Powell visits with the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing (above) during Operation Desert Storm and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) (right) during Operation Desert Shield.

Do you remember any particular conversation with President Bush after the air war began, perhaps on his perspective on how the fight was going and what was being accomplished? The president was, well, wonderful. That’s kind of an over-the-top word but an accurate one. He understood what we were doing. He had been briefed every day on the plan and how the confl ict was going. He had confi dence in Mr. Cheney. He and Mr. Cheney had confi dence in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in General Schwar- zkopf. So we had no interference. There were days when they need- ed a lot of information right away because the press was on them, like the day of a regrettable bunker strike on Iraqi civilians where we had to be more forthcoming than we might otherwise want to be. But I never found myself in confl ict with the White House.

One occasion early on, when still preparing details for the ground

PHOTOS: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

war, the White House wanted a briefi ng before we really had the ground operation worked out. They were persistent. So I told Norm, “Like it or not, you’ve got to send me a brief so I can keep the White House happy.”

So he did. And when he briefed

the Joint Chiefs before we went to the White House, we didn’t like it. So we called ahead and said, “Look, this is a tentative plan. It isn’t ap- proved by General Schwarzkopf or the Joint Chiefs.” But when we did brief it, they had a similarly negative view. They were afraid we weren’t getting ready for the ground confl ict. So there was a bit of criticism of me and of General Schwarzkopf. I kept telling them, “This is early. We know how to do this.” Finally we showed them the great

left-fl ank enveloping maneuver. The reality is it was an obvious plan any captain at infantry school should fi gure out. Most credit for it goes to Norm, but we all were involved.

As the air war was ending and

we readied for the ground war, I sat down with President Bush and Sec- retary Cheney and said, “You have to be prepared for uglier scenes from ground combat.” When a fi ghter air- craft gets hit and goes down, we’ve lost a plane and a pilot. If a tank gets hit, it’s four guys. If a platoon of tanks gets hit, it’s a lot of guys, perhaps bodies burning outside of tanks. So I said, “You have to stiff en your resolve because the images will be all over television. Understand that this is what war is about.”

What was their reaction? He and Cheney took it all aboard. And when the ground war started and there were initial casualty re- ports, both the president and Sec- retary Cheney did not overreact or start feeling they had to make justi- fi cations to the American people. There were three events I’ve

always been disappointed with, but it’s what happens in war. The

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