Engineer Memoirs
Q ..
Gruenther, I take it, took over the American Red Cross. Who had to adjust to the
other-Gruenther or the Red Cross?
I heard that Gruenther had to adjust. The people at Red Cross told him they
A
worked for salaries and not for promotions. He started out demanding that things
be done instantly and correctly. But he soon had to scale down his expectations.
The Red Cross staff just didn't respond to his Gruenther-grams. They didn't mind
working on real substantive issues, but they rebelled at working on things which
they felt only inflated Gruenther's ego and maintained his "superman" reputation.
We spent an enormous amount of time on Gruenther's speeches. A major speech
would call for three to four weeks of staff work by several officers of the
secretariat. Gruenther wanted to know exactly how many people would be in the
audience, what their backgrounds were, and what questions they were likely to ask.
We would send an officer to the scene of the speech a week in advance to do
research on the spot, read local papers to get the " f e e l " of the place, and so on.
Gruenther would always go armed with gifts for those he expected to meet. We
researched these matters carefully, but he would make it appear spontaneous. For
example, on a visit to Canada he said: "Prime Minister Trudeau, the last time I
saw you was on July 16th of 1950." He not only had a gift for Trudeau and his
wife, but for their children and grandchildren. He'd say, "Here's a toy for your
granddaughter, Jennifer, who must be about six, and here's a toy for your driver's
son, John, who must be about four." All of this was painstakingly orchestrated but
done surreptitiously behind the scenes to make it look unpremeditated and
spontaneous. It was phony, and at times corny, but it paid off, they loved it.
Gruenther was best with large audiences but uncomfortable when he spoke to one
or two people. If he had an audience of 100 or 200 people, it turned him on and
he would come alive. He was a great actor and loved to play to crowds, the larger
the better.
General Norstad was just the opposite. He was low-key, shy, thoughtful, and
reflective. He didn't care much for grandstanding. The smaller the audience, the
better he performed. When he spoke to a large crowd, he was nervous, but when
he spoke to only a few persons he was more comfortable. He was m o s t
comfortable in a one-n-one situation. Although he and Gruenther were opposites,
each was effective in his own way. Norstad didn't write "Norstad-grams" He
would write out instructions to the staff and explain in great detail what he wanted.
Q ..
When General Norstad became SACEUR, did you have any of the type of meetings
you had back in the Pentagon where you got together and talked about the future?
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