History Of Retired Military Dissent
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Kyra. To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information are arriving all the time. Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you today's top stories. Happening now, President Bush makes a pointed effort to defend his Pentagon chief, but can Donald Rumsfeld hold up under mounting pressure to resign? It's 4:00 p.m. in Washington where the Bush administration can't ignore a revolt by retired generals. Also this hour, Easter eggs and the culture wars. Gay families are hoping to put a new spin on a White House tradition. Is it a positive statement or a political protest? And the many faces of Bill Clinton now on display -- ex- president, self-proclaimed sinner, and preacher of the political gospel. Could first spouse be next? I'm Heidi Collins and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Hi, everybody. Wolf is off today. The cries for Donald Rumsfeld's head apparently got too loud today for President Bush. Just a couple of hours ago, Mr. Bush interrupted his Easter weekend stay at Camp David to issue a statement proclaiming his full support for his defense secretary. He's rallying behind Rumsfeld now that a half dozen retired generals have publicly called for the Pentagon chief's resignation. Our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield is standing by now. First up, our White House correspondent Ed Henry -- Ed.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Heidi. A remarkable defense of the defense secretary, President Bush deciding to issue this vote of confidence himself, not a statement from the White House press secretary, but from the commander in chief, interrupting his holiday at Camp David to do it, first in a phone call to secretary Rumsfeld, then in this public statement, the president clearly feeling this could not even wait until Monday. The course of criticism has just grown too loud so he, in his prepared statements, said in part, quote, "Secretary Rumsfeld's energetic and steady leadership is exactly what is needed at the critical period. He has my full support and deepest appreciation." Also noteworthy in this short statement, just three paragraphs, the president four times referred to the secretary as Don, a clear sign he still considers him a close confidante, not someone he is trying to distance himself from. Also noteworthy, this was released on the very first day on the tenure of the new White House chief of staff, Josh Bolten, taking over for Andy Card. A lot of speculation about the potential for a White House shake-up at the staff level, the cabinet level. We're told Bolten will not be going to Camp David this weekend. Instead, he's going to be moving officially from his office over at the budget director's office to the chief of staff office. He wants to hit the ground running Monday. It's very interesting, people reading the tea leaves, looking at the fact that the president has not put out such a full-throated defense of the treasury secretary, John Snow, who also has been embattled. Whenever we ask the White House press secretary about John Snow, we're told they don't comment on personnel moves. Clearly the president not hesitating about a personnel move or a potential personnel move. Commenting on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a clear sign he's sticking with him, perhaps in part because firing Don Rumsfeld would be admitting that mistakes have been made in Iraq. This is a president that does not like to admit mistakes -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Ed Henry, a lot going on, even though it is Good Friday. thank you for that, Ed. Secretary Rumsfeld also brushing aside his critics today. During an interview with an Arab television network, he was asked about the retired generals who are urging him to step down.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I intend to serve the president at his pleasure, and the fact that two or three or four retired people have different views -- I respect their views, but obviously, if out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round.</s>COLLINS: Secretary Rumsfeld says he's not surprised by the criticism he's been get getting from retired military brass. Should we be surprised? Well here's our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield to talk to that. And, Jeff, this has happened before, right?</s>JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Well, Heidi, is it all that unusual for retired military brass to criticize a war? No, but what does make the current dissent unusual is that the folks cheering on this dissent are not the usual suspects.</s>GREENFIELD (voice-over): Such dissent goes back at least as far as the Civil War, when President Lincoln fired top general George McClellan for his apparent unwillingness to fight. McClellan became Lincoln's Democratic opponent in 1864, running on a peace platform. Probably the most famous dissenter was General Douglas MacArthur ...</s>HARRY TRUMAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: General MacArthur did not agree with that policy.</s>GREENFIELD: ... who was relieved of his command in Korea by President Truman for publicly challenging the war strategy. MacArthur became a hero to conservatives. He addressed a joint session of Congress.</s>GEN. DOUGLAS MACARTHUR: That old soldiers never die, they just fade away.