GARDEN GROVE : Schwarzkopf Lauds Bush at Cathedral

Retired Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf stopped short of endorsing President George Bush for the 1992 presidential election before thousands of Crystal Cathedral church-goers Sunday.

“On a scale of one to 10 as commander in chief of the Persian Gulf War, he was absolutely a 10,” Schwarzkopf told the 9:30 a.m. congregation as they stood up applauding his words.

“Yes, you pick leaders based upon competence, but if you want to lead human beings, you must have ethics, integrity and honesty . . . this thing called character,” he said. “If you truly want to lead people, character is important.”

At the 11 a.m. service, Schwarzkopf said that during Bush’s visit to the Gulf on Thanksgiving when the two pondered over war plan details, “Bush was certainly concerned about the price of lives that could be paid in a war.” He got another standing ovation.

Schwarzkopf “is a fantastic person, and I agree with him,” said Larry Lewer about the general’s views on leadership. Judging by the Bush/Quayle bumper stickers on many of the cars lining the parking lot, the worshipers are partial to the Republican party, and they liked what Schwarzkopf said.

During a Times interview last September, though, Schwarzkopf said: “I don’t want to be a political pawn. I vote every election. Isn’t that enough? Why should I endorse anyone?”

More than 10,000 cathedral members and visitors attended one of the three morning services at which Schwarzkopf spoke. He would not talk to the press, however. Many of the congregation rushed over to the church bookstore and paid $25 for a copy of the retired four-star general’s autobiography, “It Doesn’t Take a Hero,” written with Peter Petre.

Saying Schwarzkopf is his hero, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller asked the Gulf War leader about his faith. Schwarzkopf told him he prayed every day and never went to sleep without reading a few Scriptures from the Bible during the war.

“There’s a saying . . . there are no atheists in foxholes,” Schwarzkopf said. “I’m here to tell you that there are no atheists in the general’s war rooms, either.”

He recalled the prayer he repeated night after night while kneeling by his bed. “Lord make me an instrument of peace. . . . Not my will be done, but thine,” he said. “That gave me the strength to take on whatever I had to take on.

“When you’re a leader, failure should not be in your vocabulary. That’s the way I approach my job,” he said, adding that the heroes of the Gulf War were the 541,000 troops who obeyed orders in the liberation of Kuwait. “I’m not the hero,” he said. “It doesn’t take a hero to order men and women into battle.”

To Nancy Van der Plas, Schwarzkopf was inspiring. “It was really good to know that when he was out there during the war, he ultimately turned to the Lord in prayer,” she said.

“I didn’t know until today that (Schwarzkopf) was a Christian,” said Joan Wagstaff, who traveled from Monrovia to hear him. “He’s a wonderful leader with honesty and integrity--makes you proud to be an American.”