Another President General
Read Also Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3
The shadowy machinations in Pakistan bring to mind another time and place where a President who had also been a General acted decisively to enforce a Court Order. The President was General (retd.) Eisenhower dealing with a crisis that started almost exactly fifty years ago today. The Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Orval Faubus, was determined to prevent black children from attending the same school as white children. In a bit of political grandstanding, he personally blocked the entrance to the school in Little Rock Arkansas to prevent the Federal Marshals from carrying out an order of the supreme Court (in Brown v. Topeka) to integrate schools.
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| Eisenhower and Faubus |
The Federal Government obtained an injunction (in Faubus vs United States), requiring the Governor and the Arkansas National Guard under his command to obey the law. Ike told Faubus in a telegram
When I became President, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. The only assurance I can give you is that the Federal Constitution will be upheld by me by every legal means in my command.
A tense standoff ensued, with the Arkansas National Guard and an unruly mob that had been arranged by a friend of the Governor surrounding the school building. The President issued a proclamation ordering “all the persons engaged in such obstruction of justice to cease and desist therefrom and to disperse forthwith”. He send in the 101st Airborne division “not to enforce integration but to prevent opposition by violence to orders of a court”. He also took over command of the Arkansas National Guard invoking the emergency powers of the President.
Senator Russell from Arkansas, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to Eisenhower comparing the Federal paratroopers to Hitler’s Storm Troopers. He seems to have forgotten that Eisenhower had been the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces. Under him were more than ten million soldiers, the largest army ever, in fact larger than many nations. Eisenhower probably would not have guessed then what his last military operation would be like.
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| Paratroopers of the 101st Enforcing the Order of the Supreme Court |
The paratroopers held the hands of the nine black children as they entered the school. The school corridors were patrolled by armed Federal troops. The federalized Arkansas National Guard provided security around the school. It is probably not often that the Situation Report of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operation to the President of the United States contains such details of an operation as this:
Billy Ferguson (white student) received a normal three-day suspension for pushing Gloria Ray (colored student) down a flight of stairs. Miss Ray maintained her footing and was not injured.
The law was upheld in the end. Arkansas is a relatively peaceful place now. As Justice Breyer of the US Supreme Court observed, rule of law is not possible without the support of the Executive to enforce court decisions. When a visiting Russian paratrooper asked him what was his favorite case, Justice Breyer mentioned Faubus vs US. He thought that the paratrooper would understand that military actions actions have to be based on rule of law.
May be Pervez Musharraf, who is a commando himself, can take a lesson from it as well? Richard Boucher and John Negroponte who are directing the political theater of the absurd in Pakistan from behind the scenes, can also keep in mind the words of a telegram to Ike:
We the parents of nine Negro children enrolled at Little Rock Central High School want you to know that your action in safe guarding their rights have strengthened our faith in democracy.
Dictatorship will not reduce extremism, only aggravate it. When a leader upholds the law instead of scheming to undermine it, democracy is strengthened and extremism will be weakened.
Endnotes
1. http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/dl/LittleRock/littlerockdocuments.html
2. Faubus vs United States by Michael Tremoglie in the Philadelphia Bulletin Sep 17 2007
3. http://www.uscourts.gov/testimony/JusticeBreyerPay041907.pdf
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