The Moments

[Daveparts]

There are the moments, the moments that’s define us and define history. Sometimes we choose them and sometimes they choose us. But most of what we call military or political genius is in knowing when the moment has come and in seizing it.

Waterloo, little round top, Normandy, Bastogne, Tet are pivotal because they were the moments. George Washington’s came at Monmouth New Jersey after a series of disastrous battles and during his winter at Valley Forge Washington was sent baron Von Steuben a Prussian army general who some claimed was a fraud. George Washington was a haughty man who carried the reputation of being difficult to get along with. But Von Stueben carried letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin and the French ambassador.

Washington accepted Von Steuben into his camp because Washington knew he was in deep trouble and needed help. The moment was coming and if he failed not only would the revolution collapse but he himself would be hung or he would spend his the rest of his days on the run from the British crown. In what could be compared today with the Baker Hamilton report Von Steuben criticized and low rated almost every aspect of the American army including Washington’s leadership of it.

Putting aside his prideful nature, Washington invited Von Steuben to train the troops and the following spring for the first time in history the American army held the field against British regulars. A minor military victory but a giant political victory for America and Washington. The moment had come not on the battlefield where Washington had cashiered his senior general that day but in Washington’s putting aside his personal pride and bowing to superior knowledge.

Robert E. Lee had never wanted to fight at Gettysburg, it was a departure from his strategy of hitting hard and moving fast. He thought he could do that once again but suddenly he found himself in a set piece battle. And after little round top and Picket’s Charge he knew that not only was the battle over but the war was lost. The moment had over taken him and he never tried to pass the buck or to blame the failure on others.

On June 6,1944 Eisenhower had prepared two speeches, one announcing the success of the Normandy landings and the other announcing the failure and his personal responsibility for that failure. Eisenhower was a great planner and he knew that this was his moment, he knew that everything depended on his planning for every eventuality, even planning for failure.

The month before the landings Winston Churchill was panicked in a staff meeting and began to suggest alternate landing schemes. Churchill, who had seen so many moments, had been the author of the unsuccessful Dardinelles landings in the First World War was haunted by the possibility of failure. Like Washington and Lee before him the planning and preparation in case of failure was just as important as planning for success. Hard lessons learned, to never just assume that all would go as planned.

The great world leaders know it never goes as planned, never. Churchill’s greatness was in his ability to never stop thinking out a problem. Never to accept that this is the way we’ve always done it or to accept that it couldn’t be done at all. After the fall of Singapore Churchill explained to an angry Parliament, that it was his fault and his fault alone, as the man in charge. If resources were short it was not the fault of the navy or royal air but his alone. That any failings in specific individuals were his failings because he had put those men in charge.

Napoleon after the battle of Waterloo blamed General Nay for not attacking when he had the chance but Nay had respected Wellington’s abilities and feared a trap.The Kaiser had blamed the army after World War one, Hitler blamed the German people in the last days of World War two. The pride and inflexibility of the leadership that seems to go hand in hand with failure. Those the know it all’s who have all the answers and so don’t need to ask any questions and who won’t brook any criticisms.

All who have came up on the losing end have shared that same belief that their wars would be quick and their grand strategies would carry the day. They planned for quick victory not prolonged campaigns or what should be done in the event their plan failed. They believe that they controlled the moments not that the moments controlled them. They all led their nations to war on pride and willfulness and the supreme belief of their own infallibility.

But more than anything else they led their countries to war without necessity. Their moment came not on the battlefield or in planning for the battle but in not stopping the battle in the first place. Their people paid the ultimate price for their leaders pride and were forced to relearn the lesson that war is the result of a politicians failure. The moments will continue to come and it will always be to our credit or to our shame as to how we meet them.

Victory alone does not judge greatness, greatness can be achieved in defeat as well. The military issue decided, Lee rode into Appomattox to offer surrender for the welfare of his men to end the carnage and for the sake of the country as a whole. Even Richard Nixon in his disgrace resigned rather than allow himself to be impeached and removed. In his darkest personal moment he still held enough respect for the American nation to put us its citizens above his own personal pride.


The moments come, just as they came in America in 1776 or in France in 1789 or in East Germany or Rumania. The moment when the people rise up and say, enough! No violent revolution has ever come to pass without the failure of a peaceful one first, it all depends on the leadership realizing that their moment has come, and gone. A time to put the welfare of their people above their own pride, to attempt to rescue some measure of greatness by accepting honorable defeat rather than the infamy of forcing history to prove the point to them. To suffer a personal moment rather than by forcing us as a people to suffer a national one.