James Henry Webb

Mention the terms "politician" and "Vietnam Veteran" to most Americans and they will easily come up with two names: Anti-war veteran Senator John Kerry and former-POW Senator John McCain. In fact there are two others often overlooked, Democrat Senator Thomas Carper of Delaware and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska . These four, along with a junior Senator elected in 2006 comprise five of the nine combat veterans in the U.S. Senate--the other four are all veterans of service in World War II.

There was a time, basically from the early 1800s until the 1980s, when military service was almost a pre-requisite for political office. Of the 43 men who have been elected President, 25 can claim veterans status and most were veterans of combat. From the end of World War II until the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 EVERY one of our nine presidents had served in the military in some capacity. In the 8 elections since the end of the Vietnam War only four veterans of that conflict have been serious contenders for the Presidency and only two, Democrat Senators Albert Gore and John Kerry served in Vietnam .*

Elections have dealt no better a hand to veterans of the Defining Generation in the halls of Congress. In the aftermath of World War II and through the end of the Vietnam War, the majority of legislators in both houses were military veterans. In the 110th Congress only 31 members of the Senate, less than a third, have any personal ties to the military (including National Guard and Reserve status) and only ten (excluding the 5 combat veterans) claim Vietnam era or post-Vietnam service. On the whole, World War II and Korean era veterans outnumber those of our younger generation. Figures for members of the House of Representatives are equally dismal with regards to veteran representation.

For veterans of the war that divided our nation the decision to run for public office seems today to be a minefield with hidden dangers; as it was in Vietnam one's enemies are often hard to distinguish from one's friends. The Internet abounds with articles written by veterans calling into question the loyalty and sacrifice of Senator John McCain and, despite the admiration of other POWs like Medal of Honor Recipient George Bud Day, he has consistently failed to get a consolidated loyal following from the veterans community in general. Former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle's National Guard Service during the Vietnam War era was belittled in no small measure by veterans of that war when he tried to capture the 2000 Presidential nomination of his party. During that same year Democrat nominee Senator Albert Gore, who did serve in Vietnam, was placed under a microscope and his service denigrated by some who claimed that as the son of a sitting Senator, he had received preferential treatment in Vietnam.

It is almost as if that war failed to produce the perfect political candidate. In 1992 Senator Robert Kerry of Nebraska , a Medal of Honor recipient who lost a leg in Vietnam , saw his service called into question. Unable to attack his valor on the battlefield, he was accused of committing atrocities in 1969 when he led a Swift Boat raid on the isolated peasant village of Thanh Phong . Twelve years later Senator John Kerry became the subject of scrutiny and the veterans community largely turned against him because decades earlier he had claimed that atrocities were being committed by American troops in Vietnam .

Three decades after the Vietnam War ended the United States was at war in a situation that, if nothing else, mirrored the Vietnam War years for the divisiveness of the cause back home. Going into the off-year election of 2006, by the end of October it was obvious that anti-war Democrats would most likely triumph to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was almost unthinkable that they could also capture the Senate, but remained within the realm of possibility. The balance of power seemed to hinge upon the Senate race in Virginia where former governor and now incumbent Republican Senator George Allen faced a challenger in a race "too close to call" on election day. The race was in fact so tight that it took two days before a victor could be declared. When the dust settled the winner who ultimately tipped the scales to give Democrats a majority in both houses was a Democrat, turned Republican, turned Democrat. Sometimes described as a complicated man to understand, he is actually a quite simple person to those who knew him best. He was not a chameleon who changed to blend in with his surroundings but rather, was a man for whom principle took precedence over politics and for whom personal responsibility was more important than party affiliation.

James Henry "Jim" Webb  is a born fighter who takes great pride in his Scots-Irish roots and authored a book in 2004 titled: Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. In it he details with pride how his ancestors have fought in every war in our Nation's history. Jim was born on February 9, 1946 , a true "baby boomer." His father James Henry Webb was a career Air Force officer who enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor and served during World War II. His wife Vera was the daughter of a share cropper who lovingly followed her husband across the United States and around the world, raising the family's four children. The life of a military man meant that Jim and his brother and sisters spent their early life growing up on military posts and constantly changing schools, moving, and making new friends.

