‘Misdirected Midshipman’

Petrino’s essay about Ollie North is as interesting for what he reveals about himself as it is for what he correctly asserts about North and the “military disorientation” that fosters misconceptions about “service” and, to use our President’s peculiar term, “heroism.”

Petrino fails to explicitly cite himself as one example of the lack of good leadership North needed when he was creeping around Bancroft Hall in order to change his medical records to qualify for the Marine Corps.

This may be the psychotherapist’s effective ego defense. But the former midshipman, self-described as “ostensibly the personification of the highest standards and ideals of military leadership,” probably violated his academy’s honor code in ignoring North’s clandestine activity and he certainly failed then to realize his responsibility to enlighten the one of gung-ho spirit but of lesser intelligence: that the ends do not justify the means.

In his failure to be a lucid thinker and responsible leader in a mind-fogging system, Petrino gave exemplification to the old joke--military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

This is an old joke we can’t afford to chuckle over. And the lack of intelligence is not limited to those in military leadership. The mindless zealotry that motivated the contras arms deal is but one example of leadership irresponsibility. In this decade we’ve witnessed profound failures in the wisdom of our nation’s government, business, entertainment and educational leaders. Perhaps the psychotherapist Petrino should analyze the “double bind” that seems to be giving all of our leaders “confusing messages” about how to behave in our society.

MELINDA BARTH

Rancho Palos Verdes