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To rise in rank to the highest levels within the U. S. Army, one needs to have a sponsor. A sponsor is a senior level officer that essentially acts as a mentor, advising the more junior officer in terms of decision-making and things that he or she can do to enhance their profile.
Wesley Clark's primary sponsor in the Army was John Shalikashvili. We all know that General John Shalikashvili was apppointed as the thirteenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Bill Clinton in 1993, to succeed General Colin L. Powell. He was highly recommended for the job by Colin Powell, who Clinton trusted at that time. His excellent service in the Balkans also helped his candidacy.
What is generally not known is Shalikashvili's backgound. How did it come to pass that John M. Shalikashvili is the only foreign born officer to ever serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Why is Shalikashvili's backgound important to Wesley Clark's development as a senior officer? As will be seen below, Shalikashvili has a rather interesting view of the world, and because of his unique position as a mentor, that view was undoubtedly imprinted on Wesley Clark's thinking.
Some in this forum have become convinced through Wesley Clark's public statements that Wesley Clark is a liberal, and that Wesley Clark allegedly opposes the policies of the Bush administration. Clark has even stated that he was removed as the military advisor on one prominent television network because of the actions of those that support Bush.
I beg to differ with the public image being carefully crafted by Wesley Clark and those that advise him. Hopefully, the following information will cause others to question the motives and agenda of Wesley Clark.
A brief biographical sketch of John M. Shalikashvili follows:
John M. Shalikashvili was born on 27 June 1936, in Warsaw, Poland. He is the grandson of a tsarist general whose family fled Georgia after it was taken over in 1921 by the Soviet Union. The old tsarists were known as White Russians (as opposed to the Red or Communist Russians) during the Russian Civil War, and when they lost, they quickly scattered throughout Europe. Most Georgians fleeing Soviet rule landed in Constantinople where they very quickly realized that they were not that welcome. Three primary places became the new homes for the Georgians: Poland, France, and Germany.
In November 1922, the Shalikashvili family left Constantinople and arrived in Poland some time later. The tsarist general's son, Dimitri Shalikashvili, the father of John M. Shalikashvili, was already an officer in the Georgian Army and through a deal worked out with the Polish Government, immediately became a Polish army officer. He met and married Missy Rudiger-Bielajew, the daughter of former tsarist General and Count Rudiger-Bielajew, the former Adjutant to both Grand Duke Vladimir (who died), and Grand Duke Andrew, brothers of Emperor Alexander III. We now know that Dmitri's father and father-in-law were both generals in the tsarist army.
Dimitri was also a strong supporter of the rightwing political concept that the government knows what is best for its people, and he later participated with his Polish Army unit in a coup that established the dictatorial rule of Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935) in 1926.
It is safe to say that based on the background of both grandfather and father, John M. Shalikashvili grew up in a household that was rightwing, strongly anti-communist, and as Georgians, hated the Russians with a real passion. It should therefore come as no surprise that Dmitris' writings from 1920-1960 are archived in the library of the Hoover Institution, an extremist rightwing think tank.
As of this writing, it is not clear from the available records where Dmitri lived after 1944. It is known that John M. Shalikashvili and his mother fled Poland in 1944 as the Soviet Army approached from the east, and settled in Germany. In 1952, young Shalikashvili immigrated to the U.S. with his mother at age sixteen and settled in Peoria, Ill.
John M. Shalikashvili was a good student, earning a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master's in International Affairs from George Washington University.
In 1958, John M. Shalikashvili, age 22, was drafted into the army as a private and was accepted to Officer Candidate School. He graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1959, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Artillery. From 1958 until the collapse of the old Soviet Union, Shalikashvili was without a doubt a dedicated Cold Warrior. His political thinking is in tune with people like Paul Wolfowitz, Perl, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the individuals that surround the Bushies today. His career includes service in 1969 in Vietnam as a senior district advisor, Advisory Team 19, United States Military Assistance Command. He has also served in Italy, Korea, and Germany. His military education later included the completion of the Naval Command and Staff College and the United States Army War College.
This is the man that sponsored Wesley Clark and mentored him through the senior ranks in the Army. Draw your own conclusions.
To anyone who may be thinking that this post is merely a knee-jerk post from an ultra-liberal, let me just say that I've served as an enlisted man and an officer in the U. S. Navy where I spent most of my time as a Naval Gunfire Liaison Officer with the Marines at Camp Pendleton. I will admit to being a registered Democrat, but my political tendencies are pretty moderate.
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