Chief of Staff -- Walter Bedell Smith (#253)
This year, I am doing a series on leaders and leadership in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in World War II. This is sixth in the series. Check out the blog to see them all or go to the links at the bottom of this article to see the most recent ones.
Walter Bedell Smith
Another unsung hero of World War II, Walter Bedell Smith was a U.S. Army general and diplomat who played a significant role in American military and foreign policy during the mid-twentieth century.
Walter Bedell (pronounced BE DULL — he went by Bedell) Smith was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1895 he was a hard worker, but an average student. He attended Butler College for one year but did not earn a degree. In 1913, Smith met Mary Eleanor (Nory) Cline (1893-1963). They married on July 1, 1917. They did not have any children.
Bedell's military career began in 1917 when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served in France during World War I with the 4th Infantry Division. During the Aisne-Marne Offensive, he earned the Croix du Guerre and was wounded in combat. In the interwar period, Smith became known as a talented and hard-working staff officer and rose through the ranks.
When General George C. Marshall became the Army's Chief of Staff in September 1939, he brought Smith to Washington, D.C., to be the assistant to the Secretary of the General Staff. The Secretary of the General Staff was the “chief of staff to the chief of staff” who was primarily concerned with records, paperwork, and the collection of statistics, but the office also performed a great deal of analysis, liaison, and administration. In September 1941, Bedell became the Secretary of the General Staff. After Smith was promoted to Brigadier General in February 1942, he worked as the secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined Chiefs of Staff for eight months where he gained valuable experience in the political climate of both DC and London.
Eisenhower asked for Smith to be his Chief of Staff during the invasion of North Africa, the invasion of Sicily, and the invasion of Italy. In January 1944, he was sent to London to become the Chief of Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Force — the headquarters for the D-Day invasion and subsequent operations. For the entire war, Smith served at Eisenhower’s side and made sure that the headquarters planned, synchronized, coordinated the logistics for, and supervised the execution of combat operations. It was a very demanding job — the Headquarters, Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force eventually grew to 16,000 officers and enlisted soldiers and oversaw millions of soldiers, sailors, and airmen in combat. Post war historians see the Eisenhower and Smith duo as a good cop, bad cop relationship. Ike got to play good cop, while Bedell played bad cop.
After the war, Smith served as Director of Central Intelligence, where he oversaw the early years of the CIA. Smith also played a significant role in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and served as the first U.S. Ambassador to the organization. He died in 1961 at the age of 66.
Eisenhower’s Six Great Decisions
In 1956, General Beedle Smith wrote a series of articles for Reader’s Digest Magazine. These articles were put together into a book entitled Eisenhower’s Six Great Decisions: Europe 1944-1945. The book is out of print, but I was able to find a used copy on Amazon.
Smith, from his perspective as the former Chief of Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe believes that Ike’s six great decisions were:
The decision to invade Normandy on June 6, 1944
The decision to close the Falaise Pocket in August 1944
The Ardennes counterattack in December 1944 and January 1945
The effort to fight a conclusive battle west of the Rhine in the spring 1945
The encirclement of the Ruhr Industrial Area in March 1945
The drive for the southern redoubt (and not Berlin) in April and May 1945
In the epilogue, Smith halfheartedly defends Eisenhower’s decision to conduct Operation Market-Garden, the failed airborne assault/armored thrust to create a bridgehead over the Rhine in September 1944.
The Chief of Staff
General Bedell Smith described the role of being Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff by saying that he was responsible to “direct planning, coordinate the planning of subordinate headquarters, and to make such decisions as are possible without the personal intervention of the Supreme Commander. Such decisions are made in his name and by his delegated authority. Where really important decisions were involved, the problems (and the chief of staff’s recommended course of action — editor note) had to be presented to General Eisenhower.”
To plan future operations and synchronize the war, Smith held a daily morning staff meeting. The small group — Smith, Intelligence Chief (G-2), Major General K.W.D Strong; Operations Chief (G-3), Major General H.R. Bull; Chief Planner, Major General Whiteley; Deputy Chiefs of Staff Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan and Lieutenant General Humfrey Gale; Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshall Robb; Deputy Supreme Commander of SHAEF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder; and Commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, General Carl Spaatz — gathered around a map and fueled with plenty of coffee worked through the pressing problems of the day and planned upcoming operations. At one point in time they used a captured German sword as a pointer.
Application
Retired General Stanley McChrystal has written and spoken extensively about the role of the Chief of Staff in a military or civilian organization. Today, the Chief of Staff should be a trusted and effective advisor to the leader, helps to manage the day-to-day operations of the organization, helps to balance competing demands and interests within the organization, and assists in building relationships and communicating effectively with a wide range of stakeholders. Ultimately, the Chief of Staff is a critical member of any high-performing team and is someone who can help the leader achieve their goals and objectives. General Beedle Smith epitomized this definition for Eisenhower.
The management of the day-to-day operations in a company are challenging. Most companies I have worked with don’t have a dedicated chief of staff. Or if the company does have a chief of staff, they are not empowered to act in the same way General Beedle Smith did for Eisenhower during World War II. One company, in particular, had an amazing CEO that was fantastic with the board, with investors, and with the media. She struggled, though, to manage her 15 direct reports and the day-to-day operation of the company. If she had hired and empowered a chief of staff, the business would have been a lot better off.
Does your organization have a chief of staff? Are they empowered to plan, manage the day-to-day operation, and make decisions? Could your organization benefit from having a true chief of staff?
Conclusion
The last five blog posts on leaders and leadership from the World War II European Theater of Operations are:
Ike’s 8 Characteristics of Leadership
Interested in bringing your team to Leadership Experience that uses historic case studies at battlefields and museums, like General Smith as a Chief of Staff, to enhance your team’s leadership today? TFCG offers the D-Day, Market-Garden, and Battle of the Bulge Leadership Experiences in Europe. TFCG also offers the Eisenhower, Currahee!, the War in the Pacific Museum, and Pearl Harbor Leadership Experiences in the United States. Send me an email and we can start the discussion today about building better leaders in your organization using a historic Leadership Experience. Or click on one of the pictures to learn more.
In the meantime, go on the offensive and ensure your organization has a Chief of Staff as efficient as General Walter Beedle Smith.
