Ernest Graves
a reputation as a disciplinarian or somebody that insisted on people doing their
job--saluting and all that.
A lot of his subordinates, and Lee was a prime example of this, were very busy trying
to maintain a level of discipline among the troops. Keep them in uniform, keep them out
of trouble, make them salute, because this pattern of behavior produced an outfit that
would accomplish its mission.
Most of the guys that were doing what Lee was doing were not popular. They were not
popular with the troops and they were not popular with the press. They were
characterized as martinets. But the fact is that they had to maintain some discipline and
order. They were cast in the role of the bad guy. My view of Lee is that he wasn't able
to lead in a way that got the sympathy or the support or even the respect of the troops.
It drew on him a lot of criticism from the media, even though, of course, the media in
World War II were much more muted than they have been since.
But even in those days, stories would go out and Lee would be criticized. In the end he
ran into trouble with Robert Ruark in the Mediterranean.
Q:
That's right! I had forgotten all about that.
A:
He retired all right, but there was a lot of very bad press at the end. And what happened
was typically unfortunate.
They had arranged a train to take the press from Rome down to Naples partly to show
them the R&R [rest and recuperation] center that they had set up at Naples, the place
where troops could go for recreation, and partly, I guess, to give the press a nice
weekend--a sort of a mixed thing. As I understand it, Ruark missed the train and
demanded special treatment to get down there. He was told, "You missed the train. Get
yourself down there." He decided he would see what he could dig out.
Lee and his staff were living well. A lot of people were living well. Throughout the
occupation people had good accommodations, they had a lot of transportation. Having
known Lee well and served on his personal staff, I can vouch for his personal conduct.
He was a very religious man, and he would not have been involved with women or any
of the other loose conduct so prevalent in the occupation.
But I am sure he lived well. He had a limousine and many other perquisites. So it wasn't
all that hard for Ruark to write a story and make Lee look bad simply by dwelling on
his shortcomings.
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