| Late in July 1945, the Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division, Maxwell D. Taylor, recorded in his war diary information regarding America's new weapon, the atomic bomb. Taylor was a propitious officer whose future would eventually lead to Army Chief of Staff, assistant for military affairs under President John F. Kennedy, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ambassador to South Vietnam. But on that eventful day on the 28 of July, at Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria, Taylor had acquired highly sensitive information about the A-bomb from Generals George C. Marshall and George S. Patton and recorded it before the weapon was to be used against Japan.;It was not unusual for American military commanders to record various happenings or information in diaries. Indeed most prominent military leaders had published histories of their experiences based upon, recollections, correspondences, unit histories, after action reports, and diaries. Major General Robert W. Grow, a highly successful and combat wise armored division commander during the war, was no different than many of his mentors and peers. He kept a diary. Unfortunately, portions of his diary for the year 1951 were photocopied in Frankfurt, Germany, by a reported Soviet "mole" and used as a communist propaganda vehicle. At the time General Grow was senior American military attache in Moscow. It was his misfortune to be the only general officer brought to trial because he had unintentionally fallen victim to a cold war propaganda effort. This was due to his diary being exploited not only by the communist, but also by the domestic media. Furthermore this occurred in a period in American history when, domestically, the country was experiencing a generated fear over preconceived threats to security. Moreover on the international scene the United States was confronting the Soviet Union just short of armed conflict. These developments challenged the responsibility of the American press, and at the same time put to a test the new uniform code of military justice. In addition this period witnessed a changing role in military management. Since Second World War, the military began to place considerable emphasis on business management techniques. This change in direction compromised traditional military values, because managerial careerism had replaced ethical responsibilities based upon honor, duty, self-sacrifice, group cohesion and loyalty. The Grow general court-martial in 1952 represented a pattern of shifting values of service to self-interests. |
