Category Archives: Medal of Honor

Commentary: Trump’s Foreign Policy May Dismay Critics Today, But Future Analysts May View It Favorably

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US President Donald Trump (right) awards the Medal of Honor to retired US Marine Corps Sergeant Major John Canley (right) for “unmatched bravery” in Vietnam in 1968. Those responsible for handling the record of his heroic actions wrongfully left it inert in official files. After decades passed, the forgotten record was found. The Marine Corps, the Pentagon, and Trump moved to honor Sergeant Major Canley. Presently, it is de rigueur in the US news media to pan Trump’s foreign policy decision making. In Washington policy circles, thinking is mostly negative about it. Perhaps in time, his efforts will be recognized as having well-served US interests worldwide.

In discussing of treatment of Trump by the media in recent posts, the aim of greatcharlie has certainly not been to simply compile its complaints with hope of discouraging the news media from freely expressing itself. After all, it is the moral duty of the “Fourth Estate”, the virtual fourth branch of government, the press, to speak truth to power, look behind the curtain. Offering opinions and judgments are not wrong. In the US, free thinking is a right. However, using the platform of the news media to promote a singular view or sentiment of an administration’s foreign policy is wrong. Even before the Trump administration began on January 20, 2018, the atmosphere was poisoned by exceptionally negative reports and commentaries about Trump from those known as: expert political observers; his admitted political foes, both Democrat and Republican; veterans of the administration of US President Barack Obama; and, other critics and detractors. If it were only a select few critics, perhaps it could be presumed that some strong psychological disturbance was the cause for their venomous reports and commentaries. However, the numbers of those in the resistance grew daily. Nothing about Trump was too small to find flaw with. Anti-Trump news media pundits were even willing to engage in fiery, banal, on the air colloquia over crowd size at his inauguration. There was an insistence by a considerable number of such individuals that a “resistance” against Trump had to formed. All of his potential decisions, works, and anything he said would be the target of vicious, and very often malicious, attacks. Commentaries and other opinion pieces via television, newspapers and magazines–the legacy platforms, and online, have been used to thoroughly question Trump’s intention and to depict him as amoral and proffer how that shapes his thinking and action. For the resistance, an important goal has been to create a divide and separate Trump from the US public. The strategic objective has been to remove Trump from office.

Still, Trump’s focus has not been the so-called resistance. While serving as US President, he is determined to create a country and a world far better for the US public, and will exert himself as he struggles to accomplish what he feels needs to be done. The Ancient Roman Stoic Philosopher, Gaius Musonius Rufus is quoted as stating: “The man who is unwilling to exert himself almost always convicts himself as unworthy of good, since we gain every good by toil.” However, in order for him achieve the maximum with his capabilities, space must be created for Trump that would allow him to construct something positive. Critics and detractors do not want Trump to have that sort of creative space. They have sought to essentially smother him with “slander, defamation, insult, vituperation, malediction, and curse.”

In hac re ratio habenda est ut monitio acerbitate careat. (Reason should be applied to this matter so that the admonition may be without harshness.) Certainly there are many reasons for critics to harbor such strong, negative opinions of Trump. Some critics have doubtlessly joined their bandwagon and criticize without any authentic feelings of despair about him or his administration’s actions. Theirs is a form of avant garde expression that serves to draw attention and entertain more than anything else. To that extent, the suggestion has even been made for greatcharlie to be more practical, and regardless of its own thinking on issues and follow the popular tact of examining the US president with bitterness. That will not happen, as greatcharlie will never subject its readers to essays designed only to gain its blog a place at the metaphorical “cool kids table”. Its readers are provided essays of varied, out of the box points of view, something different than they are getting everywhere else, with the main hope to contribute to the foreign policy debate. Hopefully, it may encourage some to question what are commonly proffered as certainties about current US foreign and national security policy,  If doing that will ensure greatcharlie’s popularity will be somewhat limited, so be it. Perhaps some solace is found in the fact that just because ones work is not popular today, does not mean one will not receive all due recognition later. When historians in the future look at the complete picture of his success, he may be looked upon more favorably and placed far higher among US Presidents than his present critics and detractors could ever imagine. Hyper-critical reports and commentaries today of his policy approaches, his techniques and methods, may very well become figurative dust in the wind. History is replete with examples of how the works of some renown figures were widely panned in their day and then extolled by future generations.

