Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. ( SHWORTS-kof; 22 August 1934 – 27 December 2012) was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War against Ba'athist Iraq.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Schwarzkopf grew up in the United States and later in Iran. He was accepted by the United States Military Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1956. After a number of initial training programs, Schwarzkopf interrupted a stint as an academy teacher and served in the Vietnam War, first as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Army and then as a battalion commander. Schwarzkopf was highly decorated in Vietnam and was awarded three Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and the Legion of Merit. Rising through the ranks after the Vietnam war, he later commanded the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and was one of the commanders of the invasion of Grenada.
Assuming command of United States Central Command in 1988, Schwarzkopf was called on to respond to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by the forces of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Initially tasked with defending Saudi Arabia from Iraqi aggression, Schwarzkopf's command eventually grew to an international force of more than 750,000 troops. After diplomatic relations broke down, he planned and led Operation Desert Storm, an extended air campaign followed by a highly successful 100-hour ground offensive, which defeated the Iraqi Army and removed Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991. Schwarzkopf was presented with military honors. He was, like his father, a freemason. He was also a Shriner and was a member of ANSAR Shrine until his death.
Schwarzkopf retired shortly after the end of the war and undertook philanthropic ventures, only occasionally stepping into the political spotlight before his death from complications of pneumonia. A hard-driving military commander, easily angered, Schwarzkopf was considered an exceptional leader by many biographers and was noted for his abilities as a military diplomat and in dealing with the press.
Schwarzkopf was born Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. on 22 August 1934, in Trenton, New Jersey, to Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. and Ruth Alice (née Bowman). His father was a 1917 graduate of the United States Military Academy and veteran of World War I. His mother was a housewife from West Virginia who was distantly related to Thomas Jefferson. The senior Schwarzkopf later became the founding Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, where he worked as a lead investigator on the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. In January 1952, the younger Schwarzkopf's birth certificate was amended to make his name "H. Norman Schwarzkopf", reportedly because his father detested his first name. The younger Schwarzkopf had two elder sisters, Ruth Ann (a civil rights and antiwar activist) and Sally Joan.
Norman Schwarzkopf was described by childhood friends as active and assertive, protective of his sisters and a skilled athlete. He spent his childhood attached to his father, who subsequently became the narrator for the Gang Busters radio program. When Norman Schwarzkopf was eight years old, his father returned to the military amid World War II. His continuous absence made home life difficult, particularly for his wife. As a 10-year-old cadet at Bordentown Military Institute, near Trenton, he posed for his official photograph wearing a stern expression because, as he said afterwards, "Some day when I become a general, I want people to know that I'm serious".
In 1946, when Norman Schwarzkopf was 12, he moved with his father to Tehran, Iran. In Iran, he learned shooting, horseback riding, and hunting. Schwarzkopf developed a lifelong interest in Middle Eastern culture. The family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1947, following a new military assignment for Herbert Schwarzkopf. The senior Schwarzkopf visited Italy, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, and Berlin, Germany, during his military duties, and the younger Schwarzkopf accompanied him. By 1951 he had returned to Iran briefly before returning to the United States. Herbert Schwarzkopf died in 1958. From a young age, Norman wanted to be a military officer, following his father's example.
He attended the Community High School in Tehran, later the International School of Geneva, and briefly Frankfurt American High School in Frankfurt, Germany (1948–49), and Heidelberg American High School in Heidelberg, Germany (1949–50). He eventually graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1952. He was also a member of Mensa. Schwarzkopf graduated valedictorian out of his class of 150, and his IQ was alleged to have tested at 168. Schwarzkopf then attended the United States Military Academy where he played football, wrestled, sang and conducted the West Point Chapel choir. His large frame (6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) in height and 240 pounds (110 kg) in weight) was advantageous in athletics.
In his plebe year, he was given the nickname "Schwarzie", the same as his father, and he was often pushed by older cadets to imitate his father's radio show as a traditional act of hazing. Schwarzkopf gained great respect for certain military leaders at West Point, notably Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Creighton Abrams, believing them to be excellent commanders who nonetheless did not glorify war. He graduated 43rd of 480 in the class of 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Later, Schwarzkopf earned a Master of Engineering at the University of Southern California.
Commissioned into the Army as an Infantry second lieutenant, Schwarzkopf reported to the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course and earned his Parachutist Badge from October 1956 to March 1957. His first assignment was as a platoon leader and later executive officer of E Company, 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He later recounted that it was then that he found chronic problems in military leadership, amid what historians have called a larger doctrinal crisis. Schwarzkopf later said there were many officers and NCOs he met on that assignment who "had no sense of duty or honor, and who saw the world through an alcoholic haze".
He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1958. In July 1959, Schwarzkopf was assigned his first overseas assignment. He was a staff officer alternating with duties as a platoon leader, liaison officer, and reconnaissance platoon leader with the 6th Infantry Regiment in West Germany. In July 1960, Schwarzkopf was assigned as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Charles Johnson who commanded the Berlin Brigade in West Berlin.
Schwarzkopf was promoted to captain in July 1961 and attended the Advanced Infantry School at Fort Benning for eight months and qualified for the Master Parachutist Badge. In June 1962, Schwarzkopf enrolled at the University of Southern California in a Master of Science in Engineering course studying missile mechanics. He graduated in June 1964 with a Master of Science in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He then returned to West Point to serve an obligatory tour as an instructor in the Department of Mechanics. He was assigned to teach at the Military Academy for three years, but after a year he volunteered for service in South Vietnam for faster career advancement with a combat tour. West Point approved his request in early 1965, stipulating that he would return and complete his remaining obligation afterwards.
In the Vietnam War, Schwarzkopf served as a task force adviser to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Airborne Division. He was promoted to major shortly after arriving in Vietnam. After an initial orientation at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), headquartered in Saigon, Schwarzkopf was sent north to Pleiku in the central highlands, in the II Corps Tactical Zone. He got his first combat experience on 3 August, when he was the senior adviser to a force of 1,000 South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to relieve a beleaguered South Vietnamese Army force at Đức Cơ Camp. The paratroopers took heavy casualties and a second, larger force was required to relieve them. That force too came into heavy contact. Schwarzkopf and his group fought continuously for several days. At one point, he braved heavy North Vietnamese fire to recover and treat a handful of wounded South Vietnamese soldiers and escort them to safety.