The lifestyle alone demanded an inner toughness and occasionally an outward fighting spirit. Mr. and Mrs. Webb taught their children not to be trouble makers, but also urged them to never be afraid to meet trouble head on and beat it in the best Scots-Irish tradition of their ancestors. He would ball up his fists and dare his sons to strike them, and to keep striking in spite of the pain, building within an inner toughness. The boys learned to stick up for themselves as well as for each other, and engaged in an occasional scrap with their knuckles when necessary. Jim achieved the toughness and a willingness to fight that his parents encouraged, and he excelled with his fists both in the neighborhood where he was usually the new kid on the block and also in the ring as a Golden Gloves boxer.

The Webb boys grew up macho…Jim got his first gun at age eight and he and his brother were taught by their father to enjoy the outdoors and outdoor sports. Still, there remained a soft side as well. Although  Jim was not a boy who excelled at organized studies though he read a lot and wrote poetry and short stories. When his father deployed for 3 years and the family could not accompany him, young Jim slept with a picture of his father in his World War II uniform. "I still keep it," he says today, "to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make over and over again, as my father gladly served our country."

Mr. Webb never pushed military service upon his children but he certainly inspired in them a sense of duty. Young Jim dreamed early of a military career and imagined himself some day wearing the stars of a Marine Corps general on his shoulders. His personal hero was the legendary  hero of World War II and Korea , General Lewis "Chesty" Puller. His brother Gary eventually also became a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, his sister Patricia married into the Air Force, and sister Tama married Jim's Naval Academy roommate. Theirs was truly a military family with strong feelings about duty and the obligation to serve.

In 1962 after 26 years of night school, Jim's father, still in uniform, graduated from the University of Omaha . He was the first member of his family to obtain a college degree and went on to serve at Air Force Systems command through the Vietnam War and then as a legislative affairs officer in the Pentagon before retiring as a Colonel. The same year the elder Webb got his college degree, his son Jim graduated from high school in Bellevue , Nebraska , and then enrolled in the University of California on an NROTC scholarship. The following year, 1964, Jim was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland . His application listed thirty-three different home addresses in his eighteen years of life.

Recalling his first year at the Academy Webb said in an interview for PBS, "I have classmates who I met 10 years after we got back from Vietnam . Everyone was talking about post traumatic stress and that sort of stuff. And we'd sit down and we'd say, 'Do you have any nightmares about Vietnam ?' And people go, 'No, but I still have nightmares about plebe year.' "[i] He describes the experience as tough and demanding, but necessary to finding those who possessed true leadership ability. It was also a trade-off in achieving the goals. He noted that he was pursuing a mandatory engineering degree although he didn't really want to be an engineer. But the successful achievement of what the military wanted him to learn would pay off in what Jim Webb really wanted, the chance to lead American combat forces in defense of their country.

Although his father had become a vocal critic of the way Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara directed the war in Vietnam , prompting his own resignation partially in protest,  young Jim Webb had not developed an opinion on the rightness or wrongness of the cause in Vietnam . "I had no political views when I went to Vietnam ," he says. "I trusted the country's leadership. That was it. I was just a 22-year-old guy trying to learn how to lead troops."[ii] He studied the history of Vietnam while he also studied the nature of warfare. Regaled as a tough competitor he was nicknamed "Spike" and boxed for the Varsity Team. He served for all four years as a member of the Brigade Honor Committee and was one of six finalists interviewed for Brigade Commander during his senior year. He was one of 18 cadets in his class of 841 to receive the Superintendent's Commendation for outstanding leadership contributions.

Webb graduated from the Naval Academy in the Spring of 1998 at a time during which news reports from Vietnam were filled with stories of the massive Tet Offensive only months earlier, and the battle for Khe Sanh only weeks before when heavily outnumbered and surrounded Marines sustained a 77-day siege. While most of his fellow cadets opted for commissions in the Navy, Webb joined the minority that opted for commissions as U.S. Marine Corps second lieutenants. Before deploying to Vietnam the following year he was required to attend the Marine Corps Officers' Basic School in Quantico , Virginia , where he was first in his class of 243 officers.