What should have long ago awakened the consciences of the many critics and detractors who attack Trump is the fact that he is a human being, an individual in a challenging position. Examinations of Trump are more akin to ruthless vivisections than commentaries. There are never any expressions of softness or sentimentality mixed in. As things usually wind up, it is discovered that the trouble critics predict will come from Trump is the trouble that does not happen. One may disagree with Trump, but that is no reason to tear everything about him to pieces, sully the Office of the President of the US in ways that will last beyond him, and disassemble anything left that was special about the office. Eventually, attacking Trump with such venom and adolescent exuberance will recognized by at least some critics as a mistake. Humans are humans and they make mistakes. An alert actually should have been sounded by conscience and heard by the body, soul, and spirit of all of his critics. It leads one to wonder whether their consciences have been seared, no longer able guide them on right from wrong or help them know how much is too much. Rarely have critics turned off their figurative  blow torches and made genuine efforts to be constructive, to support, to encourage, or to comfort Trump. Detractors certainly would have no intention to do so. Making things better would require authentically engaging Trump. Few are open-minded enough to do that or would want to be seen publicly doing so. One cannot solve a problem with the same thinking one used when one created the problem. Perhaps the more reasonable among Trump’s critics and detractors would admit that what they are doing is not designed to correct, but rather only damage and destroy. Once time moves on, their actions will stand as their legacy.

Perhaps some attacks on Trump are efforts by critics and detractors to contend with their emotions on: US policies, Obama’s departure, and Hillary Clinton’s election loss. Trump’s victory has caused them so much emotional harm that there is a desire to strike back, to take vengeance. There is the possibility that their varied attacks may just be projections of character flaws that critics see in themselves. This situation brings back the memory of lyrics from a song that greatcharlie learned in his secondary school years at the Horace Mann School in New York City in the late 1970s. The song “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kerry Livgren was performed by the then very popular Rock group Kansas. Some might conclude that the lyrics only tenuously support greatcharlie’s point here, but the mere knowledge of them should at least serve as evidence that greatcharlie was not always a fuddy-duddy. The second stanza states: “Masquerading as a man with a reason/ My charade is the event of the season/ And if I claim to be a wise man,/ it surely means that I don’t know.”

Many might disagree with the following statement, but the reality is that Trump has a wonderful brain. Those who can discern this regularly stand somewhat in awe of his thinking while in action. Facing constant waves of invective, even calumny, Trump has dug deep inside himself and always found a way. In his election campaign, he left his opponents, very qualified and capable candidates, trailing in his wake. Indeed, this stands in stark contrast to the notions of Trump’s alleged vacuity, which is more often deceitfully served up by a variety of angry, aggressive, envious, and ambitious sources camped in all directions. To secure and promote US interests worldwide, Trump adroitly makes use of “guarantors” of US power which include: its economic solidité, the grand puissance of the US military; intelligence services on the qui vive; trés compétent trade representatives and diplomats; and, various law enforcement branches that surveillait l’horizon d’un œil vigilant. To negotiate effectively and successfully in his personal diplomatic efforts with other national leaders, Trump masterfully utilizes a suite of skills, honed and polished after decades of business experience, Trump likes to have room maneuver, innovate, make rapid value judgments on issues and acceptable outcomes, as well as use his intuition and intimations and often combine issues, shape them in a way in the middle of talks that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Indeed, on the spot, a remarkable quid pro quo, can be realized.

Except for patriotism and his admitted desire to always win, personal feelings do not impel Trump’s official actions, no matter how his comments on Twitter are interpreted. He acts with logic and reason in the interests of US for both the present and the future. At times, very difficult and even unpleasant choices must be made, choices that can often haunt a president once out of office. However, as the words of Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign theme song explained: “You can’t always get what you want.” A decision on an issue is of no value if it creates more problems than it solves. It is not Trump’s intention to make decisions and moves that create more problems, some that may be beyond the sight and impressions of the US public, and then kick those problems down the road for the next president to hopefully resolve. Too much of that has already been done by his predecessors. Moreover, Trump understands well from his business experience that there is usually more than one route to get to a “desired destination”. An alternate route may take longer, it may not be an efficient way to travel, but one ends up in the same place, and typically in far quieter fashion. This notion is certainly applicable to foreign and national security policy issues.

