Schwarzkopf encourages potential leaders to "take on the windmills"
Jenni Gilbert
Current Events Editor
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This unusual Monday evening found Langford packed with a wide variety of business suits, flip flops, dress skirts, baseball caps, Vandy apparel and the odd cocktail dress. All reaches of campus and community came together to hear tales of victory and success on the second night of the three-day IMPACT Symposium.
Concentrating on the events following Sept. 11, the IMPACT board invited both Schwarzkopf and New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen to speak on "The Steel of American Resolve."
IMPACT, with the support of Vanderbilt administration, has brought influential speakers to campus for 38 years, including such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Tom Brokaw, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Dan Quayle, Margaret Thatcher, Bob Dole and Colin Powell.
The symposium was originally created as a forum for the discussion of civil rights, and was meant to encourage dialogue and stimulate interest in political issues. It continues today as an unbiased presentation of global, political, social and economic thought.
Schwarzkopf, who retired from military service in August 1991, coordinated Allied forces as Commander of Operations during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. While serving in prior military efforts, including two combat tours in Vietnam, he received honors including Distinguished Service Medals from the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Since his retirement, he has actively supported conservation campaigns, cancer research and, along with Paul Newman, efforts to improve the lives of seriously ill children.
The General's discussion of leadership, or, as he termed it, the ability to "inspire people to willingly do that which they would ordinarily not do," was well executed, if slightly dry in content.
While highlighting such key values as competence and character, he emphasized the importance of his two secrets of leadership for the next century. Essentially, these are to take charge when put in a position of leadership and to always do what is morally right. "Take on the windmills," he encouraged.
When asked about the foolishness of the U.S. embarking on military action, he smugly claimed, "There are some people in this world that only understand one thing, and that's a smack right between the eyes with a two-by-four."
Near the conclusion of his speech, he became animated and clung to a U.S. flag near the podium for both emphasis and support. "This is you!" he shouted towards the crowd, pointing to the flag, "God bless you, because you are America!"
Although the message of his speech seemed at times to be a simplification of military values of honor and loyalty, the humorous quips and anecdotes marking Schwarzkopf's self-proclaimed "sermon" kept the audience at attention.
His topics ranged from college football quarterbacks to Army-Navy rivalries. "I can remember times when my morale was lower than a snake's belly," he began one wartime tale.
His criticism of Congress, the Pentagon and Hillary Clinton, as well as his comparison of leadership to pornography--"I know it when I see it"--were all crowd pleasers.
His explanation of his Grizz Principle of Leadership was, by far, the most comical reference of the evening.
The general described his 91 pound German Shepard, Orso, as Mr. May in the Purina Dog Chow calendar, and his 18 pound Wire-haired Dachshund, Grizz, as "a cross between a hotdog and a toilet brush."
Grizz, however, is as confident in his leadership as is Orso, because, as Schwarzkopf pointed out, he has never looked in a mirror.
"You are what you perceive yourself to be," said the general, "and Grizz thinks he's a 91 pound German Shepard."