[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13772-13773]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             REMEMBERING BRIGADIER GENERAL DOUGLAS KINNARD

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to pay 
tribute to retired BG Douglas Kinnard, a former University of Vermont 
professor and retired general officer who passed away on July 29 of 
this year at the age of 91.
  Long before I came to know General Kinnard, he had built a reputation 
as a wise and thoughtful soldier. Respected for his leadership and 
integrity on and off the battlefield, he honorably served our country 
in three wars, including two tours in Vietnam, despite his misgivings 
about American strategy and involvement in the conflict. Having 
graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on D-day during 
World War II, Douglas Kinnard rose to the rank of brigadier general 
before retiring from the Army to pursue his doctor of philosophy at 
Princeton University.
  It is no surprise given his intellect and objectivity that when he 
went searching for his first faculty job, he found a home at the 
University of Vermont. Those who have worked with General Kinnard have 
praised him as an imposing figure that was ``always open and fair'' and 
an ``enjoyable colleague'' who taught his students about real 
patriotism from his own experience.
  I am grateful that the University of Vermont was able to benefit from 
the many gifts General Kinnard brought with him to his work in 
Burlington and throughout the country. Marcelle and I

[[Page 13773]]

send our condolences to his wife Wade and son Frederick. I will miss 
his steady counsel, which he provided me throughout my Senate career. 
The many soldiers, students, and colleagues who were fortunate to have 
known him throughout his long and industrious life will not soon forget 
his impact.
  The Burlington Free Press recently paid tribute to General Kinnard 
and his many contributions. I ask unanimous consent that a recent Free 
Press article entitled ``Remembering UVM prof., ex-Army general Douglas 
Kinnard'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Burlington Free Press, Aug. 7, 2013]

       The Two Accomplished Careers of Douglas Kinnard, 1921-2013

                            (By Tim Johnson)

