Oct 05, 2009 — See National Public Radio "All Things Considered"
As President Obama weighs his military options in Afghanistan, how does his relationship to the military and his leadership style compare to other wartime presidents? Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says President Obama's frequency of contacts with Gen. Stanley McChrystal are typical. "I think they're typical. It all depends on the president and the situation. Sometimes presidents, when they come to decision points in major wars, they'll want to have a face-to-face meeting with their field commander. Sometimes it goes for long periods of time without it. So, they relied in the past, if you think all the way back to Harry Truman on the chain of command, on their military advisors, but often they've felt the need to talk directly to their field commanders and have," Kohn told NPR host Robert Siegel.
