In Memoriam: Lt.-Gen. Victor H. “Brute” Krulak USMC

A great Marine died on December 29th, 2008.

Lieutenant-General Victor H. “Brute” Krulak saw service in World War II (winning the Navy Cross among numerous other decorations), the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. As one obituary states:

Born in Denver on Jan. 7, 1913, Krulak was a 1934 graduate of the Naval Academy — where he picked up his nickname, a jest on the fact he was 5 foot 4. As a junior officer he served in Marine actions in Central America, where his views on counterinsurgency were formed.

In World War II, as a lieutenant colonel, he led a battalion in a weeklong battle as a diversionary raid to cover the invasion of Bougainville. Although wounded, he refused to be evacuated. For his bravery he was awarded the Navy Cross.

Under heavy fire from the Japanese, the Navy sent patrol boats to evacuate wounded Marines. Krulak befriended one of the young commanders, John F. Kennedy. Decades later the two shared a drink of whiskey in the Oval Office after Kennedy was elected president.

After World War II, Krulak held several key jobs, including commander of the 5th Marine Regiment and later chief of staff for the 1st Marine Division during the war in Korea. Later he served as commander of the Marine boot camp in San Diego and, from 1962 to 1964, as special assistant for counterinsurgency to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As commanding general of Fleet Marine Force Pacific he made 54 trips to Vietnam.

His ideas about mining Haiphong Harbor and relying on small unit actions in South Vietnam to win the support of the populace clashed with the strategy of Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, commander of all U.S. troops from 1964 to 1968. He opposed Westmoreland’s decision to establish an outpost at Khe Sanh, which resulted in one of the bloodiest sieges of the war.

It’s one of the sadder footnotes of history that if Gen. Krulak’s advice had been followed, the Vietnam War might well have ended in a military victory for the US and South Vietnam.

An interesting anecdote about Gen. Krulak was told by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Marine Corps Association’s annual dinner in Arlington, VA in July 2007.

Last month, after visiting with U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, I had a chance to speak at Normandy on the 63rd anniversary of D-Day. It was a powerful experience to stand among those crosses – thousands of them, row upon row – and reflect on the magnitude of what had been accomplished on that day – and at what cost.

The story behind how America developed the means to put men on those beaches is, I think, instructive. In the late 1930s, the Marine Corps was still grappling with how to move troops from ship to shore under hostile fire. At the time, and after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of the First World War, such a maneuver was considered foolhardy at best, and suicidal at worst. In 1937, a Marine 1st Lieutenant, Victor Krulak, was stationed in China. And during a Japanese amphibious assault on Shanghai, Krulak borrowed a tugboat to get a better look. He saw – and clandestinely photographed – Japanese men and equipment coming onto the beach from a landing craft with a retractable ramp.

Lieutenant Krulak sent those photos and an accompanying report back to Washington. You can imagine what happened next. They gathered dust in a cabinet, with a note labeling them, and I quote: “the work of some nut in China.”

Krulak eventually returned to Washington, and doggedly pursued his idea until a Marine general hooked him up with an eccentric New Orleans boat maker named Higgins. The result, as all of you know, was a landing craft with a retractable ramp that was introduced by the thousands and was used to carry Allied forces to liberate Europe and much of Asia.

Krulak’s was, of course, a legendary career: Navy Cross; counterinsurgency advisor to the Joint Staff; commander of the Fleet Marines in the Pacific during the Vietnam War; and, father of a future Marine Commandant, Chuck Krulak, with whom I met yesterday. Victor Krulak’s story and accomplishments teach us a good deal:

• About learning from the experiences and setbacks of the past;
• About being open to take ideas and inspiration from wherever they come; and
• About overcoming conventional wisdom and bureaucratic obstacles thrown in one’s path.

In retirement, Gen. Krulak served in the commercial world, and wrote several books and articles. His best-known book is probably “First To Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps“. Published in 1984, it’s been in print ever since, and is featured on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Professional Reading List, and on the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Reading List.

Gen. Krulak served his country and his Corps very well indeed. His son, General Charles C. Krulak, became the 31st Commandant of the US Marine Corps.

Rest in peace, Sir, and may your reunion with your comrades in arms who’ve preceded you be a joyful one. I’m sure Chesty had a cold one waiting for you! From this veteran, a heartfelt, “To The Front: Saaaaa-LUTE!”

Peter