Page 140 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

LEADERS ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS

impassable swamps. Two years later, the United States paid a ransom of
food and medicine worth $53 million to secure the hostages’ release.
Schlesinger berated himself for not speaking out, saying, “In the months
after the Bay of Pigs I bitterly reproached myself for having kept so silent
during those crucial discussions in the cabinet room. I can only explain my
failure to do more than raise a few timid questions by reporting that one’s
impulse to blow the whistle on this nonsense was simply undone by the
circumstances of the discussion.” 38
One who is not afraid to speak up and ask a tough question is Colin
Powell (WHF 73–74). It was August 3, 1990, and President George H. W.
Bush called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to
discuss the American plan to defend Saudi Arabia against Saddam Hus-
sein’s Iraqi forces. The Iraqis already had invaded Kuwait, and many
feared that Hussein intended to keep rolling until he had gained control
of much of the region, including Saudi Arabia. The United States and its
allies were not going to allow that to happen; it was their intention to
defend Saudi Arabia. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was
Powell’s job to inform the NSC and the president of all military options
toward that end. Powell put forward the military’s plan to defend the
Saudi border from an Iraqi invasion. Everyone agreed that the United
States was committed and that it was time to prepare the troops for
deployment to Saudi Arabia.
However, Powell was not ready to roll quite yet. During the Vietnam
War, he had been appalled by the lack of pressure put on political leaders
to give clear objectives to their military strategists. Before he could partic-
ipate in sending American troops into harm’s way in the Persian Gulf, there
was something he needed to know. Therefore, Powell asked this question
of those assembled that day: Is it worth going to war to liberate Kuwait?
Powell immediately detected a chill in the room. Apparently he had over-
stepped his bounds. No one answered his question before the meeting
adjourned. Afterward, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney chastised Powell,
reminding him that he was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, not the sec-
retary of state or the national security advisor or the secretary of defense,
and told him to attend to military matters, not policy. However, Powell

38 Irving L. Janis, “Groupthink,” Psychology Today, November 1971, p. 74.

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