It is apparent that brainstorming is a decision making technique in which Trump often initially engages on an issue with advisers and aides. As a practice, he clearly tends to stoke brainstorming sessions by making suggestions at the far ends of the spectrum. It has the effect of creating intense debates, drawing out explanations from subordinates of their perspectives of a situation as well the basis for their thinking on what might be best. Unfortunately, Trump’s suggestions for action from those sessions are very often leaked and taken out context. His words become the target of criticism, used as examples of Trump’s “extreme” or “dangerous” thinking on issues.

Sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum, securum; etiam si quid obstat, nubium modo intervenit, quae infra feruntur nec umquam diem vincunt. (Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.) If Trump can be said to absolutely control anything in the diplomatic and deal-making process, it is ensuring that morality is vested in his own aim. This is another matter with which many would likely disagree. The high standards of his own behavior in negotiations as US President are actually becoming apparent through the success of his diplomatic efforts. Trump is indeed measured and diligent in his interactions with other national leaders. However, what stands out is an honesty, and a forthrightness that opposite parties to negotiations pick up on. Trump’s morality does not serve as method. His morality guides him based on spiritual beliefs, tenets, and instruction on right and wrong received long ago. Trump has a need for God. His conscience may not be perfect, but it has neither been seared nor taken away from him. It may very well be that in the past Trump occasionally strayed from “good ol’ fashioned values.” However, Trump has made the effort to change for the better. Much as the iconic saints, high examples of Godly behavior. Perhaps to some, Trump may not appear to have started well, but he is certainly trying to finish well.

As with the blind men in the allegory of the 13th century Sufi mystic and poet Jalāl Din Muhammed Rūmī, The Elephant in the Dark, no two individuals will have the exact same view. One perceives what one perceives, and it can be difficult for one to convince another of a different opinion. Not even complete awareness of Trump’s successes on the foreign policy front would likely cause critics and detractors to surrender their existing beliefs. As greatcharlie discussed in two previous posts, “Building Relations between Trump and Putin: Getting beyond the ‘Getting to Know You’ Stage” and “Trump Achieved More at Helsinki than Most Noticed: Putin Is Not a Challenge for Him”, that has clearly been the case concerning Trump’s efforts on the US-Russia “front.” When Trump came into office, he had to contend with the legacy of the Obama administration’s work issues. Through its actions and reactions on Russia, for example, the Obama administration greatly polluted and obscured what was already a difficult path to travel. The Obama never put together the right recipe for working well with Putin. He acted on what compelled him personally and incorrectly assessed what would be immediate and long-term benefits and consequences. Indeed, the doors were left open to some aggressive actions by Russia. Seeing those openings, Putin blindsided him more than once. Examples included his actions on Ukraine and on the 2016 US Presidential Election. Obama was caught off-guard and did not have effective responses. Nostalgia is a selective editing of the past. Those who discuss how well Obama’s Russia policy was conduct are not recounting history but engaged in nostalgia. When comparisons are made between the policy approaches during the Obama years and the policies of Trump, memories are flawed. There really is no need for memory because the unsatisfactory conditions in countries and regions in which failed approaches were implemented are more telling of the so-called success than anything else. The failure of veterans of the Obama administration to acknowledge what occurred, the poor planning and disastrous results, has allowed them the wrongly perceived standing to suggest the Trump administration make the same errors in confronting Putin.

Homines libenter id credunt quod volunt. (Men willingly believe that which they wish.) Expressing anger may be gratifying for the psyche short-term, but it is a very poor substitute for the use of intellectual power to resolve a diplomatic matter. This is especially true in diplomacy. Reproaching competitors, opponents, adversaries on the world stage by nagging and striking out with repeated slights accomplishes nothing positive, even when there is some viable follow-on approach to transform the situation over which one is angry. Typically, it will cause the target of that behavior to lash out, sometimes unexpectedly, and in a disproportionate way. The odd insistence of Trump’s political opponents, that he is too soft on world leaders that they find loathsome, is not grounded in real world thinking. It is the same thinking that seems to support their freewheeling, destructive attacks on Trump’s domestic policies, likely hoping that by acting as early as possible, they can shape the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential Election. Seemingly lost in it all is the reality that the 2020 campaign will be won with winning ideas, solutions to problems concerning the US public, not bullying efforts to see if one could both figuratively and literally make Trump cry. Consilio melius contendere atque vincere possumus quam ira. (We can compete and prevail better through wisdom than through anger.

