SOME THINGS ABOUT GEN. WESLEY CLARK

Here’s, here’s ten things about Gen. Wesley Clark. For all he has endured and achieved in life, there’s no doubting that this man is a star. He has a history that resembles being that of the Emanuel Swedenborg ‘school’ of thinking via military routes. A lot of his own life wasn’t known to him at certain points maturing. As you do the best with the knowledge that you currently know, Clark’s story is interesting. Here’s a few things about him.

1. Wesley Clark was born of the Kohen family line, yet he never knew he was Jewish until later in life. Clark was born Wesley Kanne in Chicago on December 23, 1944. His father Benjamin died on December 6, 1948. His mother Vaneta moved to be with her family in Little Rock, Arkansas at this point of Wesley’s family life. To protect Wesley from the Klu Klux Klan, Vaneta never revealed Clark’s Jewish heritage. When his mother married Viktor Clark Wesley took his name too.

2. Ancestry: Clark’s paternal great-grandad was a Jew of Belarus who fled to the US in the shadow of the Pale of Settlement and violence against Jews from Russian Pogroms. Wesley’s grandfather, Benjamin J. Kanne, was a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law who served in the U.S Naval Reserve in the position of ensign during the World War I years. Back in Chicago, Benjamin developed a passion for ward politics. In 1920′s America he served in local offices as a prosecutor. As a delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention - Kanne was part of the work that nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt as the party’s presidential candidate.

3. Religious belief: Wesley Clarke was named by his mother after Charles Wesley - the Methodist reformer of his mother’s faith. He chose to go to a Baptist Church growing up, and would later convert to his wife’s Catholic faith.

4. Education: In Little Rock, Clark graduated from Hall High School with a National Merit Scholarship as a member of the swim team. At 22, after entering the military at West Point, New York, he would go on to be a scholarship lad, a recipient of many, that aided his training. Some highlights of his educational trajectory are: he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he completed a degree in the Magdalen College school of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics & Economics. He would later earn a Masters of Arts degree in Military Science, with a thesis on gradualism (the belief that changes occur, or ought to occur, slowly in the form of gradual steps) of the Vietnam war. However, when at Oxford, at 24 a British cousin called him to tell him he was Jewish.

5. Military Career: 7 months into serving in Vietnam, Clark was wounded, being shot four times by a Viet Cong soldier with an AK47. While wounded he saw his son Wesley Jr, for the first time in hospital. He would later command a battalion of all wounded soldiers at Fort Knox, which he says, was the deciding factor that kept him in the military. Post Vietnam Clark served as a White House Fellow for James Thomas Lynn and John Marsh. He championed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. He served in Germany 1946 to 48.  Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig, took a shine to Clark, where Wesley served for a time from 78 to 79. He was awarded the Legion of Merit and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. After Germany, Fort Carson Colorado was where he was based. It was a glitch in his military trajectory, but later at National War College, while studying again, he was promoted to full colonel in 1983. He returned to Washington DC where he would later develop the Battle Command Training Program. As a result, he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1989. He commanded the National Training Center in 1989, responsible for training for The Gulf War. At Fort Monroe in Virginia, Clark served in a planning postas the Deputy Chief of Staff for Concepts, Doctrine, and Developments at Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Clark’s concern with the “digitization of the battlefield” saw him adding technology with battle thought and practice. The idea earned him a promotion to Major General in 1992. His stint serving at Fort Hood, Texas during the ‘Waco siege’ years, saw Clark receive a lieutenant general promotion. Lieutenant Denis Reimer was someone, who many believe tried to block Clark’s progress. According to Clark’s book, General Robert Scales said that it was likely Clark’s reputation of intelligence within the military was responsible for feelings of resentment against him from other generals. Despite these woes he was still named to the United States Southern Command and in June 1996 he was promoted to full general. Apparently, Gen. John M. Shalikashvili signed the order. Clark maintains he was not the first choice, but the first officer chosen “hadn’t been accepted for some reason.”

More coming soon… this is my homework assignment today.

~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 11.15.10~

November 15, 2010 | Categories: America | Tags: America, Gen. Wesley Clark, Military | 2 Comments »