Nelson - The Life and Work of General Andrew J. Goodpaster

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Take responsibility and get results.

Andrew J. Goodpaster

There is no higher responsibility than that of the president and his advisors when making decisions about war. As Bob Woodward put it:

The decision to go to war is one that defines a nation, both to the world and, perhaps more importantly, to itself. There is no more serious business for a national government, no more accurate measure of leadership.

Few, if any, gained more firsthand experience in making such decisions during the Cold War than General Andrew J. Goodpaster (19152005). Goodpaster was a respected insider who participated at the highest levels of government in many of the most important decisions of the second half of the twentieth century. As President Eisenhowers staff secretary, he was the de facto originator of the National Security Council process and served as a mentor and role model to his successors down to the present day. In doing so, Goodpaster learned and taught best practices in national security affairs.

Goodpasters life provides a valuable case study of the importance of experienced soldier-scholars with high integrity on national security teams. More importantly, his approach provides a model that has remained relevant over periods of great technological and geopolitical change. Goodpasters example can teach us how best to think about complex national security problems that have no easy answers and the kind of collaborative leadership needed to get the job done.

General Goodpaster did not want this book to be written, at least initially in 1994 when the idea was posed by Ken Weisbrode. Goodpaster believed that biographies, particularly autobiographies, tended to be too self-serving. Yet, like General Marshall, one of his mentors who also had strong misgivings about biographies, Goodpaster wanted succeeding generations to share in what he had learned.

With this in mind, Goodpaster reluctantly agreed to a book, and I helped organize preliminary efforts at the Atlantic Council. We conducted interviews and compiled bibliographies of his work, but failed to produce a manuscript. Following these efforts, Goodpasters colleagues at the Eisenhower Institute who served with him in the White House launched another effort to produce a book. These efforts resulted in Robert Jordans biography, An Unsung Soldier: The Life of Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster.

In supporting all of these efforts and working with Goodpaster for nearly ten years, I came to understand why political and military leaders of seven administrations consistently brought Goodpaster into the inner circles of decision making. Goodpaster learned well from some of the best mentors and from unparalleled high-level experiences. In sharing what he learned, Goodpaster was quick to attribute ideas and practices to Marshall, Eisenhower, and others. Many of these ideas go back much farther and Goodpaster, by his example, served as a bridge connecting important ideas and ideals across generations. Indeed, Goodpaster had much of value to pass on to future generations and well beyond the Army.

Toward this end, my purpose in developing this book was to share what Goodpaster learned about best practices in national security affairs. To do this, I examined what Goodpaster said, what he did, and what he wrote. I also consulted with other people who worked closely with him in many capacities.

Each new generation of national security officials believes they are facing challenges of unprecedented complexity and uncertainty. In retrospect, however, all challenges are similar to the extent that they need to be well thought through. Goodpaster acquired this habit and practiced it over decades wrestling with such problems.

Adjutant, West Point, 1939. Official photo. Source: Courtesy of George C. Marshall Library

Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, 1969. Official photo. Source: Courtesy of George C. Marshall Library