Colin Powell
Im coming to the end of Colin Powell's autobiography. Powell has had an amazing life - and it is an amazing life to read. The book is presented well - and Powell is personal - he gives a very good insight into what makes him tick. I will give you some samples - and they apply just as much now as they did then, afterall he *is* the Secretary of State.
In 1980 Powell was working in the Defence Department during the Carter Administration. His title was "Special Assistant to the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary of Defense".
During this time he was in the midst of such crises as the disastrous attempt to rescue 53 American hostages in Tehran. Operation Desert One as it was called, was ultimately a nail in the coffin of the Carter administration.
Powell gives us a great insight.
"I had never a whisper about Desert One. Yet, I had had enough experience in helicopter operations in Vietnam, Korea, and the 101st Airborne to be surprised at the way this operation had been conceived and conducted. Helicopters are notoriously temperamental. For a mission this demanding of men and machines, far more than eight helos should have been launched to make sure that six would be airworthy to carry out the demanding second leg of the mission. Desert One also erred in counting on a "pickup" team drawn from all four services and brought together just for this mission in which men from one service flew helicopters of others. Weaknesses in the chain of command, communications, weather forecasting, and security further contributed to the failure. There can be no question of the bravery of the men headed out into the Iranian desert. But more than bravery was required. Consequently, the mission failed, and men paid with their lives. Colonel Charles Beckwith, the Delta Force commander, said it best: "You cannont take a few people from one unit, throw them in with some from another, give them someone else's equipment, and hope they come up with a top-notch fighting unit."
"I would remember Beckwith's words in the future when it became my responsibility to plan combat operations at the highest levels. You have to plan thoroughly, train as a team, match the military punch to the political objective, go in with everything you need - and then some - and not count on wishful thinking. I would have rated Desert One's chances of success at a hundred to one, foolhardy odds for a military operation. And the failure may well have fatally wounded the Carter presidency."
"I also felt that the handling of this affair had been a public communications fiasco. I blew off steam by writing a facetious "Guide for Handling Disasters" that went as follows:
Release facts slowly, behind the pace at which they are already leaking out to the public.
Don't tell the whole story until forced to do so.
Emphasise what went well, and euphamise what went wrong.
Become indignant at any suggestion of poor judgement or mistakes.
Disparage any facts other than your own.
Accuse critics of Monday-morning generalship.
Finally, accept general responsibility at the top, thus clearing everybody at fault below. "
Hmm. This is *really* interesting PR work. Was Colin doing this during his infamous PR stunt at the UN?
1:35:15 AM 
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