Presidential Leadership in Crisis

Defining Moments of the Modern Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Donald Trump

Kenneth Walsh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000768947
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica

Crises pose a challenge to leaders beyond any other tests they confront. In this comprehensive and timely book, veteran journalist Kenneth T. Walsh offers a probing look at how presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Donald Trump dealt with crises they faced. Including domestic as well as international issues and assassination attempts, this book stands apart from other accounts of presidents in crisis. Walsh is in search of lessons we can learn, and his findings focus on the presidential attributes and skills that matter most in trying times. This expertly crafted, elegantly written book is appropriate for a variety of college courses and will find its way onto the reading lists of ambitious politicians and interested citizens alike.

CHAPTER ONE
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THE NATION’S WORST CRISIS

Abraham Lincoln met with Gen. George McClellan in October 1862 after the battle of Antietam. Recognizing the need for bold military action, Lincoln urged McClellan to be more aggressive in pursuing the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan balked and Lincoln eventually fired him—an example of Lincoln’s strength, resolve and flexibility during trying times. (Library of Congress)

Although this book focuses on the 14 modern presidents, one additional commander in chief must be included in the analysis—Abraham Lincoln. He managed the worst crisis in U.S. history and is generally regarded by historians as among the best U.S. presidents and probably the greatest of them all.¹

Of course, Lincoln was not a truly “modern” president. He was in office long before the era of the mass media that dominate today’s politics and culture. And it’s doubtful that he could even be elected today: his homely appearance, high-minded rhetoric and insistence on explaining issues in depth would not be widely appealing in a world where good looks, sustained personal attacks and over-simplification are central to national life, especially when it comes to elections and governing. He also served before the United States became a world leader, which vastly complicated the modern president’s job and may not have been a good fit for a man so steeped in domestic affairs.

But many of Lincoln’s leadership skills have stood the test of time, and his success in managing the nation’s ultimate crisis can still be instructive. He was, of course, president during the Civil War, which threatened the very existence of the Union and became a test of the nation’s fundamental values, notably its commitment to ending slavery and promoting social justice. His ability to end this calamity makes his crisis-management abilities of enduring importance.

What helped him succeed was, most of all, his vision: he was devoted to principle in setting goals but was flexible in finding the means to achieve those goals. He showed perseverance despite adversity. He demonstrated empathy even to his opponents. And he had the ability to explain his ideas in ways that the public could understand—in other words, he was a skilled communicator for his era, mid-nineteenth-century America. Lincoln summarized his approach to crisis management in a message to Congress on December 1, 1862, as the Civil War raged:

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.²

Michael Burlingame, professor emeritus of history at Connecticut College, wrote

His great achievement, historians tell us, was his ability to energize and mobilize the nation by appealing to its best ideals while acting “with malice towards none” in the pursuit of a more perfect, more just, and more enduring Union … No President in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no President ever accomplished as much.³

He succeeded in preserving the Union and ending slavery—his two overriding goals. “Because he understood that victory in both great causes depended upon purposeful and visionary presidential leadership as well as the exercise of politically acceptable means, he left as his legacy a United States that was both whole and free,” Burlingame noted.⁴

Historian Jean Edward Smith wrote,

When Gen. P.G.T. de Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861 [the act that officially started the Civil War], Lincoln was as green as any recruit. The United States regular Army numbered only 16,000 men, and a third of the officer corps, including a disproportionate number of high-ranking officers, were from the South. Lincoln was not necessarily left with the dregs of the service, but he had to fashion an army almost from scratch.⁵

After the fall of Fort Sumter to the rebels, Smith noted that Lincoln faced the ultimate American crisis when the governments of 11 Southern states tried to secede in 1861. “[O]ne man, Abraham Lincoln, stood in the way. It was his wise use of the war powers … that preserved the Union,” Smith noted.⁶

Lincoln at first deferred to his generals, but he became a rigorous student of military history and tactics, and he eventually emerged as a self-taught commander in chief. Relatively early in the conflict, he concluded that the Union Army’s senior officers didn’t have the will or the skills to destroy the rebellion. As a result, Lincoln took a more direct military role as the war dragged on. He was disappointed with one senior commander after another, including Nathaniel P. Banks, Benjamin Butler and Lew Wallace, and he replaced them. He complained that General George McClellan, his most important commander and the man with whom Lincoln was probably the most disappointed, had the “slows” and was unwilling to commit his army to unrelenting pressure against the Southerners.⁷ Lincoln gave McClellan a chance to lead, fired him, re-hired him and then fired him again.