Opinionem quidem et financial eo loco habeamus, tanquam non ducere sed sequi debeat. (As for rumor and reputation, let us consider them as matters that must follow, not guide, our actions.) Nothing stated about Trump has managed to impede him. He sees himself as complete, competent, and worthy of the US presidency. Trump accepts that such will most likely be the course of coverage him. There is very little that he can do to defeat it in the short term. At times, Trump’s best efforts to remain disciplined in the face of the harshest invective and often childlike taunts, every now and then, he emits a reactionary expression of anger on Twitter. That more than anything else confirms that he is only human. The fact that Trump has not allowed himself to be debilitated by incessant polemical news reports, broadcasts, commentaries, speeches, and “resistance” marches has been a key element in his success. He has grown in self-confidence, in wisdom statutory, and in favor with average citizen. He has seemingly begun to glory in performing well in the face of opposition and persecution. Interesting enough, Trump has conversely become the torment if critics and detractors. Their souls were seared first by his election victory, and are further now charred by his mere appearance, his every word, and his accomplishments.

Within Thomas Paine’s extraordinary January 10, 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, is found the sentence: “Time makes more converts than reason.” If the cause for the refusal to acknowledge Trump’s achievements is simply comprehension diffidence, it is possible that the reality of his accomplishments will themselves challenge, knock down negative as well as hostile premises about Trump, not at the moment, but perhaps in the near future. This was the case for many great Western musical composers. Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Béla Bartók provide good examples. Contemporary reviewers of their work, so eager to offering a jarring, eye catching reviews, stated nothing positive, and seemingly sought to silence composers or convince audiences to reject their artistry. Those reviewers escaped the real challenge of encouraging audiences to enrich their perspectives by exposing themselves to what is new, different.

In August 1823 in London, Harmonicon published a trenchant review of Beethoven’s final piano sonata. The Harmonicon reporter declared the sonata a musical disaster, and cruelly assessed that the failure was due to Beethoven’s inability to hear. The review stated: “Beethoven is not only still numbered amongst the living, but is at a period of life where the mind, if in corpore sano, is in its fullest vigor, for he has not yet completed his fifty-second year. Unfortunately, however, he is suffering under a privation that to a musician is intolerable – he is almost totally bereft of the sense of hearing; insomuch that it is said he cannot render the tones of his pianoforte audible to himself. The Sonata, op. 111 consists of two movements. The first betrays a violent effort to produce something in the shape of a novelty. In it are visible some of those dissonances the harshness of which may have escaped the observation of the composer….” While it was true that by the time Beethoven wrote the sonata, he had lost his hearing. However, as for the quality of the piece, today it is recognized as being innovative and brilliant, well ahead of its time. Experts today point to the second movement that includes variations towards the end that resemble Ragtime, a music style that would be developed 80 years later.

On October 31, 1898, a Boston Evening Transcript review attacked Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony. It was the master composer’s final completed work. He died nine days after its 1893 premiere. In the review, the symphony is compared to the French novelist and playwright Emile Zola’s 1865 book, La Confession de Claude (Claude’s Confession). In his “experimental novel”, the main character destroys himself by remaining with a demimondaine with which he fell in love and sought to rescue. The book was banned in the US and the United Kingdom. The review also compares the symphony in quality to Tchaikovsky’s decomposing corpse. The review stated: “The Pathetique Symphony threads all the foul ditches and sewers of human despair; it is unclean as music well can be. One might call the Zola’s Confession de Claude set to music! That unspeakable second theme may tell of what Heine called ‘Die verschwundene, susse, blode Jugendeselei‘: the impotent senile remembrance of calf love. But of what a calf love! That of Hogarth’s lazy apprentice. Indisputably there is power in it: who but Tchaikovsky could have made the vulgar, obscene phrase powerful? The second movement, with its strabismal rhythm, is hardly less ignoble; the third, sheer billingsgate. In the finale, bleary-eyed paresis meets us face to face; and that solemn closing epitaph of the trombones might begin with: ‘Here continues to rot…'” Even today, some experts describe the 6th symphony’s ending as depressive, point to the controversy of its implied program. Still, most also call the symphony Tchaikovsky’s greatest musical work.

