be a 21st century leader worthy and I do mean worthy of the great privilege and honor that you will have whether it's a platoon level company level battalion level or gate level division level Corps level or theater level great honor and privilege allow of leading the magnificent young men and women with the sons and daughters of America who are the thunder and lightning of Desert Storm thank you very much [Music] [Applause]

Channel: ProDynamix

Views: 13,228

Rating: 4.8679247 out of 5

Keywords: West Point, Army, GoArmy, BeatNavy, Cadets, Persian Gulf War, 1991, Corps of Cadets

Id: 8-aytw--YUY

Length: 25min 19sec (1519 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2019