Photo By Lori Stewart | Maj. Gen. Joseph McChristian, Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, 5 August...... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
MAJ. GEN. MCCHRISTIAN ADDRESSES HIS STAFF
On 16 August 1968, Maj. Gen. Joseph A. McChristian addressed the staff of the office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) for the first time. McChristian had enlisted in the Army in 1933 and served two years before accepting an appointment to West Point. Graduating from the U.S. Military Academy’s Class of 1939, he went on to serve his country through three wars and as the Army’s senior intelligence officer from 1968-1971.
Eleven days after assuming the position of ACSI, 54-year-old General McChristian addressed his new staff. As he introduced himself, he remarked, “I have a growing and very deep respect for the United States intelligence community. I have seen many parts of it develop during and since World War II.” Indeed, he had served most of the war with the 10th Armored Division as G-3, chief of staff, and as a task force commander. In the waning months of the war in 1945, Lt. Gen. George Patton handpicked him to replace Col. Oscar Koch as G-2 of Third Army.
By the late 1960s, McChristian was well qualified for the ACSI position. He had served as military attaché to Greece from 1956-1960, chief of the ACSI’s Western Division from 1962-1963 (including during the Cuban Missile Crisis), and G-2 for U.S. Army, Pacific from 1963-1965. From 1965-1967, he served as the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam (MACV) J-2 and developed the intelligence structure that carried MACV throughout the war. He spent a year at Fort Hood (known as Fort Cavazos since 2023), Texas, commanding the 2d Armored Division and III Corps before relocating to Washington, D.C., as the Army’s senior intelligence officer.
In his first remarks to his staff, General McChristian promised to put the “personal touch into personnel” with his focus on professionalism, teamwork, and “appreciation for the ability of others in our own team and outside of it.” He cautioned against issuing over-exacting and far-reaching requirements that could not be properly addressed due to time and personnel constraints. “[W]e can’t ask for everything from Alpha to Omega and have it all the time.” Instead, he directed teammates strive for clear, concise, and carefully constructed instructions followed up with close liaison with the individual issued the task. “[A]s we say in the Army,” he explained, “it is only 10% of the job to put out the order. It is 90% to be sure that the man who is supposed to receive it does receive it, does understand it and is executing it in the fashion we would like to have….”
McChristian also expounded on his personal commitment to initiative, which meant being thoroughly prepared:
“By this I mean that intelligence must be out front. …The intelligence team that reacts are librarians, but the intelligence team that gives to the commander, to the Chief of Staff, to the G-3, to R&D [research and development]—here’s what you need to have and this is what you need to be doing—then we are intelligence officers. …We have to know what they want before they know what they want and get it for them.”
He required every member of his staff to keep him continually informed, to supply him with ideas and recommendations to improve Army intelligence, and to ensure the right people were represented in relevant meetings. He never wanted to feel “like an observer at a tennis match,” unprepared to discuss the critical issues at any opportunity.
General McChristian served as the ACSI for thirty-three months. During that time, he developed Army intelligence policy and priorities for the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and growing civil tensions within the United States. Additionally, he championed the creation of an Army Intelligence Center, from which the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence was born at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in 1971.
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| Date Taken: | 08.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.09.2024 15:10 |
| Story ID: | 478239 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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