On May, 13th 1923 in London, a review in The Observer cruelly and severely attacked Bartók’s compositions as well as his abilities on the piano. The review stated: “”I suffered more than upon any occasion in my life apart from an incident or two connected with ‘painless dentistry.’ To begin with, there was Mr. Bartok’s piano touch. But ‘touch,’ with its implication of light-fingered ease, is a misnomer, unless it be qualified in some such way as that of Ethel Smyth in discussing her dear old teacher Herzogenberg – ‘He had a touch like a paving-stone.’ I do not believe Mr. Bartok would resent this simile . . . If Bartok’s piano compositions should ever become popular in this country, there will have to be established a special Anti-Matthay School to train performers for them, and I believe that it will be found that piano manufacturers will refuse to hire out pianos for the recitals of its alumni, insisting that these shall always be bought outright, and the remains destroyed on conclusion . . . .” Although many of Bartók’s contemporaries misunderstood his style of music composition, today, Bartok is generally understood to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He is renowned for being a pioneer of ethnomusicology, the study of different cultural approaches to creating and composing music. Thematic material from the folk songs of other cultures were incorporated into Bartók’s compositions. They were mixed with 20th Century classical music techniques.

Nam qui peccare se nescit, corrigi non vult. (If one doesn’t know his mistakes, he won’t want to correct them.) The foreign and national security policy of the US is in pretty good shape, but that would be difficult for some to discern given what is generally being broadcasted, published, and posted about it. Trump’s successes so far have been unheard of in the past. They seem like mirages, but his accomplishments are very real. To that extent that situation is very different, the US public can hardly imagine that their world has improved so much. Instead, many have a sense that there is too much insecurity in the world. Indeed, the world seems to be moving too fast for some, everything appears harder to control, and ones life, money, children, everything, seems transient. The world also seems to be a wilderness in which predators, in the form of telemarketers, government officials at federal, state, and local levels, and political leaders, ruthlessly exercise powers of manipulation, lurk. No one wants to become one of their victims. Such concerns among the US public have been tapped into by Trump’s critics and detractors. The negative monologue of their critiques and complaints about Trump is that he should not serve as US President. It is very easy to jump to conclusions about the thoughts, beliefs, motivations and actions of others based solely on one interpretation. The width of the spectrum of human behavior is great, one should not be perfect limited especially to the prism of those who are admittedly disappointed, discontented, and discouraged. They may very well be on the wrong side of history. On its own, the US public must recognize the unappealing penchant of Trump’s critics and detractors to more or less amplify this sentiment. The public will not be able to get anywhere near the whole picture until it gets clear of the destructive voices of critics and detractors which can be found everywhere and seek out, and take into consideration, different points of view; solid, well-considered reports and discussions that are positive and optimistic. (In that process, may God protect them from Russian operatives and operatives of other countries attempting to influence US public opinion.) Examinations and analyses that might look deeper and with some empathy with regard to what Trump is doing and why, will likely be more complete and far more edifying.

Book Review: George William Rutler, Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive (Scepter, 2010)

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Ambassador Vernon A. Walters, a US diplomat, general, and senior intelligence official, was one of the many individuals, now deceased, from whom some passing influence, some remark or circumstance, was personal enough, says George Rutler, to have made him something that he would not have been without them.

In greatcharlie.com’s book review of Robert Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), it was discussed that during his career at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gates likely came in contact with officers with whom dozens of stories of ingenuity, courage, sacrifice, and patriotism are coupled.  It was also noted that as Gates reached the senior ranks of the organization, especially the job of Deputy Director of CIA, his work at headquarters was supplemented by travels worldwide, to establish or ensure understandings and agreements the Agency had with foreign personalities.  Contacts with both renowned figures from the Agency and a multitude of others helped Gates develop a greater understanding of the world and other ways of thinking. We are shaped by those around us. In part as result of those contacts Gates’ counsel was remarkable and highly valued among senior foreign and defense policy officials and presidents.

In his book, Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive (Scepter, 2010), George William Rutler provides very intriguing stories of sixty-six individuals, all of whom have passed, who have influenced his life.   Rutler, a Catholic priest, explains that he did not intend to write biographies of these individuals. He admits that others could undoubtedly say much more about them. However, by writing vignettes, Rutler wanted to make the point that some passing influence, some remark or circumstance, was personal enough to make him something that he would not have been without them. It is quite obvious that Cloud of Witnesses is not a book on foreign and defense policy, and greatcharlie.com readers might question why it is being reviewed. However, as his book looks at the characteristics of individuals, some from the foreign and defense policy arena, to understand how they managed to influence him, Rutler’s work falls within greatcharlie.com’s objective of shedding light on players in international affairs and their ideas that have ignited events from the inside.