</s>GREENFIELD: He launched a nationwide speaking tour. He even tried to run for president in 1952. It was, of course, another general, Dwight D. Eisenhower who won and who became a hero to liberals when in his farewell speech in 1961 ...</s>DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Create a permanent, armaments industry.</s>GREENFIELD: ... he warned against the growth of a military industrial complex.</s>EISENHOWER: A military industry complex.</s>GREENFIELD: Indeed, civilian control of the military was a major theme of liberal concerns in the early 60s. The book and the movie "Seven Days In May" was about a charismatic general planning a coup against a peace-minded president.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know who Judas was. He was a man I worked for and admired.</s>GREENFIELD: And during Vietnam, most of the military objection to the strategy of defense secretary Robert McNamara was that was that he wasn't using enough force, was not committed enough to win. Retired Air Force General Curtis LeMay was especially vociferous, suggesting early on when it came to North Vietnam we should "bomb them back to the Stone Age" if they didn't lay down their arms. LeMay became George Wallace's third-party running mate in 1968. The current crop of retired military dissenters are not united by any one common objection. Some say the whole idea of the war in Iraq was wrong. Some think the execution has been flawed or incompetent. Some have held long-standing objections to Rumsfeld's strategies.</s>GREENFIELD: But now the people who might once have worried about excessive military influence are embracing the military critics of Rumsfeld. Why? Because they know that one of the strongest arguments in politics is that old street corner phrase, hey, your own man says so -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. Jeff Greenfield, we will be staying on top of this one, and in the next hour talk more about it. Thank you. This year's Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1st, but the fall-out from last year's devastating season is not over. A new report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general says the agency's focus on terrorism left it unprepared to deal with Hurricane Katrina. The report also includes 38 recommendations to improve disaster response this year, including speeding up and coordinating federal, state, and local assistance. We'll be talking with David Paulison and Max Mayfield more on that topic a little bit later today. Meanwhile, the newest assessment of FEMA's response to Katrina doesn't mince words. Our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton has the report on that. Abbi, what are you seeing there?</s>ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Heidi, it's over 200 pages long but the bottom line of this internal report now is that much of the criticism that FEMA has received post-Katrina have been warranted. The report looks at various aspects of the Katrina response, the housing, for example, those cruise ships. The cruise ship program that has been criticized, this report found that in the early days, it cost over $3,000 per evacuee per week to house them on one of the cruise ships what they call not necessarily efficient. It also looked at those debit cards -- remember those that were handed out to evacuees in the early days -- and found that in the first couple of days, over $22 million worth of debit cards were handed out with no program to find out whether the people getting them were actually eligible. Thirty-eight recommendations in this report. FEMA has responded to each of them, and it also says that they've received many critical assessments. They are looking to effectively respond to the recommendations in all of them -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right, Abbi Tatton. We'll talk with you again soon. Time now, though, for "The Cafferty File." Our Jack Cafferty joining us from New York once again. Hi, Jack.</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, Heidi. Here we go again. A Dubai-owned company wants to take over a British company that operates plants here in the United States that supply the U.S. military. A secret report on the proposed $1.25 billion deal has been sent to President Bush who has 15 days to decide if it goes forward. One of the plants owned by this British firm, Doncasters, is the sole supplier of turbine fan parts for U.S. Abrams Battle Tanks. The proposed sale has been reviewed by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States. That would be CFIUS. Its recommendations, though, remain secret. This deal follows an uproar that eventually scuttled another Dubai-state owned company's plan to acquire operations at six major U.S. ports. So here's the question. Should a Dubai-owned company be allowed to take over U.S. plants that supply our military? E-mail us your thoughts at caffertyfile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/caffertyfile -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Yes, feels a little bit like deja vu to me. All right, we'll check back with you Jack. Thank you. Coming up, the battle for Congress. Democrats are up in the polls, but it's a long way until election day. Can Democrats win back either the House or Senate? Plus, the bottom line of the White House. No, not strategy, but tax returns. How much are President Bush and Vice President Cheney worth? And later, it's an annual tradition at the White House, but this year, the Easter egg hunt finds itself smack in the middle of our culture wars.