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1. Prof Murray Report Posted 6/05/07.

Report to the Class of 1957 – May 2007

Williamson Murray

Holder of the Class of 1957 Chair

General Comments:

Let me begin by noting that this chair has been the most significant academic honor that I have received in the course of my academic career, which has included holding the Centennial Visiting Professorship at the London School of Economics, a Secretary of the Navy Fellowship at the Naval War College, and the Honor Professorship at Marine Corps University. In every sense, the Naval Academy has been a welcoming institution from the administration through to the Department of History. In respect to the latter, the history department has been of enormous help in smoothing my way through the administrative hurdles, while insuring that I have received consistent help in designing and teaching the courses that I have wanted to teach.

I feel that I have been able to make a number of contributions to the department. The most important of these has been as a representative of military and naval history in a department of history that covers, as it should, a wide variety of subjects and historical issues. Yet, given the Naval Academy’s mission to prepare young men and women for service as officers, military and naval history should be a major focus of the curriculum as a whole.

It is not that the department is hostile to naval and military history – far from it. Nevertheless, the Class of 1957 Chair has a duty both in his or her teaching, outside contributions, and advocacy to represent the history of military institutions, campaigns, and leadership within the department. This does not have to be done in a confrontational manner; in fact I think I have gotten along quite well with my colleagues even in representing military and naval history. But I have also made my opinion as to their importance clear. Moreover, I have also made every effort to represent military and naval history to the Academy as an essential element in careers of future officers in either the Navy or the Marine Corps. I would argue that this area should receive continuing effort and interest from the holders of the Class of 1957 Chair.

Teaching

During my each of my first two semesters here at the academy, I taught one of the sections of the plebe year “Naval History” course. I had a great time with the plebes, although I have several comments to make about the students and the teaching of naval history in the plebe year. First, and this is not meant as a derogatory comment about the Academy: fully one third of the students whom I taught were completely unprepared in basic geographical or historical knowledge to handle the demands of the course. By this I mean that they had been so badly prepared by their high school courses that they could not find the English Channel on a map or give the dates for the American Civil War within fifty years.

In the largest sense, the teaching of naval history at the Naval Academy occurs at the wrong time in the curriculum. Similar to West Point’s basic military history course, it should be a two semester course that emphasizes joint military – as well as naval – operations from 1775 through to the present day. At that point in their academic careers here at the academy, it will make an impression on them and begin the intellectual process of becoming a member of the military profession as a career.

I think that it would also be useful to have honor seminars in this two semester course, so that the best students receive a first rate education and understanding of the problems involved in the projection of military power, the conduct of military operations by U.S. military forces, and the ambiguities and uncertainties – Clausewitzian friction – that are inherent in the conduct of war. In effect, this course should represent the first step in the professional military education of future Naval and Marine officers – a starting point which the PME study group head up by General Charles Wilhelm last summer argued represents an essential first step in preparing future officers for the conduct of military operations in the twenty-first century. Admittedly, such a move would require an overhaul of the academy's curriculum as well as the hiring of additional academics -- or education of additional naval and marine officers – in the discipline of military history.

This past semester, I did not teach the plebe naval history course. Instead at the request of the department chair and because there was no Marine officer available to teach the “History of the Marine Corps” course, I filled in and taught the Marine history course. To be candid, I agreed to teach the course with considerable trepidation, because I am not an historian of the Marine Corps. Luckily I had the extensive work of my former Ohio State colleague, Allan Millett on which to rely. The course is now over, and most importantly, the students have survived without appearing to have any desire to lynch their professor for incompetence. I might add that my Marine Corps connections proved particularly useful as I persuaded retired Lieutenant Generals Van Riper and Gregson and retired BG Draude to come in and talk to the USMC course (as well as my seminar) on their experiences in the Corps. I also was able to lasso my old friend Allan Millett into visiting the Naval Academy. In addition, all four gentlemen talked to the department about why they felt that history was crucial to the military profession.

The three senior level seminars I have taught over the past year and a half have given me an extraordinarily good picture of the history majors that the department is producing – and I am impressed. The best seminar was this past fall; quite simply it may have been the best undergraduate seminar that I have taught in my academic career. In terms of subject matter, two of the seminars were on the topic of “War, Morality, and Humane Behavior;” the other seminar was on major topics dealing with the history of World War I and II. As for my teaching schedule next spring (I am off in the fall getting my knees replaced), I am planning to teach the war and morality seminar again and give a lecture course on the history of the war in Europe, 1939-1945.

Extra Curricula Activities

In addition to my teaching duties, I have made considerable efforts to contribute to the Academy and the department in other ways. In the fall I brought the noted British journalist, Sir Max Hastings, to the academy to give a major lecture and talk to my senior seminar. Sir Max’s lecture was directly on the Falklands campaign, but he addressed the larger issue of the crucial relationship between journalists on one hand and the military on the other in the midst of a major military campaign. I might add that we had a wonderful dinner and the class of 1957 as well represented at both the dinner and the lecture.

In addition, during the fall, I was able to entice Colonel Peter Mansoor, brigade commander in the 1^st Armored Division in Baghdad 2003-2004 and currently General Patreus' gatekeeper, and Colonel Thomas Greenwood, commander of a MEU in Iraq and currently the head of the Marine Corps' Command and Staff College, into give an evening presentation on their experiences and why they both felt history was so important to the military profession. The question and answer period was particularly interesting both for the quality of the questions from the mids and what was interesting them about how US forces are fighting in Iraq.

During the course of the fall semester, with the cooperation of one of the faculty members, I set up an informal history club, which largely consisted of individuals who were not majoring in history, but felt history was important for them to know about. Approximately, 10-15 showed up once every three weeks for a discussion of an article (either written by me or someone whom I thought they ought to know about). Discussions usually lasted approximately one to two hours, depending on how much work they had to do. Here it is clear to me that there are substantial numbers of extraordinarily bright midshipmen with deep interest in and knowledge of military history, who are unable to take history courses in areas in which they are interested either because there is insufficient flexibility in their majors or because the upper-level history course they want to take has been filled up by history majors.

Finally, for the midshipmen in my classes, I ran a voluntary film series on weekday evenings with movies that dealt with war, such as "The Battle of Algiers," "Zulu," "Conspiracy," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "The Winter War," "A Bridge too Far," and "The Bridge."

Plans for Next Year

As many of the members of the class know, I had to withdraw from teaching in the fall so that I could have my knees operated on. I will then teach again in the spring. Nevertheless, I have agreed to participate in a number of activities involving both the history department and the class of 1957 in the fall even if I have to crawl over here! I will be giving one of the major addresses at the Academy’s Naval history conference in the fall and have volunteered to be a commentator or chairman of whatever panels need help at that conference. I also plan to give a lecture – “The Class of 1957 Lecture in Naval History” – sometime in either the fall or spring. I hope that this lecture will become an annual event which the holder of the chair that year will give with the aim of having it published in a journal – hopefully Proceedings, if it is of sufficient quality.

I will also actively be present during your festivities in October. I am hoping to do a staff ride of the Antietam battlefield for the class, either during your festivities in October or at some other time.

Finally, I am planning this spring or early summer to donate $1,000 to the chair’s endowment and to dedicate my history of the Civil War to the class of 1957. Again thanks so much for this wonderful opportunity.

Williamson Murray

Class of 1957 Chair in Naval History and Heritage