This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

B-10 SUNDAY, MAY 9. 1993
t?he 'EimcjS'^tcagune
Do it the Eisenhower way
New Orleans
No man living can say what the world should do about Serbia. History cannot tell the one man who has to decide, President Clinton, what to do. But it can provide some examples and cautions.
In dealing with a crisis, the Dwight Eisenhower method was far superior to the Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson method. Nixon consulted Henry Kissinger; Johnson consulted a handful of White House experts; Eisenhower insisted on personally hearing every point of view. Then he would ask, ?If we do so-and-so, what happens next?? That question led him to veto precipitant action in a series of crises in the tensest decade of the Cold War, including five separate recommendations that he launch a first-strike nuclear attack.
Some of the cautions taught by history include: air supremacy gives you the ability to destroy and to spy, but not the ability to control. Real power is the man on the spot with the gun in his hand. Since the 1930s, air force advocates have gone into every war assuring their superiors that they will cut the enemy?s supply line and blunt his offensive. Not once has this been accomplished.
Half-way measures never work, either. The temptation to avoid the choice between doing something and doing nothing by doing a little bit is strong, but always wrong. An American ground force of two divisions or so, the size being talked about, is too little or too many ? too small to fight a war, too large for a police force.
Every great power that has gone to war since 1945 has lost
?	including the French in Algeria and Vietnam, the Russians in Afghanistan and the Americans in Vietnam. Only in Korea did the United States manage a draw; only in the Persian Gulf War did we win a victory.
Dwight Eisenhower
He had the right approach
In World War II, the Nazis had as many as 18 divisions in Yugoslavia. They launched numerous offensives against Tito in Serbia, but spearheaded by planes, tanks and artillery. Tito had only rifles, and he managed to hurl back every attack. The Nazis never got control of Serbia.
In World War II, the British controlled Iraq with a handful of troops.
If you ever have to go to war, Eisenhower said, do so prayerfully, and be aware that the unintended consequences will always be greater than the results you seek. But at least be certain you have considered all the possibilities you can imagine when you think about what happens next.
Stephen E. Ambrose Eisenhower Center, UNO