Reared in the Episcopal tradition in New Jersey and New York, Rutler was an Episcopal priest for nine years, and the youngest Episcopal rector in the country when he headed the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. However, in 1979, he was received into the Catholic Church and was sent to the North American College in Rome for seminary studies. A graduate of Dartmouth, Rutler also took advanced degrees at the Johns Hopkins University and the General Theological Seminary. He holds several degrees from the Gregorian and Angelicum Universities in Rome, including the Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology, and studied at the Institut Catholique in Paris. In England, in 1988, the University of Oxford awarded him the degree Master of Studies. From 1987 to 1988 he was regular preacher to the students, faculty, and townspeople of Oxford. Thomas More College and Christendom College awarded him honorary doctorates. For ten years he was also National Chaplain of Legatus, the organization of Catholic business leaders and their families, engaged in spiritual formation and evangelization. A board member of several schools and colleges, he is Chaplain of the New York Guild of Catholic Lawyers, Regional Spiritual Director of the Legion of Mary (New York and northern New Jersey) and has long been associated with the Missionaries of Charity, and other religious orders. He was a university chaplain for the Archdiocese. Rutler has lectured and given retreats in many nations, frequently in Ireland and Australia. Since 1988, his weekly television program has been broadcast worldwide on EWTN. Rutler has made documentary films in the US and England, contributes to numerous scholarly and popular journals and has published 16 books on theology, history, cultural issues, and the lives of the saints.

Being an outstanding scholar and theologian, Rutler’s counsel was highly valued among prominent individuals worldwide. Many of those prominent individuals are discussed by Rutler in Cloud of Witnesses. However, Rutler does not place any emphasis on their power and influence in their societies. By focusing on their power and influence, one would miss the point of Rutler’s book which is to discuss their pertinence to his development.   Emphasis also should not be overly placed on the fact that Rutler is a Catholic priest. Indeed, it would be mistake for a potential reader to view his book merely as a religious work. True, Rutler on occasion brings theology into his discussion, mentions God, and goes as far as to state about the individuals he discusses, “God in different ways blessed them. I have written about characters I have known and who impressed me because God in different way impressed them.” Yet, In Cloud of Witnesses, Rutler also goes further.   He also seems to examine them based on what Aristotle would refer to as their ethos (an honest use of talent), logos (an honest use of mind), and pathos (an honest involvement in the suffering of the world). Rutler does not engage in an exercise in flattery or criticism. He is forth-right about each individual. He looks introspectively at, and is appropriately candid, about his own past judgments and situations in which he might have learned more or could have acted differently.

Those individuals discussed in the sixty-six vignettes presented by Rutler in Cloud of Witnesses that had been engaged in foreign and defense policy or had served in the military were truly extraordinary people. Among them were Vernon A. Walters, James Charles Risk, and George Charles Lang, whose backgrounds alone are incredibly interesting. Rutler notes that Vernon A. Walters had served as an aide for seven US presidents, helped to shape the Marshall Plan, and served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, served as a member of the NATO Standing Committee, and as US Ambassador to the UN and Federal Republic of Germany. He describes Walters as a tee totaling, nonsmoking, chaste, bachelor, which made him appear as an ascetic James Bond with the added advantage of being real. Walters certainly appeared to love the drama of it all. As an aide to General Mark Clark in World War II, he entered Rome on June 4, 1944, giving King Hassan of Morocco a ride on his tank. He alone filmed Truman’s meeting with General Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island in October 15, 1950, and took only notes when US President Harry Truman fired the general. Among his silent missions included a visit to see Cuban leader Fidel Castro and smuggling Kissinger into Paris for the peace talks on Vietnam. Kissinger remained incognito in Neuilly. On one occasion, Walters brought Kissinger in to France from Frankfurt, West Germany under the pretext that he was the mistress of French President Georges Pompidou. When Rutler asked former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about Walters’s diplomacy, he labeled it as “flamboyant discretion.” Rutler, himself, found Walters to be an individual with bravery and integrity who conjured a brand of diplomacy that fooled many who thought his honesty was a clever deceit.

