Brave Decisions: Moral Courage from the Revolution to Desert Storm, by Colonel Harry J. Maihafer, Brassey’s, Washington, D.C., 1995, $23.95.
At the 1996 U.S. Naval Institute Annual Convention, former naval Secretary James Webb aroused passions by asking, “What admiral has had the courage to risk his own career by putting his stars on the table and defending the integrity of the process and of his people?” This is a hard world; professional principles of honor and duty are absolutes for military men with the right stuff.
In Brave Decisions, Colonel Harry J. Maihafer has given us 15 examples of what Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) in his foreword calls “moral bravery…unsung actions that transpired not in plain view on a battlefield, in the skies, or on the seas, but that occurred quietly in the hearts and minds of military decision makers.” Famous exemplars include Ulysses S. Grant, financially strapped, but putting it all on the line to lead a regimental trek across a cholera-ridden Panama in 1852; Robert E. Lee, forfeiting advancement in the U.S. Army out of loyalty to his state in 1861; Billy Mitchell, promoting air power, and losing the verdict of a court-martial, but not of history; Douglas MacArthur, entering conquered Japan without a heavy guard; and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., refusing to initiate the ground offensive during Operation Desert Storm until sufficient force was in place.
A value of the book is that some less familiar figures are also included, such as Patrick O’Rorke, colonel of the 140th New York Volunteers at Gettysburg, who disobeyed standing orders to reinforce Little Round Top; or Lucius Clay, resisting the Soviet blockade of Berlin by mounting the great airlift on his own authority.
What all the entries have in common is the concept of the defining moment of individual assertion against accepted consensus, be it courage in the face of adversity, or in the face of senior commanders’ opposition. In an age of what Maihafer calls “antiheroes, questionable morality, and challenges to personal values,” this book is timely.
Roderick S. Speer
