New York Times Article
Oct 21, 1998
Military Warns Soldiers Of Failure to Hail Chief
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - Responding to a wave of grousing in the nation's military about President Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lew insky, military leaders have taken the unusual step of warning officers and enlisted personnel that they could face punishment for denounc ing the Commander in Chief.
There has hardly been a ground swell of public criticism among the nation's 1.4 million soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. But the furor surrounding Kenneth W. Starr's re port to Congress last month accusing Mr. Clinton of impeachable offenses has prompted military personnel to write a number of rebukes of the President, mostly in articles and letters in newspapers and magazines.
The rumblings have raised enough concern at the Pentagon that mili tary authorities have at least twice in recent weeks responded by warn ing that Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice explicitly prohibits officers from speaking "contemptuous words" against the President, the Secretary of Defense and other civilian leaders of ·the armed services. Each service has similar rules for enlisted personnel.
The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Terrence R. Dake, sent an electronic memoran dum to every general in the service on Oct. 9, urging them to remind marines of the prohibitions. "It is unethical for individuals who wear the uniform of a marine to engage in public dialogue on political and legal matters such as impeach ment," he wrote.
In September, days after Mr. .Starr's report saturated the news, an article in the official newspaper at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyo ming delivered a similarly stern re minder. The article, which officials said the Air Force has circulated informally to other bases, warned, Air Force personnel that they "aren't allowed to discuss the President in the same manner as civil-ians."
The public criticisms of Mr. Clinton among the military's ranks were first reported today in the The Los Angeles Times. General Dake's memorandum was first reported in The Washington Times on Friday.
By all accounts, Mr. Clinton's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky has con sumed the military in much the same way it has consumed the na tion: with a mixture of fascination and revulsion, derision for Mr. Clin ton and contempt for Mr. Starr, the independent counsel, outrage and a desire that it will all just go away.
But within the rigid world of mili tary discipline, the scandal has a deeper undercurrent since officers and enlisted personal have been pun ished under the Uniform Code for the same behavior Mr. Clinton has
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That's Mr. President, SIR, the troops are told.
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acknowledged: extramarital affairs with subordinates in the workplace.
From the start of his Presidency, Mr. Clinton has had a strained rela tionship with the military, some of whose members viewed his evasion of the draft and his policies on mat ters like homosexuals in the military with suspicion, if not resentment. Now the scandal that has brought him to the brink of an impeachment inquiry has revived long-simmering feelings, held by some in the ranks, that Mr. Clinton is not fit to lead.
· "How can anyone in the military defend President Clinton?" Master Sgt. Stephen Kapp, stationed at Misawa Air Base in Japan, wrote in a letter to the editor of Air Force Times, published on Sept. 28. He went on to call for Mr. Clinton's resigna tion, saying, "This President has made a mockery out of our country."
Recent retirees, freed from the restraints of the Uniform Code, have been more vociferous. One, Col. John R. Baer of the Army, wrote a letter to The Army Times saying he had torn up a certificate of appreciation signed by Mr. Clinton and mailed it back to the White House.
A much more prominent retiree, Colin L. Powell, the Army General who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George Bush, has in recent weeks been pointed In his' disapointment.
Asked for his views at an Impromptu news conference at the airport in Modesto, Calif., on Monday evening, General Powell said Mr. Clinton's behavior was "a disgrace to the Presidency and the Oval Office."
Prosecutions under Article 88 are extremely rare. More often than not, commanders handle Violations with administrative punishment or sim ply a warning to knock it off, as happened a few weeks ago at Fort Bragg in North Carolina when joking at a morning workout veered close to ridicule of Mr. Clinton.
In 1993. shortly after Mr. Clinton took office, a senior Air Force off i cer, Maj. Gen. Harold N. Campbell, was forced to retire and fined $7,000 after he described the President as a "dope smoking," "skirt chasing" and "draft dodging" Commander in Chief at a NATO banquet.
Since then, the threat of punish ment under Article 88 has kept a lid on criticism of Mr. Clinton's Presi dency, but not entirely.
In an article published in Navy Times on Oct. 12, Maj. Shane Sellers of the Marine Corps called the Presi dent "an adulterous liar." Major Sellers, an intelligence officer as signed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, lamented that Mr. Clinton was not held to the same standard as uniformed officers.
"It's not about sex," Major Sellers, a 20-year veteran, wrote. "It's taw dry and titillating, to be sure. But for all its soap-opera quality, what Clin ton and Monica did as consenting adults boils down to adultery. And one should call an adulterous liar exactly what he is — a criminal."
His remarks were published three days after General Dake's warning. Although it seems his article was written before the memorandum, the Marine Corps has begun an investi gation into whether Major Sellers's remarks crossed the line into "con temptuous words." A spokesman, Col. Sto Wagner, said today that Ma jor Sellers could face punishment for his remarks.
In the same edition of The Navy Times, Staff Sgt. C. T. Taylor, a ma rine based in Virginia Beach, also questioned the President's fitness to lead, saying he should resign. "Is it 'too much to expect our President to be the last bastion of morality in a society where morality and values are ever declining?" he wrote.
So far, the Marines have not yet opened an investigation into his re marks or any others that could fall under Article 88. The' Army, Navy and Air Force are not currently in vestigating any violations, spokes men for each said.
The White House spokesman; Joe Lockhart, said today that the Presi dent did not believe that the scandal had affected the morale of the armed forces.'
"I think the President has enor mous respect for the men and wom en in uniform in this country," Mr. Lockhart said, "and I think that re spect is reciprocated."
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