In Vietnam Lieutenant Webb was assigned to a rifle platoon in Company D, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marines, of the famed FIRST Marine Division. His Company Commander, Captain Michael Wyly, made it a habit to check out his new officers upon arrival to determine their ability to lead by immediately assigning them to a combat mission. Recalling sending Webb on a patrol his first night in the An Hoa Basin west of Danang, he said that unlike the many other green young officers sent to him Webb showed no hesitation and was eager to go. Later that night when he heard gunfire beyond the perimeter Wyly figured his new platoon leader was probably dead but Webb showed up back at the base camp eager for more fight.

Wyly also came to appreciate an equally daring independence in his young officer, a willingness to go against the grain and question orders rather than simply blindly following them. Webb was not insubordinate but he was insightful and willing to put forth his own opinion. "He had the guts to come and say, 'Skipper, there might be a better way to do that,' " he recalls.[iii] Years later when Webb abruptly resigned as Secretary of the Navy in 1988 after clashes with Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, he remarked to reporters, "It's no secret that I'm not a person who wears a bridle well."[iv] As an officer in the Marines or an appointee of government, Webb was a man who did his duty but not without thinking, questioning, or offering a better way if he had a good idea himself.

Combat tested but could not break Lieutenant Webb. In a speech he called "Heroes of the Vietnam Generation" Webb recalled, "We had been told while in training that Marine officers in the rifle companies had an 85 percent probability of being killed or wounded, and the experience of "Dying Delta," as our company was known, bore that out. Of the officers in the bush when I arrived, our company commander was wounded, the weapons platoon commander was wounded, the first platoon commander was killed, the second platoon commander was wounded twice, and I, commanding the third platoon, was wounded twice. The enlisted troops in the rifle platoons fared no better. Two of my original three squad leaders were killed, the third shot in the stomach. My platoon sergeant was severely wounded, as was my right guide. By the time I left my platoon I had gone through six radio operators, five of them casualties."

Lieutenant Webb epitomized the terms "warrior" and "leader" with the very best characteristics of both. Perhaps however, his most defining characteristic was his absolute loyalty to the men who served under him. On May 9, 1969 , Company D set up a night defensive position and six men from Lieutenant Webb's platoon were sent 400 meters forward to set up a reconnaissance position in a tree line. When the small recon force was attacked by a large North Vietnamese Army force Lieutenant Webb organized a reaction force and led they into the contact zone to the aid of him beleaguered Marines. Under constant fire he rallied his men and led them one hundred and fifty meters across an open rice paddy to recover several casualties lying exposed directly in the line of enemy fire. Then, as his men laid down a base of fire he personally raced into the open to pull back the casualties one at a time. He then consolidated his platoon and launched a sudden and vigorous attack that completely routed the enemy force. For his actions he was awarded the Silver Star Medal which further noted, "His determination and bold fighting spirit inspired all who observed him and were instrumental in saving the lives of at least two Marines and undoubtedly thwarting the enemy's plan to launch a major attack against his unit's night position.

One month later on July 10, Lieutenant Webb's platoon located a well-camouflaged enemy bunker complex that they first thought was unoccupied. Webb deployed his men in a defensive force and then personally advanced on the first bunker, only to be suddenly confronted by three enemy armed with grenades. Webb grabbed the closest enemy soldier and brandished his .45 caliber pistol at the others, melting their will to resist with his fierce and aggressive action and all three surrendered.

After turning control of his prisoners over to others Webb and Mac McDowell, one of his men, approached a second bunker, calling for the enemy within to surrender. They refused and threw a grenade which landed dangerously close to Webb. The lieutenant detonated a claymore mine in the aperture of the bunker, killing the two enemy soldiers inside and exposing a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion, and heedless of the danger that other foes might be lurking inside, Webb conducted a search and recovered equipment and several documents containing important intelligence information.

Continuing his advance on a third bunker, he was preparing to fire into it when the hidden NVA threw a grenade out of it which landed close to Webb's comrade. Simultaneously firing his weapon, he pushed his comrade aside and shielded him from the explosion with his own body. Though wounded himself, Webb threw one of his own grenades into the bunker and killed the occupants. He was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds and the Navy Cross, which is second only to the Medal of Honor, for his heroism. When he returned home after completing his combat tour he had added to these one more Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars, making him the most highly-decorated graduate of the Naval Academy 's Class of 1968.

