Jim Webb, former U. S. Marine
President of the United States on January 20, 2017
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American
politician and author. He has served as a United
States Senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary
of Defense, congressional staffer, and Marine Corps officer. In the private
sector he has been an Emmy-award winning journalist, a filmmaker, and the author
of ten books. In addition, he taught literature at the United States Naval
Academy and was a Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. As a member of
the Democratic Party, Webb announced on November 19, 2014, that he was forming
an exploratory committee to evaluate a run for President of the United States in
2016.
Early life
Webb was born in Saint Joseph,
Missouri, to James Henry Webb, and his wife, Vera Lorraine
(Hodges). As the second of four children and the older son, he grew up in a
military family, moving frequently as his father's career in the United
States Air Force required. The family crisscrossed the
country along the way, living in Missouri, Illinois,
Texas, Alabama, Nebraska,
California, and Virginia, as well as in England, where
his father was an exchange officer with the Royal Air Force. His father flew
B-17s and B-29s during World War II, and flew cargo in the 1948 - 1949 Berlin
airlift. After developing an inner ear disorder, Meniere's Disease, he became a pioneer in the Air Force missile program, later
serving as the Commanding Officer of the 1001st Missile Squadron at Vandenberg
Air Force Base. Webb's father and mother are buried at the Arlington
National Cemetery.
Webb is descended from Scots-Irish immigrants from Ulster who
emigrated in the 18th century to the British
North American colonies. Webb's 2004 book Born
Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America details his family history,
noting that his ancestors fought in every major American war. A 2014 TV
documentary on the Smithsonian Channel, also entitled Born Fighting, was adapted from Webb's book
and is narrated by him.
Education
Webb attended more than a dozen schools across
the U.S. and in
England. After graduating from high
school in Bellevue, Nebraska, he attended the
University of Southern California on a Navy
Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship from 1963–1964
(and was a member of Delta Chi). In 1964, Webb earned appointment to the United States
Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. At Annapolis, Webb was a member of the Brigade
Honor Committee and the Brigade Staff. When he graduated in 1968, he received
the Superintendent’s Letter for Outstanding Leadership. After his medical
retirement from the Marine Corps due to injuries received in Viet Nam, Webb
enrolled in law school at Georgetown University where he earned a Juris Doctor
and received the Horan Award for excellence in legal writing.
Personal life
Webb has been married three times, has four grown
children, as well as a young child with his current wife Hong Le, and is
stepfather to Le's daughter, Emily, from a previous marriage.
His first marriage was to Barbara
Samorajczyk, a member of the Anne Arundel County,
Maryland, Council. They divorced in 1979. They have one
daughter, Amy Webb, who was eight at the time of the divorce.
His second marriage was to health-care lobbyist
Jo Ann Krukar in 1981 who also assisted in his 2006
Senate campaign. They have three children: Sarah, Jimmy, and Julia. Jimmy Webb
was a rifleman and Sergeant in the United
States Marine Corps, and served a tour in Iraq with Weapons Company, 1st
Battalion 6th Marines. In tribute to Jimmy Webb and "all the
people sent into harm's way", Webb wore his son's old combat boots every day
during his 2006 Senate campaign. married to Hong Le Webb, a
Vietnamese-American securities and corporate lawyer,
twenty-two years his junior. Hong Le Webb was born in South Vietnam and escaped to the United
States when she was seven after the fall of
Saigon. She grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. They married in October
2005. Webb have one child together, Georgia LeAnh,
born December 2006. Hong Le Webb also has a daughter from a previous marriage.
Jim Webb speaks Vietnamese.
Military service
After graduating from the Naval Academy, Webb was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. Attending
the Marine Corps Officer Basic School
shortly after leaving Annapolis, he graduated first in his class. He
was promoted to first lieutenant in the second half
of his tour in Vietnam. He served as a
platoon commander with Delta Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines. He was
awarded the Navy Cross for heroism in
Vietnam, the second highest
decoration in the Navy and Marine Corps. Webb also was awarded the Silver
Star, two Bronze Stars, and two
Purple Hearts. After returning from
Vietnam he was assigned to Marine
Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, as an instructor for OCS. Deep selected for
Captain, he was then assigned to the Secretary of the Navy's office for the
remainder of his active duty. His war wounds left him with shrapnel in his knee,
kidney, and head. The injury to his knee led to a medical board that decided on
medical retirement.
Awards and
decorations
Known decorations and medals
include:
Webb received the Navy Cross for actions on July 10, 1969. The citation read:
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The
Navy Cross is presented to James H. Webb, Jr., First
Lieutenant, U.S.
Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as a Platoon Commander
with Company D, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division
(Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in connection with combat operations against
the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On July 10,
1969, while participating in a company-sized search and destroy operation deep in hostile territory, First Lieutenant Webb's
platoon discovered a well-camouflaged bunker complex that appeared to be
unoccupied. Deploying his men into defensive positions, First Lieutenant Webb
was advancing to the first bunker when three enemy soldiers armed with hand
grenades jumped out. Reacting instantly, he grabbed the closest man and,
brandishing his .45 caliber pistol at the others,
apprehended all three of the soldiers. Accompanied by one of his men, he then
approached the second bunker and called for the enemy to surrender. When the
hostile soldiers failed to answer him and threw a grenade that detonated
dangerously close to him, First Lieutenant Webb detonated a claymore
mine in the bunker aperture, accounting for two enemy
casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris
from the explosion and the possibility of enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel,
he then conducted a thorough search that yielded several items of equipment and
numerous documents containing valuable intelligence
data. Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to
fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Observing the grenade land
dangerously close to his companion, First Lieutenant Webb simultaneously fired
his weapon at the enemy, pushed the Marine away from the grenade, and shielded
him from the explosion with his own body. Although sustaining painful
fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the
aperture and completely destroy the remaining bunker. By his courage, aggressive
leadership, and selfless devotion to duty, First Lieutenant Webb upheld the
highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval
Service.[19]
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In a November 19, 2006 appearance on Meet the
Press, Webb told host Tim Russert, "I’m one of
these people who – there aren't many of us – who can still justify for you the
reasons that we went into Vietnam, however screwed up
the strategy got."
Post-military career
James Webb as Assistant Secretary of Defense,
1984.
Webb attended Georgetown Law Center from 1972 to 1975, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree. While at Georgetown, he wrote his first book,
Micronesia and U.S. Pacific Strategy.
From 1977 to 1981, Webb worked on the staff of
the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. During this
time, he also represented veterans pro-bono. Webb
also taught at the Naval Academy and was criticized for a 1979
article published in the Washingtonian magazine titled "Women Can't
Fight" (see "Senate Election" below).
During the Reagan Administration, Webb served as the nation's first Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1984 to 1987. During his
time as Assistant Secretary, Webb sought to reorganize the Marine Corps. He was
gravely concerned with the disarray the Marines had fallen into post-Vietnam:
drug use, racial infighting, and low morale within the Corps left him with the
impression it was no longer America's premier fighting force. The
Marine Corps was also rocked by two scandals during this time: the
Clayton Lonetree espionage affair, where Lonetree
became the first Marine convicted of espionage, and Marine Lt. Colonel
Oliver North's central role in the Iran-Contra
affair.
In 1987, he served as Secretary of the
Navy, becoming the first Naval Academy graduate to serve as the civilian head of the Navy. As Navy
Secretary, Webb pushed the appointment of Alfred M. Gray, Jr. as Commandant of the Marine Corps,
hoping that Gray could reshape the Corps into the elite unit it once was. Webb
resigned in 1988 after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the Navy. Webb
had wished to increase the Navy to 600 ships. As
revealed in The Reagan Diaries, President Ronald Reagan wrote on February 22, 1988: "I don't think Navy was sorry to see
him go."
After his resignation, Webb earned his living
primarily as an author and filmmaker. He won an Emmy Award for his 1983 PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut.
Among Webb's awards for community service and
professional excellence are the Department of Defense Distinguished Public
Service Medal, the Medal of Honor Society's Patriot
Award, the American Legion National Commander's
Public Service Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars
Media Service Award, the Marine Corps League's
Military Order of the Iron Mike Award, the John H. Russell Leadership Award, and the Robert L. Denig Distinguished Service Award
In a 1990 New York Times opinion piece,
Webb opposed further U.S.
military escalation in Saudi Arabia during
Operation Desert Shield citing lack of a coherent
strategy and consent from the United States Congress. He also warned against a
permanent military presence in the Middle East.
Seven months before the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War, Webb wrote an essay for the Washington Post in which
he
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questioned whether an overthrow of Saddam would "actually increase our ability to win the war against
international terrorism" and pointed out that the measure of military success
can be preventing wars and well as fighting them. He charged, "those who are
pushing for a unilateral war in Iraq know full well that there is no
exit strategy if we invade." He concluded, "the Iraqis are a multiethnic people
filled with competing factions who in many cases would view a
U.S. occupation as infidels invading
the cradle of Islam. … In Japan, American occupation forces
quickly became 50,000 friends. In Iraq, they would quickly become
50,000 terrorist targets."
