GENERAL CREIGHTON ABRAMS

Creighton W. Abrams was a graduate of the 1936 class of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Holding the rank of fourstar General, Creighton Abrams died in September 1974 while serving as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. General Abrams was the last commander of American troops in Vietnam. Very early in Creighton Abrams Army career, he played an instrumental role in the relief of American forces at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. As Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Abrams laid the plans for the buildup of the Army that occurred during the Reagan Administration, as well as defined the armororiented, mechanized character of the revitalized Army. Each of these three stages of the military career of Creighton Abrams provided unique opportunities for both the development and the application of the General's leadership skills.

This examination of the leadership practiced by Creighton Abrams covers the spectrum of the General's life. In the following chapter (Chapter 2) a brief biographical sketch of Creighton Abrams is presented, while the concept of leadership, particularly as that concept is applied in military organizations, is defined and examined in Chapter 3. Creighton Abrams strengths and weaknesses as a military leader, together with the General's accomplishments as a military commander, are re

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ng side, he contended a yielding characteristic is equally as necessary. Military leaders find that they must behave in each of these ways in differing situations. Gardner also stated that a leader must seek ascendance, and dominance, and must be assertive. By contrast, Heider stated that a leader must be a healer as well as a warrior, must be flexible, as opposed to rigid, and must be soft as well as strong. Again, these characteristics need not be mutually exclusive. The characterizations of both Gardner and Heider applied to the leadership of Creighton Abrams. Gardner also stated that leaders should be free from obsessive convictions. General Creighton Abrams harbored obsessive convictions that, at times, biased his decisionmaking. Having made that statement, however, no one has suggested that Creighton Abrams' leadership decisions were in error because of his convictions. Gardner held that an effective leader will insure the presence of continuity in the group, while managing necessary change. Heider supported this contention, by explaining that a leader must not confuse principle and process, and that a leader must recognize that nothing is really new. These maxims were characteristic of the leadership of Creighto
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