Other diplomats included, James Charles Risk, who Rutler described as an individual whose knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, protocol and ritual was not for amusement, but for purpose. Risk served in anti-submarine and convoy escort duty in the US Navy in the North Atlantic during World War II, and participated in the invasion of Sicily. However, in what Rutler refers to as an eccentric case of the Navy not wasting a man’s talents, he was ordered to write the administrative history of Mediterranean Naval Operations and then served on the Allied Commission on the Democratization of Italy. A protocol officer between the Vatican and the Quirinal Palace, he had frequent contacts with Pope Pius XII. He was present when the Communists destroyed ballots outside the Italian Ministry of Interior after a referendum on the monarchy, deducing that the US had allowed Interior Minister to fix the vote in favor of a republic. In addition to embracing formalities, Risk had a gift for establishing friendships and a love for intrigue. He would annually visit the deposed monarch, King Umberto, in Cascais, Portugal. Risk also befriended the Duke of Wellington. And often stayed with him at Stratfield Saye, England and attended the Garter Service at Windsor in a front row seat. Risk spent eleven days on the Trans-Siberian Express to a posting in Vladivostok, Russia as vice consul. He told Rutler of his experiences as a vice consul in Vietnam. They included going on a hunting trip with Emperor Bao Dai, who after holding a sumptuous banquet under a tent in the jungle, stood a relied himself before all the foreign dignitaries and their wives.

George Charles Lang was a Medal of Honor recipient. Having just become a squad leader, and rightfully deserving leave, Lang was leading his men in an engagement against enemy bunkers in the Kien Hoa Province in Vietnam on Washington’s Birthday in 1969. Having destroyed two bunker complexes single-handedly, with grenades and rifle fire, Lang attempted to cross a canal to within a few feet of the enemy. His troops suffered six casualties from rocket and automatic weapons fire from a third bunker. One rocket severed his spinal cord, but he continued to shout maneuvers in blinding pain. Two years later, Lang was decorated with the Medal of Honor by US President Richard Nixon. Rutler met this courageous individual away from combat and was impressed by his indomitable spirit. Lang produced a two volume set on Medal of Honor recipients which he painstakingly dictated. He promoted the cause for sainthood for US Marine chaplain Father Vincent Capodanno, who was killed in action giving last rites and had also received the Medal of Honor. Moreover, Lang displayed courage in peace, seeking peace within and winning the inner struggle of faith.

Of those mentioned who were not foreign and defense policy field were authors, royalty, philanthropist, scholars, theologians, and religious leaders. Here are snap-shots of a handful of those presented. Among the authors, Rutler discusses William F. Buckley, Jr. What Rutler appreciated most in Buckley was his effort to combat the devilish conceit that peace might issue from a concordance with evil. Rutler notes that Buckley engaged in that struggle with a tongue that was the pen of a ready writer and he was unusual among in that he both spoke and wrote well, writing over 50 books and 6,000 columns, plus filming 1,500 episodes of Firing Line. He often offered material help to those with problems from shaky mortgages to taxes and tuition.

Rutler encountered Robert Frost as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. Frost, as Rutler states, did not “warm my New England winters for there was a cold battle going on in him between a benevolent and even elegant God and the God of arbitrary anger and unmerited predestinations.” Rutler does not believe he was an atheist as often stated by others. Rutler perceives Frost’s grandfatherly benignity as “a calculus of charity in the face of all these deep questions about God that had no resolution ion the flinty recesses of as Yankee mind.”

Richmond Lattimore attended church in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, where Rutler was the pastor. Lattimore was a scholarly model for Rutler long before they met. Lattimore, known as Dick, kept himself, as Rutler explains, immersed in ancient Greek studies. While in the US Navy during World War II, he wrote Sappho and Cattulus, and translated Homer, Aeschylus, and Virgil for his book War and the Poet. After his monumental translations of the Odyssey and the Iliad, Lattimore as Rutler puts it “Englished” the Four Gospels, the Book of Acts and Epistles, and the Revelation. While in the hospital recovering from surgery, Rutler quotes him as saying that his doubts about the Faith had disappeared somewhere in Saint Luke.

Among the royals, Rutler described Elizabeth Windsor as an Edwardian lady, who had been called the most dangerous woman in Europe by Hitler and flushed quiet approbation over the postwar sunset of the British Empire. However, he notes that she never made a public speech until her 100th birthday. As a respite from the lifelong treadmill of public events in crinolines and ostrich feathers, always smiling through migraines and aching feet, she would spend “Cold Highland hours in trout streams.” Rutler valued his occasional discussions with her over tea, or gin and sherry.

