On July 3, 1964, Gen. Harold Johnson was promoted and sworn in as the U.S. Army chief of staff. At the age of 52, with the exception of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, he was the youngest officer to serve in that position. He also is the only Army chief of staff who had been a prisoner of war.
Johnson was a surprise selection for chief of staff; he was promoted over other, more senior commanders. He would serve as chief from 1964 to 1968 during the buildup and subsequent sustained combat in Vietnam, one of the Army’s most difficult eras.
Johnson’s story is a case study of an honorable man who served his country faithfully in tough situations, with challenging decisions about service and making a difference.
Johnson was known for great integrity and moral character. His strong Christian beliefs and humility set a powerful example for the entire Army. At times, when working late at night, his aides would peek into his office and see Johnson reading his Bible. Johnson also believed in officers maintaining moral standards, stating, “a man who will cheat on his wife will cheat on me,” author Lewis Sorley wrote in his 1998 book, Honorable Warrior: General Harold K. Johnson and the Ethics of Command. According to Sorley, Johnson emphasized the need for officers to have what he called “the 4 I’s” – “Intelligence, imagination, initiative, and integrity.”
Moral Character
His integrity and moral character were evidenced in a high degree of transparency in his methods and actions. While serving in Germany as assistant division commander of the 8th Infantry Division from February 1956 to August 1957, a German brewer gave Johnson a case of beer. He immediately sent it back, with the diplomatic explanation that he was not allowed by Army regulations to accept such a gift, according to author Mark Perry’s 1989 book, Four Stars: The Inside Story of the Forty-Year Battle Between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and America’s Civilian Leaders.
At Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as commandant of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and post commander from 1960 to 1963, he conducted his quarterly post management reviews in front of the class in session. This not only showed the status of post activities in front of a large audience, but also gave the students visibility on installation management techniques.
Johnson was competent and experienced, having led at various levels in the Army. He commanded a U.S. Army company in the Philippines. He then became a regimental operations officer in the Philippine Scouts before the Filipino and American surrender to the Japanese in April 1942.
In Korea, he first commanded the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, and subsequently the 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, in 1950–51. During his battalion command in the Pusan Perimeter in September 1950, he received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism.
After Korea, he served as assistant division commander of the 8th Infantry Division in Colorado and Germany, then was chief of staff of U.S. Seventh Army, followed by time as operations officer of U.S. Army Europe. He became commandant of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1960. After his tenure there, he was deputy chief of staff for operations at the Pentagon for a little over a year before he became Army chief of staff.
Vietnam Foresight
He accurately foresaw what fighting in Vietnam might require when he reported to President Lyndon Johnson on March 15, 1965, after a trip to that country.
Gen. Johnson estimated it might take five years and 500,000 troops to achieve victory and recommended that four U.S. divisions protect the South Vietnamese border with Laos, North Vietnam and Cambodia. He also advised that the Ho Chi Minh Trail be interdicted in order to stop Communist infiltration into South Vietnam. Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara confirmed this in his 1995 book, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. McNamara also praised Johnson, writing that President Johnson had “sent the best” to evaluate the situation in Vietnam when he sent Gen. Johnson there to assess what he thought was needed.
Johnson had empathy and humanity. He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and three years in Japanese captivity, first in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines, then in Japan, before being liberated by Allied forces. Throughout that experience, he practiced care for others and looked beyond himself, handling the distribution of meager food and water rations. He exchanged his West Point class ring with a Japanese guard for a tin of salmon to give to a fellow prisoner, according to Sorley in Honorable Warrior.
Johnson sought the best interests of the Army and his soldiers. In Korea shortly after taking command of the regiment in the 1st Cavalry Division, he visited his former battalion. Concerned over what he saw of the battalion’s tactical layout, he warned the battalion commander of the unit’s vulnerability to attack. As chief of staff, in July 1966, he created the position of sergeant major of the Army. He did this to gain a better appreciation at the highest level of Army leadership of what concerned soldiers; a sort of ombudsman who would be responsible for looking after people.
Open to Change
Johnson also showed that he was teachable and open to change. While he initially had misgivings about helicopters in combat, he eventually concluded they were assets in battle because, “On the battlefield, the helicopter is being used to give the foot soldier a victory over three of his oldest foes—time, terrain, and fatigue,” Johnson said, according to Sorley. Johnson added, “the real success of anything we do in the Army can best be measured in terms of what it does for the rifle squad.” He qualified this support with his observation that total reliance on air movement would not be wise, citing maintenance and weather as factors limiting aviation use.
Johnson also could see the essence of an issue and speak plainly to varied audiences. Talking to a college audience, he stated, “We accept the fact that there are degrees of victory and that each degree must be defined in terms of political, economic, and military objectives, as well as the aggregate price that must be paid to achieve them,” according to author David Palmer’s 2009 book, Summons of the Trumpet: U.S.-Vietnam in Perspective.
His tenure as chief of staff came during a particularly difficult time for the Army. President Johnson committed the Army to an expanded role in the Vietnam War while also refusing to mobilize the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve to support that expansion. Among the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Johnson found himself at odds with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay. LeMay advocated for controlling all aviation assets, including the Army’s helicopters, and forcefully pushed for a large bombing campaign against North Vietnam. In both cases, Johnson was skeptical, and the Army ended up keeping its helicopters.
Johnson also doubted that bombing North Vietnam would end its support of the communist insurgency in South Vietnam. He also believed that deploying troops should be a last resort in a conflict and done only after the civilian leadership had made an irrevocable commitment to victory.
Clashing With Leaders
Johnson’s most difficult dilemmas came in his disagreements primarily with President Johnson and McNamara on conduct of the Vietnam War. When President Johnson decided against mobilizing reserve component forces and declined to declare a national emergency, Johnson and the other service chiefs were stunned, as it was counter to their recommendations and expectations. The Army especially was hurt by this decision, due its dependence on the reserve component, particularly in the combat support forces. The failure to declare an emergency allowed soldiers close to the end of their active-duty commitment to leave, causing a loss of key personnel to units preparing to deploy to Vietnam.
Gen. Johnson and the other service chiefs contemplated resigning in protest of President Johnson’s strategy and conduct of the war, but decided against it. Gen. Johnson concluded that he could do more good staying than quitting.
Johnson served the nation in various positions in three wars, reaching the pinnacle of the military profession as the Army’s chief of staff. He led with courage, integrity and a concern for the state of the Army in general and the welfare of its soldiers. Johnson did this in trying times, ranging from captivity at the hands of the Japanese in World War II to combat in Korea to being chief of staff during the trauma of the Vietnam War era. May we all learn lessons from his stellar example.
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Lt. Col. Greg Lane, U.S. Army Reserve retired, is an Army ROTC staff member and instructor at Austin Peay State University, Tennessee. He served 24 years in the Regular Army and the Army Reserve, retiring as a U.S. Army Command and General Staff College instructor, 100th Training Division (Leader Development). He graduated from The Citadel, South Carolina, in 1981, and has a master’s in education from Austin Peay State University.