       In 1977, midway through his faculty career at the 
     University of Vermont, ex-Army man Douglas Kinnard was 
     invited to appear on ``Good Morning America'' to talk about 
     the Vietnam War with his former commanding officer, William 
     Westmoreland.
       The appearance preceded the publication of Kinnard's book, 
     ``The War Managers,'' which drew on a detailed survey Kinnard 
     had sent to all the American generals in Vietnam in 1974, a 
     year before U.S. forces finally withdrew. The survey 
     revealed, among other things, that about 70 percent of the 
     generals thought the war's objectives were unclear, and that 
     more than half thought the war shouldn't have been fought 
     with American troops.
       Mark Stoler, a UVM historian who knew Kinnard, recalls 
     watching the show and thinking that Westmoreland looked 
     uncomfortable while Kinnard remained unruffled. ``He just sat 
     there, smiling,'' said Stoler, who recalled that Kinnard had 
     ``an incredibly sharp mind'' and was eminently clear-headed 
     about that controversial episode in American military 
     history.
       Kinnard, who died of pneumonia last week in Pennsylvania at 
     age 91, spent about a decade in UVM's Political Science 
     Department during the 70s and 80s, in what for him was a 
     second career following 26 years as an Army officer and 
     service in three wars. He won the respect of his UVM peers 
     partly because of his intellect: He did, after all, complete 
     his Ph.D. work at Princeton in just three years, following 
     his retirement in 1970 as a brigadier general.
       ``Very capable, very serious,'' said Garrison Nelson, 
     professor of political science. ``A remarkably well-organized 
     guy. A good teacher and a relatively high grader, as I 
     recall. I have very fond memories of Doug.''
       Kinnard was also prolific. His first book on President 
     Eisenhower, an adaptation of his doctoral thesis, was also 
     published in 1977. ``The Secretary of Defense'' also came out 
     during his UVM tenure, in 1980, and he wrote about Vietnam 
     again later in ``The Certain Trumpet: Maxwell Taylor and the 
     American Experience in Vietnam.''
       Among Kinnard's eight books were two memoirs, the first of 
     which details his life's remarkably humble beginnings. 
     ``Abandoned'' by a broken family at age 4 and placed in an 
     orphanage in Paterson, N.J., he was moved into a boarding 
     house after several months and raised by an extended Catholic 
     family.
       ``He had to take care of himself,'' said his son, Frederick 
     Kinnard, in a phone interview. ``He was an adult before age 
     5. He lived with an old Irish spinster above a saloon.''
       Kinnard made his way through Paterson's St. Joseph Grammar 
     School and Eastside High, became an Eagle Scout, and 
     eventually won an appointment to West Point. He didn't aspire 
     to be a soldier, he told an interviewer in 1977, but chose 
     West Point partly because it was close to home.
       ``It was a good way to go to college,'' he said. ``I really 
     wasn't thinking about a military career.'' The Army became 
     his career, however, with a series of promotions. He 
     graduated on June 6, 1944--D Day--and was dispatched to 
     Europe where, as an artillery lieutenant and forward 
     observer, he was awarded the Bronze Star for Heroic 
     Achievement. During the Korean War, he served in an artillery 
     unit, and later was assigned to the Pentagon and to NATO 
     headquarters in France.
       Kinnard did two tours in Vietnam. The first, beginning in 
     1966, was as chief of operations analysis under Gen. 
     Westmoreland. When he returned to the United States he was 
     promoted to brigadier general, but he was having doubts about 
     the war and mulling a career in academia. Of the war, he told 
     an interviewer for the Princeton Independent in 2004:
       ``The more I dealt with [the war and U.S. strategy], the 
     more skeptical I became, especially about the assumption 
     underpinning [General] Westmoreland's and American strategy: 
     that if we punished the enemy enough, he would negotiate an 
     end favorable to us. I was convinced that we really did not 
     understand the enemy or his motivations, or even his 
     strategy. The premise that our punishment would bring us 
     victory was to build a strategy on a house of cards.''
       Kinnard wanted to retire but the Army refused and sent him 
     to Vietnam again, in 1969, this time commanding artillerymen. 
     The Independent interviewer asked him how he felt about being 
     sent back to Vietnam, given his doubts about the war.
       ``You must understand that I had already applied for 
     retirement, and that was turned down,'' he said. ``So when 
     the decision was made that I would definitely go back, then I 
     had to concern myself with my job and not worry about my 
     personal feelings. As Commanding General of Force Artillery, 
     I commanded eight thousand troops in sixty firebases from the 
     Cambodian border to the South China Sea. I had to visit those 
     people daily and get involved in the planning, so I had to 
     toss my personal feelings--gone! Nothing can stand in the way 
     of the welfare of your troops. Your job is to defeat the 
     enemy; your job is to take care of your troops and keep your 
     casualties down. And that's what I did.''
       Later in that tour he served as chief of staff of the 
     Second Field Force and aided in planning of the Cambodian 
     incursion of 1970, which incited fierce protests in the 
     United States. The U.S. bombing of Cambodia that had preceded 
     that operation was unknown to him, he said, as it was to the 
     American public.
       After he returned home he retired and headed to Princeton 
     as a 48-year-old graduate student. He didn't conceal his 
     military background but didn't advertise it either. When he 
     started looking for a faculty job, he impressed his 
     interviewers at the University of Vermont.
       ``He was an imposing presence,'' said Stoler, who shared 
     with Kinnard a scholarly interest in military history.
       ``I remember Professor Kinnard as a very professional and 
     enjoyable colleague,'' said Frank Bryan, who retired from UVM 
     recently as a political science professor. ``Our areas of 
     expertise were different, of course, but I can say he was a 
     very good `department citizen'--always open and fair and 
     collegial.''
       Nancy Viens was Kinnard's secretary at UVM for two years. 
     She typed ``The War Managers'' for him.
       In the beginning, she said, ``I was very intimidated about 
     working for a 6-foot general from the Army. I'd signed (anti-
     war) protest petitions and all that.''
       He surprised her, though, telling her, ``I'm not your 
     average run-of-the-mill general.''
       ``He turned out to be one of the nicest people I've ever 
     known,'' she said, adding that he kept in touch with her for 
     years after they both left UVM. Of the Vietnam War debates, 
     she said, ``He had sympathy for both sides. He did his job as 
     a general and then he got out.''
       In the Independent interview, Kinnard was asked what he 
     taught UVM students about the Vietnam War.
       ``I taught them that it was a war that should not have been 
     fought,'' he said. ``It should not have gone past the 
     advisory effort. I traced for them all the presidential 
     decisions that were made, going from Truman all the way up 
     through Nixon, and showed how each one led to another. But 
     those decisions were made at political levels; the generals 
     had no part in them.''
       He acknowledged that patriotism could take many forms, and 
     that the war opponents had done the country ``a great 
     service.''
       Following their joint appearance on ``Good Morning 
     America,'' Kinnard told the Independent interviewer, 
     Westmoreland gave him a ride to Laguardia Airport, and 
     Kinnard gave Westmoreland a copy of his book.
       ``Well, God, he called me for a whole week, asking, `Who 
     said this?' and `Who said that?''' Kinnard recalled. ``I 
     said, I can't tell you that, General Westmoreland,' because I 
     had promised the respondents anonymity. I went away to Maine 
     for a week, and the book arrived in the mail with his notes 
     written on damn near every page.''
       After Kinnard left UVM, he continued lecturing and writing, 
     holding positions at the University of Oklahoma, Naval War 
     College, National Defense University and University of 
     Richmond. In 1994, President Clinton appointed him to the 
     American Battle Monuments Commission and he helped plan the 
     World War II memorial on the National Mall.
       ``He wasn't a retiring type,'' Frederick Kinnard said.
       ``Doug Kinnard had the wonderful facility of being highly 
     knowledgeable and impeccably honest,'' said Sen. Patrick 
     Leahy, D-Vt., in an email. ``I've relied on his good judgment 
     for years. Marcelle and I were sorry to learn of his passing 
     and send condolences to his family.'' Besides his son, 
     Douglas Kinnard is survived by his wife, Wade Tyree Kinnard. 
     He will be buried at West Point Aug. 15.

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