Rutler met with John Paul II (now St. John Paul II), many times during his seminary studies in Rome. He states that only after a year of meeting the pope on a visit, his parents converted. Rutler explained that he did appreciate his poetry or drama, and supposed what sounded turgid was lost in translation, as is almost the inevitable way with verse. It was tempting to neglect his paradoxes as romantic flights, too. Yet, Rutler concedes, in the reflected light of those Roman years, those of us who heard him were like the man on the Emmaus road, wander why he did not notice the sunset when all the while he was squinting at a sunrise.

Rutler first met Blessed Mother Teresa in 1980 when he was studying in Rome. In conversation with her, she always gave the impression that she has all the time in the world and the one she was speaking with was the only one in the world. Rutler recounted that once he arrived at the ancient church of St. Gregory with his cassock disheveled having been chased by a dog over a wall. Yet, Mother Teresa gave the impression upon seeing him that it was the normal way to prepare for Mass. However, Rutler also indicates there was nothing humbug about her, and she could give orders much as a US Marine sergeant and her counsel was pointed, but not piercing.

Rutler explains that his friend Avery Cardinal Dulles was from a family that claimed a Civil War general, two secretaries of state, including his father John Foster Dulles, and an uncle, Allen Dulles, who was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He decision to become a Jesuit priest confused his Presbyterian family. Perhaps his greatest impression on Rutler was not his conversion, but his authoring of 23 books and 800 tracts that exercised the critical faculties of disparate theological camps. He encouraged Rutler’s writing, inspiring a book on the history of many hymns. Rutler described him as follows, While his physical architecture was likened to Lincoln, the man was discerned in the details: from his conversion to the Faith when noticing the first spring blossom on a tree, to his intimate regard for all the ranks of people, never wasting on professional dialectic time that could be better spent discussing cookies with a rectory cook.

Rutler writes that Jean-Marie Lustiger, as a convert from Judaism, seemingly made him an unlikely Archbishop of Paris. His life in the clergy was rattled by lesser men on every side for whom he was not enough of this or that. Rutler knew Lustiger from his visits to New York, and noticed, on those occasions, an eloquent sadness in Lustiger that was “too ancient for any one race to claim.” His parents sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, he was protected by a Protestant family in Orleans with whom in he converted to Christianity.  Rutler states that when speaking at a 1999 public remembrance of deported and dead French Jews, including his mother, Lustiger spoke with a voice as old as Exodus and as old as the first day outside Eden.” He knew the heights depths of man, as well as the deadly shallows, and spoke of modern superficiality as the sentimental seed of dire cruelties.

Reviews of Rutler’s previous books consistently express the view that Rutler is a great writer and uses language beautifully. One reviewer once stated Rutler’s command of the English language was unequaled and a lesson in writing as an art form. He again demonstrates his extraordinary expertise as a writer in Cloud of Witnesses. /he is brilliant from start to finish. The book is an absolute pleasure to read.

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) is an independent, non-profit organization that advances the understanding of diplomacy and supports the training of foreign affairs personnel through a variety of programs and activities. As part of its Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, it has prepared thousands of transcripts of interview recorded with US Foreign Service veterans. These oral histories present the realities of diplomacy to include thought provoking, sometimes absurd, and often horrifying stories from which valuable lessons can be drawn.   ADST’s efforts have been very successful and Rutler in many ways mirrored that success with Cloud of Witnesses. Rutler’s vignettes may not be biographies, but they are nonetheless histories. They tell the history of the individuals, warts and all, as they relate to Rutler and the history of Rutler, himself.

Perhaps by allowing moments of calm and peace, Rutler gave himself a chance to reflect on his life and find what was really inside himself. After reading his sixty-six vignettes, readers might find encouragement to take inventory. They might consider who it was that influenced them. As for younger readers, reading Cloud of Witnesses will hopefully lead them to think more deeply about themselves and others they encounter.

Cloud of Witnesses would unlikely have been included on the summer reading lists of greatcharlie.com readers before the posting of this book review. However, it is hoped that after reading this review, the title will be added to everyone’s list. This book will be difficult to put down. It is a book that readers will think about when unable to continue reading it. Presumably, for most greatcharlie.com’s readers, reading books on foreign and defense policy is de rigueur. Cloud of Witnesses will be a much deserved respite, but at the same time it will intrigue and will have value to those interested in foreign and defense policy. There is nothing disappointing about the book. Without reservations, greatcharlie.com recommends Cloud of Witnesses to its readers.

By Mark Edmond Clark