Compass Points - One Trick Pony?

Marine Corps Roles and Missions

Compass Points - One Trick Pony?

Marine Corps Roles and Missions

February 12, 2024

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What is the US Marine Corps? What is it for? What should it be? How can the Marine Corps best serve the Nation?

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Debate over Marine Corps roles and missions is nothing new. Marines have been both beloved and reviled since 1775.

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After every major war or conflict there is always a movement to shrink, narrow, dismember, and degrade the Marine Corps. The years after World War II were no exception. President Truman was no fan of the Marine Corps, and he appointed civilian leaders who were hostile to the Marine Corps. There were some in the defense establishment who argued the Marine Corps should be abolished. Most defense experts back then believed the only real threat to the US -- the 'pacing challenge' in today's lingo -- was the Soviet Union. But as usual, world events were difficult to predict. The next major conflict did not come from the Soviet Union. In 1950 war erupted in Korea. With the rapid draw-down after World War II, the US military was badly unprepared.

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As Alan Rems has written in Naval History Magazine, the emergency in Korea showed the value of Marines.

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The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 disproved JCS expectations about the likelihood of conflict, with whom, where it would happen, and what forces would be required. Immediately, [Marine General and Commandant] Cates offered what ground and air forces the Marine Corps had available and obtained from Sherman and Truman authorization to mobilize the Marine Corps Reserve. The United States suddenly was reminded of its need for the Marines.

-- Alan Rems, Naval History Magazine

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Nearly three-quarters of a century have gone by since the conflict in Korea. What is the issue today for the Marine Corps? Once again, the issue is roles and missions.

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Can the Maine Corps today best serve the Nation by becoming more of a narrow, regional force or should the Marine Corps become more of an always ready, balanced, global, crisis response force?

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General Anthony C. Zinni addresses the issue in his remarks below, "A One Trick Pony."

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A ONE TRICK PONY

By Anthony C. Zinni

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When I run into an active-duty Marine, he or she will eventually want to talk about Force Design 2030. I never begin any discussion with this topic, but I can usually tell that’s where they want to go. When they ask me about my well-known objections, I first ask them what they think. I have yet to encounter an avid advocate ready to engage in debate. Usually, they seem confused and troubled by the direction in which the Corps is heading.

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Recently, I was talking to an active-duty Marine colonel and the conversation went to Force Design 2030 as expected. During our exchange he said something that struck a chord with me. He remarked that he could not believe that the Marine Corps leadership was turning us into a “one trick pony.” I knew what he meant but asked him to elaborate. He explained that he felt the Corps’ leadership narrowed our purpose to one limited mission, in one theater, and in one role. “That’s not who we are” he passionately declared.

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After that encounter, I could not get that “one trick pony” description out of my mind. I thought about the post-World War II attempt to reduce the Marine Corps to simple naval support roles in the late 1940s. I thought about the attempt to make us into a counterinsurgency force in the 1960s. I thought about the attempt to “mech” us up for fighting in the central front in Europe in the 1970s. I thought about the attempt to turn us into a special ops service in the 1980s. I remember Generals Vandergrift, Victor Krulak, Shoup, Wilson, Barrow, and Kelley resisting those attempts to “purpose design” the Marine Corps  to meet the fad of the moment. They warned against moving our Corps into a narrowly focused role that seemed tempting at the moment but would make us irrelevant once time passed.

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Commandants that followed them like Generals Gray, Mundy, and Charles Krulak built the Corps on global crisis response, against any enemy. They believed in a balanced force that was ready. They sought out missions across the spectrum of conflict. They remained committed to fighting for the deployment and sustainment capabilities that gave the Corps global reach and responsiveness.

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I can remember retired Lieutenant General Victor Krulak talking to my Command and Staff College class. The swirling debate at that time dealt with “meching” up the Marine Corps. He listened patiently to the heated arguments from all sides (at that time we were actually encouraged to debate these issues in our schools!). After exhausting all the arguments, he said simply, “Stay ready, stay balanced, and take on any mission.” Words for all Marines to live by.

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I have listened to our current Marine leaders claim that we can still do the same things we have done in the past. How can that be? We have accepted drastically reduced capabilities in amphibious and maritime prepositioning ships, our means to get there and sustain the force until the supply lines are opened. We have divested ourselves of armor, artillery, engineers, aircraft, infantry, and other critical capabilities. We have heard our leadership talk of “returning to our naval roots” (taken to mean we will reduce our utility by subordinating ourselves to a U.S. Navy type-command), focusing on the littorals, turning into a reconnaissance and surveillance force, and being missile shooters on remote islands. We are becoming this century’s equivalent of the Wake Island Defenders.

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As I watch the crises erupting in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and in other parts of the world (everywhere but the Western Pacific), I wonder why we lost that global focus. Did history not teach our previous Commandant and current Corps leaders anything? No one predicted a war in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East. It was supposed to be in the Central Front in Europe! Once again, we are learning the lesson of losing our global focus. The previous and current Commandants divested the nation’s premier 9-1-1 force into irrelevance, something that every other Commandant since Vandergrift sought to prevent.

-- Anthony C. Zinni

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General Zinni was the former commander of US Central Command and I Marine Expeditionary Force. Compass Points thanks General Zinni for addressing the foundational Marine Corps questions. What is the US Marine Corps? What is it for? What should it be? How can the Marine Corps best serve the Nation? Compass Points also thanks all those across the Marine community and in Congress advocating for the Marine Corps to serve the Nation as the premier, always ready, balanced, global, crisis response force.

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USNI Naval History Magazine

06/2019 Volume 33, Number 3

A Propaganda Machine Like Stalin’s

By Alan Rems

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2019/june/propaganda-machine-stalins