Jim Webb's dreams of a military career and a general's star were destroyed by the wounds he received in Vietnam . He was medically discharged in 1972 to rebuild his life. Despite the growing anti-war movement, he continued to be proud of his service. Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Vietnam Veteran who is Associate Dean of Academics for Electives and Directed Research and Professor of Strategy and Force Planning at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, wrote of him: "What most endeared Webb to me and many others who served in Vietnam was his unflinching defense of Vietnam veterans against the slanderous charges that have been leveled against them: dopehead, baby-killer, war criminal...you remember. Webb is the man who time and again stood on the front lines of the culture war that still rages between those who served during the Vietnam era and those who didn't, a culture war that played a major role in the recent election. He could always be counted on to stand up to the elites who peddled falsehoods about Vietnam veterans."[v]

Webb enrolled for classes at Georgetown University 's law school where he received his Juris Doctor in 1975. As an attorney he provided pro bono services to other veterans, including the defense of one Black Marine who was convicted of atrocities. Even after that Marine took his own life in 1975, Webb continued his work until in 1978 the man's name was finally cleared. Also in 1978 Webb's first book was published. Fields of Fire is considered to be the classic novel of the Vietnam War, of which the Houston Post wrote: "Few writers since Stephen Crane have portrayed men at war with such a ring of steely truth." It was perhaps that striking ring of steely truth and the unapologetic realism of Webb's portrayal that made the book a best-seller and a must read for every Vietnam Veteran or, for that matter for all veterans.

It was in 1977 that James Webb converted to the Republican Party. Earlier he had not had strong leanings to either side, though the roots of his family caused him to identify with the working class elements of the Democratic Party. He was disillusioned after returning from Vietnam to witness an anti-war movement largely tied to his party, but his "lot was cast" to the GOP on January 21, 1977, when on the second day of his Presidency Jimmy Carter fulfilled his campaign promise to pardon all who had dodged the Vietnam War Draft. "It was the last straw," Webb has said. "There had never been an amnesty program in history that gave blanket pardons to everyone. There were a lot of people back from Vietnam who kept trying to identify with the Democratic Party and it was like they didn’t want us."[vi]

The following year and until 1981 Webb served as Republican Counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. This was during the same period in which efforts were undertaken to design and build a memorial to veterans of the Vietnam War. When the design for what is now simply known as "The Wall" was introduced, Webb was among those who objected to the selected design that underwent nearly a full year of controversy. Webb did not object to a memorial to the war dead from Vietnam, but he wanted the memorial to also remember the sacrifices of the living…men like Dale Wilson who had lost both legs and an arm while serving with Webb in Vietnam but who had survived to return home to a hostile welcome.

In a compromise move that expedited completion of The Wall it was determined that a statue would be added at a later date. In 1982 the design for that statue was expanded to include the images of three (not just one) men, one white, one black, and one Hispanic. Webb was one of the leaders in the efforts to insure that it was a multi-racial memorial to all who served. His own combat boots became the mold for the statue and The Wall remains a poignant symbol to the man who once opposed it. Nearly every year Webb reunites with his former comrades, visits graves of fallen comrades at Arlington National Cemetery , and often leave a pack of Marlboro cigarettes for his buddy, Snake.[vii]

In 1980 Webb's conversion to the GOP was cemented when candidate Ronald Reagan spoke of the Vietnam War as a "noble cause." Fifteen years earlier in support of that effort Reagan had noted, "We should declare war on North Vietnam . . . .We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas." President Ronald Reagan restored a sense of pride, patriotism, and appreciation for members of the military from all generations, and in doing so endeared himself forever to Webb as a mentor and role model. In 1984 Webb was appointed as Reagan's Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. In 1987 Reagan appointed Webb to become the 18th Secretary of the Navy.* He was the first Naval Academy Graduate to serve in the military before holding that civilian post.

As Secretary of the Navy, Webb was concerned with the deterioration of the services in the aftermath of a divisive and unpopular war. He pushed for a bigger and better Navy and Marine Corps at a time when the official policy was cutting the military force. On November 23, 1987 , Frank C. Carlucci replaced Caspar Weinberger as Secretary of Defense and he and Webb clashed over reducing or increasing the size of the Navy. In frustration, only ten months after assuming his position, Jim Webb resigned. The formal delivery of his resignation is indicative of the fighting spirit of the man, even in a lost cause. He respectfully mailed his resignation to President Reagan, whom he admired, but flippantly left Frank Carlucci's copy on the desk of one of his aides. His departure marked the beginning of his return once again to the Democrat Party, though in a little recognized fashion at that time.

