Tom Clancy: When did you first decide you wanted to be a Marine?
General Krulak: I decided that I wanted to be a Marine between the ages of eight and ten. It was the period when my dad was in Korea and immediately after his return. During that time he was involved in the fight to save the Marine Corps, which resulted in the amendment to the National Security Act of 1947. I could-n' t help being impressed by his efforts and by those of other senior officers and politicians [involved in the legislative fight that ensued] who came in and out of our house at that tremendously important time in the history of the Marine Corps. These men were involved in great efforts the results of which are reflected in the Corps we have today.
Tom Clancy: Did you have a sense of just who your father was, and how important he was in the history of the Marine Corps?
General Krulak: I didn't understand at the time. I knew that during the National Security Act struggle — during the second session of the 82nd Congress — he was doing something important; he was gone a lot, and my mother would just tell me that he was doing "important work." It was not until much later, however, that I realized how critical and pivotal these events were for the Marine Corps.
Tom Clancy: Let's talk about your career. It began at the Naval Academy, what years were you there?
General Krulak: 1960 to 1964. My class [of '64] had some very special people in it. The current Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command [Admiral Joe Preuher] was my classmate, as was Secretary of the Navy John Dalton, plus a whole group of Navy admirals that are currently on active duty. It was a very special class in the sense of what has transpired for all of us and the Naval Service since graduation.
Following graduation from the Naval Academy and commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant, General Krulak went to serve in South Vietnam. The experience was a defining moment for the young Krulak, and is best described by his own words.
Tom Clancy: What units did you serve with in Vietnam?
General Krulak: Immediately after attending the Basic School, I joined the 1st Marine Division and served as a platoon commander with Golf [G] Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines (2/1). Shortly after arriving at Camp Pendleton, the war broke out, and I was deployed with 2/1. I spent thirteen months in Vietnam, and was the commander of Golf Company by the time I returned.
Tom Clancy: Many people came away with vivid impressions of their experiences from Southeast Asia. What were yours? How does your own Vietnam experience effect what you do now?
General Krulak: I think that is a great question because the war has definitely had an impact on much of today's military leadership. I believe that we have a group of idealists at the senior levels of the military today — whether you are talking about a now-retired Colin Powell, a John Shalikashvili, or a Tony Zinni [the current commander of the I MEF]. I'm talking about the folks who came out of that war, particularly those who did multiple tours, who believed that there must be a more clearly defined reason for going to war again. Then, we went through the immediate aftermath of the war, where you had the race-relation and manpower problems which made the choice of a continued military career difficult. For an officer to lead a platoon or a company in Vietnam, come home and face the institutional issues of the day, and still progress up the promotion ladder required a deep-seated set of values — a commitment that next time, things were going to be done differently. No matter how it is described, I think that somewhere in each of us is a touchstone that we reach back to when things are tough. It helps us remember what happened in Vietnam and the promises we made that we would do things differently next time. I remember that even during the war we saw that things could be done better. We all made it through some tough times by sticking to our guns and to our ethos.
Tom Clancy: You did two tours in Vietnam. Would you please talk about them?
General Krulak: I went to Vietnam with the 1st Marine Division on Operation Harvest Moon in early 1965 [one of the earliest Marine operations in Vietnam], and stayed through 1966. I went back in 1969 with the 3rd Marine Division and spent all of my time in the Northern (I Corps) sector. That second tour went through the "Vietnamization" and drawdown phases of the war. What means more to me than a list of operations, dates, and places is what my experiences in Vietnam meant in terms of shaping me as an officer, and that goes back to what I learned about the Corps and Marines during that time. The most important lesson that came out of Vietnam for me was that Marines take care of Marines. I saw this over and over again; young Marines with wives and children back home who had every right to just look out for number one and make it back alive, but they all, to a man, would lay down their own life for the lives of their fellow Marines. Regardless of what was happening with the war on a macro sense, what I was experiencing on the ground with my Marines had a profound effect on me.
Following Vietnam, Chuck Krulak entered the normal career track of a Marine officer, which is to say that he did a variety of things. Some were normal "Marine" jobs, while others had what is now called a "joint" flavor.
Tom Clancy: After Vietnam, where did you serve?
General Krulak: I went back to the Naval Academy as an instructor, and I took with me the deep personal sense of our ethos. It dawned on me that this time [as a midshipman at Annapolis] is a critical period for new Navy and Marine officers. It is where their values — which mean more than anything — will be developed, so I took that responsibility very seriously.
From there I went out and commanded the Marine Barracks at Naval Air Station [NAS], North Island, California, and then went to study at the Army Command and General Staff College [Fort Leavenworth, Kansas]. From there I reported to the 3rd Marine Division, and served as the operations officer [S- 3] of 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment [2/9]. Then I moved to Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., and worked in the Manpower Division, followed by a tour as a student at the National War College [Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.]. After that, I was sent to Hawaii and served as the Fleet Marine Forces Pacific plans officer, then executive officer of the 3rd Marine Regiment, and as commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines [3/3]. I then moved over to head the prepositioning ship program for the staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade [MEB], and eventually became the brigade operations officer [G-3]. I then moved back to northern Virginia and spent one of the most challenging years of my life as the military assistant to Mr. Don Latham, the then Undersecretary of Defense for CI [Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence]. I was the oversight officer for the battle management system on the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was incredible to be involved in a system that was definitely on the cutting edge. From there I went to the White House. I was there during the last year of the Reagan Administration [1988] and the first year of the Bush Administration [1989] as Deputy Director of the White House office. Following my White House tour, I was the assistant division commander of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Then I took over command of the 2nd Force Service Support Group.