George Lee Butler XIII-3: SAC Stands Down
Note: This entry is one in a series that tells some of the story of General George Lee Butler. In the early 1990’s, Butler served as the Commander in Chief of the Strategic Air Command, the Air Force command in charge of delivering our nuclear weapons. After retiring from the Air Force in 1994, Butler came eventually to lead efforts for their elimination. Quotations in this piece will be cited to the page numbers where the material appears in Volume II of George Lee Butler’s memoir, Uncommon Cause: A Life at Odds with Convention, Outskirts Press (2016).
Correction to previous entry: General Butler (ret.) has advised me that he considered the use of nuclear weapons in the Gulf War not after he became CINCSAC but earlier, when he was in the Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy in the Pentagon. The Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney had asked General Colin Powell, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for his views on using nuclear weapons in the Gulf War. Powell had referred the question to Butler. Butler did a “think-piece” that recommended against using the weapons for a number of reasons, among them, Butler said, “tactical considerations and, most importantly, the profound implications of ending the historical precedent of non-use.”
After President Bush’s announcement in his speech to the nation on September 27, 1996 that SAC would be standing down, General Butler started on a second round of visits to SACs 36 bases and 120,000 airmen. “I made a commitment,” he wrote,
to talk to every single man and woman in my worldwide organization. I wanted one hundred twenty thousand people in SAC to hear from their commander’s lips why their lives were being turned upside down, some of their aspirations derailed, and, in many cases, their careers effectively terminated. p. 126
He started this round of visits with a SAC Commanders Conference at the end of September which General Butler described as “two days of down and dirty, get it off your chest, cry your eyes out, suck it up and get on with it.” p. 135
It was going to happen now, no doubt about that. After forty-five years, the storied Strategic Air Command would be stood down.
During General Butler’s visits to SAC’s three dozen bases, he would be meeting not only with SAC’s personnel. He would also be meeting with people in the surrounding communities for whom the base sometimes “comprised the lifeblood of their local economies.” p. 131
SAC had, writes Butler,
a well-established program of building ties to local political elites and opinion leaders by hosting them on visits to SAC headquarters. At least monthly, depending on my availability, groups of some two dozen citizens would be transported to Offutt aboard a KC-135 tanker, observing an air-to-air refueling en route, be accommodated in first-rate guest facilities, watch a spectacular multi-media presentation on the Strategic Air Command, spend an hour with me to get my take on world affairs, and then join Dorene and me at the officers’ club for a superb meal and concert by members of the SAC band. p. 130
Now, in his visits to SAC bases,
Every visit included an evening function so we [Dorene and General Butler] could commune with the leading local citizens and spend time at the podium conveying our appreciation for their support and addressing their questions and concerns about the future of the base.
General Butler and Dorene also evaluated the level and quality of that community support. Were the “leading local citizens” making sure, for example, that the military children were getting the proper attention in the schools? What was the quality of care at the local hospital?
Now, with SAC being disestablished, “All,” writes Butler, “lived in genuine fear of having their local facilities announced as candidates for closure or realignment. For some communities, that would be a death knell.” p. 132
The spending in the military-industrial complex or in local communities of the taxes paid by Americans was not seen as such but, whatever else it was, it was a major government jobs and economic stimulus project.
The “peace dividend” that many hoped would follow upon end the of the Cold War might not be seen as such by the armed forces or the defense contractors. Or by many in the communities around the bases. Regardless of their opposition to “government spending.”
Was this one of the dangers of the “undue influence” of the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower had meant to warn us about in his Farewell Address?
General Butler’s visits to SACs people and bases continued into May. On June 1, 1992, SAC was disestablished. General Butler and Dorene mounted a big standing-down ceremony. No former CINCSACs elected to come to it. Only one Vice Commander did so, General Leo Smith, General Butler’s Vice Commander. Smith had been invaluable to Butler in many ways, especially during Butler’s many travels. He would be one of those who would have to retire early because of the change. But he was there.
The next day, STRATCOM was stood up as a joint unified combatant command. Now General Butler’s task would be get STRATCOM up on its sea legs.
Next: Where Now?