Over the years that followed Webb returned to writing, and to date has published eight books, six of which became best sellers. His Senate biography notes that he taught literature at the Naval Academy as their first visiting writer, traveled worldwide as a journalist, and earned an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut . In 2004, he went into Afghanistan as a journalist, embedded with the U.S. military. He has also worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter and producer.

While it seems politics was far from Webb's plans, it was something he could never avoid. In 1992 he supported Vietnam veteran Senator Robert Kerry's bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Two years later in an off-year election Webb's former Naval Academy classmate Oliver North challenged incumbent Democrat Senator Chuck Robb. Both men were former Marines and both had served in Vietnam --solid credentials in Jim Webb's view. But North cast suspicion upon the service of Robb, claiming that because he was married to President Lyndon Johnson's daughter Lynda, Robb had received preferential treatment and served only light duty. Such attacks against any veteran angered Webb who threw his endorsement to Robb. Even so, veteran status or party affiliation was not enough alone to elicit Webb's political support. Six years later in Webb endorsed Republican George Allen when he successfully challenged Robb's seat and, when Allen ran for a second term in 2006 Webb himself challenged the incumbent and won his seat.

If the changes in the man who went himself from Democrat to Republican and then returned to his Democrat roots, who supported Robb one year and then endorsed his Republican opponent before thereafter unseating him as a Democrat make Jim Webb appear inconsistent, it is most likely for failure to look close enough. Jim Webb walks a tightrope between what he perceived as duty and obligation--and a special sense of loyalty to veterans. Webb was the pro-Vietnam War veteran who editorialized that, "(Senator John) Kerry deserves condemnation for his activities as the leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War…(he) went far beyond simply criticizing the politics of the war to repeatedly and dishonestly misrepresenting the service of Vietnam veterans and the positive feelings most felt after serving."[viii]

Webb himself had once refused to even shake Kerry's hand and yet with insight he continued to note, as he put his support behind the Massachusetts Senator's 2006 bid for the Presidency, "Kerry's negatives, however, do not automatically become (President George W.) Bush's positives."[ix] Furthermore, while Webb understood the animosity many veterans felt for John Kerry as a result of his anti-war activism, even identifying with them, when unfair attacks were leveled at Senator Kerry's awards and the nature of his service was called into question, he found such dirty tricks deplorable. In another op/ed piece he wrote: "In recent years extremist Republican operatives have inverted a longstanding principle: that our combat veterans be accorded a place of honor in political circles. This trend began with the ugly insinuations leveled at Senator John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries and continued with the slurs against Senators Max Cleland and John Kerry, and now Mr. Murtha."[x]

Perhaps Webb's own thinking was best defined during a 2006 Campaign stop when he met the father of Donald Ryan McGlothlin, a Marine Second Lieutenant who was killed in Iraq on November 16, 2005 . McGlothlin's father explained that his son had supported the war in Afghanistan but opposed expanding it to Iraq . Before deploying he had told his father, "I would never vote for George Bush, but I'd take a bullet for him."[xi]

Such sentiment seemed not the least ambiguous to Jim Webb who had opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. While campaigning for George Allen's Senate seat, Webb missed one of Virginia 's most important political events, the Labor Day parade and associated activities. While his opposition in one of the nation's tightest Senate races worked the crowd, Jim Web was driving down the Interstate to transport his son, Lance Corporal James R. Webb to the Marine Corps post at Camp Lejeune , North Carolina . Two years earlier Jimmy, as the younger son is called, left his studies at Penn State to enlist and follow in the footsteps of his father, his uncle, and his grandfather.

During the week before his deployment to Iraq with the Sixth Marine Division, Jimmy and his father were joined by José Ramirez, a former marine who is the boyfriend of Jimmy’s sister Sarah, and Dale Wilson, the triple-amputee from his father's platoon. Just before the departure of the transport bus that was taking the marines to the airfield from which they would leave for Kuwait , Jimmy and his father and their friends gathered in the parking lot. Webb had filled a Coke bottle with whiskey, which he poured into four cups. The three older men raised their cups to Jimmy, who offered the final toast: "To those who went before me. And to those who didn’t come back……

"Now it’s my time."[xii]

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