“Not until the president discovered Ulysses S. Grant, and not until Grant came to Washington as general in chief in early 1864, did Lincoln have a leader ready to end the rebellion by destroying the Confederacy’s ability to resist,” observed historian Smith.⁸

Following the president’s lead, Grant told Gen. George Meade, one of his subordinates, in April 1864, “Lee’s army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.”⁹ This was precisely what Lincoln wanted. The president realized he had finally found a fighting commander, a general who would relentlessly pursue the Confederate armies and destroy them rather than simply occupy enemy territory or disrupt their supply lines. Grant wanted to absolutely crush the Confederate military, and he proceeded inexorably to do so.

HISTORIAN DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN said, “Lincoln surrounded himself with people, including his rivals, who had strong egos and high ambitions; who felt free to question his authority; and who were unafraid to argue with him.”¹⁰ Among them were Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. This exposed the president to many diverse viewpoints and gave him many options from which to choose. Goodwin added,

But you have to remember, the idea is not just to put your rivals in power—the point is that you must choose the best and most able people in the country, for the good of the country. Lincoln came to power when the nation was in peril, and he had the intelligence, and the self-confidence, to know that he needed the best people by his side, people who were leaders in their own right and who were very aware of their own strengths. That’s an important insight, whether you’re the leader of a country or the CEO of a company.¹¹

Lincoln shared credit with members of his team when there were successes, and he shared responsibility when there were mistakes by others, which made his advisers and supporters very loyal to him. This is alien to Donald Trump, who regularly takes all the credit for successes and blames others—not himself—for mistakes.

The most effective presidents were able to connect to the public through the media of the times, whether that’s through radio as with Franklin D. Roosevelt, or television as with John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and Twitter with Donald Trump. In Lincoln’s case, he used carefully crafted speeches that were widely publicized in the newspapers and impressed Americans with their clarity and vision.

LINCOLN’S RESOLVE and perseverance went far beyond helping him cope with the vicissitudes of the war. These traits also helped him deal with a profound personal loss while he was president. He and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, suffered immense pain when their beloved 11-year-old son Willie died of a severe fever on February 20, 1862.

Mary Todd’s grief was so intense that she tried to communicate with Willie in the afterlife by participating in seances or spirit circles run by self-styled mediums. The president didn’t believe in such supernatural contacts, but he went along with it because they seemed in a small way to relieve his wife’s emotional pain.

But his personal and political woes caused Lincoln to regularly descend into what his friends called melancholy throughout his presidency—today we would call it depression.

All this trauma makes the level-headed, steady leadership displayed by President Lincoln in fulfilling his duties and prosecuting the war all the more impressive.

IN THE END, Lincoln’s approach led to success. With Grant in charge of military operations and with new successes in the field, Lincoln was re-elected in November 1864. The president told a visitor to the White House in early 1865, “Grant has the bear by the hind leg” and was proceeding to bring about the final destruction of the Confederacy.¹²

The Confederates evacuated Richmond, their capital, on April 2. Two days later Lincoln walked through the streets of Richmond with an escort of only ten sailors, while thousands of former slaves pressed close to see the man they considered their savior. A week later, the rebel Army of Northern Virginia under the fabled General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.¹³

Finding a Moral Cause

When the Ci...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One Abraham Lincoln: The Nation’s Worst Crisis
• Chapter Two Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Great Depression
• Chapter Three Harry Truman: The Battle with Douglas MacArthur
• Chapter Four Dwight Eisenhower: The U-2 Mission
• Chapter Five John F. Kennedy: The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Chapter Six Lyndon B. Johnson: The War in Vietnam and Re-election
• Chapter Seven Richard M. Nixon: The Watergate Scandal and National Disgrace
• Chapter Eight Gerald R. Ford: The Pardon
• Chapter Nine Jimmy Carter: The Iranian Hostage Crisis
• Chapter Ten Ronald Reagan: A Matter of Life and Death
• Chapter Eleven George H.W. Bush: The Persian Gulf War
• Chapter Twelve Bill Clinton: Impeachment and Scandal
• Chapter Thirteen George W. Bush: 9/11 and the Global War on Terror
• Chapter Fourteen Barack Obama: Ending the “Great Recession”
• Chapter Fifteen Donald Trump: A New Era of Perpetual Crisis
• Epilogue
• Selected Readings
• Index