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During the 2004 presidential campaign, Webb wrote an op-ed piece for USA
Today in which he, as a military veteran, evaluated the candidacies of
John Kerry and George W. Bush. He criticized Kerry for the nature of his opposition to the
Vietnam War in the 1970s while affiliated with the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and accused Bush of
using his father's connections to avoid service in Vietnam. Webb also wrote that Bush
had "committed the greatest strategic blunder in
modern memory" with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Webb supported Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey's campaign for the
1992 Democratic presidential nomination. In 1994 he
endorsed incumbent Democrat Charles Robb for
reelection to his Senate seat, over Webb's former Naval Academy classmate Oliver North; like Webb, both Robb and North were decorated Marine veterans of
the Vietnam war. Webb subsequently endorsed Republican George Allen over Robb in 2000, and then ran against Allen himself in
2006.
United States Senate
2006 Senate
campaign
Main article: Virginia United States Senate
election, 2006
In late 2005, a campaign to draft Webb to run for the Senate in 2006
began on the internet, promoted by netroots activists
such as those at the blog Raising Kaine. On February
7, 2006, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against incumbent
Virginia Senator George Allen.
In the Democratic primary on June 13, 2006, Webb
faced longtime businessman and lobbyist Harris Miller. Webb won with 53.5% of the vote, in a race with low
turnout.
Webb benefited from the fallout from an August
11, 2006, incident in which Allen used the word macaca to refer to
S.R. Sidarth, who was filming an event as a "tracker"
for the Webb campaign. A poll the following week showed Webb gaining 10
percentage points. The race, which at one point looked like a sure win for
Allen, became one of the most watched and closest races of the 2006
elections.
Allen had been expected to be reelected
relatively easily, and that this reelection would prepare him for a possible
2008 Presidential candidacy. But Webb's entry into the race and primary victory
changed the political landscape. Political analyst Larry Sabato said in May that "Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a
war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions… Allen tries to
project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it." In September,
Bloomberg.com's Catherine Dodge wrote an article
highlighting Webb and the Senate race, and said "Webb isn't a typical Democrat.
His family hails from the rural southern part of the state. He's pro-gun
ownership, and he takes a harder line on illegal immigration than many Senate
Republicans."
On September 7, 2006, Webb released his first
television advertisement, which included footage of a 1985 speech by
Ronald Reagan that praised Webb's service as a
Marine. The next day, the Chief of Staff for the Reagan Library wrote Webb's
campaign on behalf of former first lady Nancy Reagan,
urging them not to air the advertisement saying it was neither fair nor
respectful because it gave the impression of an endorsement. The Webb campaign
disagreed, saying, "What Reagan said about Jim Webb, that belongs to Jim Webb,
frankly." The library said they ask all candidates to refrain from using the
former president's image but declined to say if they would request the Allen
campaign to remove the image of Reagan used on his campaign
website.
Five female graduates of the United States
Naval Academy held a press conference, decrying Webb's 1979
article, "Women Can't Fight." The women said Webb's article contributed to an
atmosphere of hostility and harassment towards women at the academy. Webb was later endorsed by nine military women who stated that
Webb is a "man of integrity" who "recognizes the crucial role that women have in
the military today."
In October 2006, the Allen campaign issued a
press release quoting several passages from Webb's novels with sexual content,
including graphic references to female anatomy and purported pedophilia,
homosexuality and incest, citing a passage in which a Southeast Asian father
ritually places the penis of his young son in his mouth. The press release said
that the passages showed a "continued pattern of demeaning women". Allen's
campaign refused to tell a local radio news station, WTOP-FM, whether it in fact
had issued a news release on the matter.
On November 9, 2006, after AP and
Reuters projected that Webb had won the seat, Allen
conceded the election. Although the margin was narrow – less than half of 1% of
the total vote and therefore small enough under Virginia law to allow demanding a recount –
Allen stated that he would not challenge the
result.
Webb, as a Democratic veteran challenger, was
also considered one of the Fighting Dems.
Senator-elect
On November 15, 2006, Senate
majority-leader-in-waiting Harry Reid assigned Webb
to three committees: the committees on Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, and Armed
Services.
That same day, an op-ed authored by Webb appeared in the pages of the Wall Street
Journal. Titled "Class Struggle," the piece addressed what Webb feels is
growing economic inequality in the United States. The article mentioned
overly permissive immigration policies, extravagant executive
compensation, the detrimental effects of free
trade and globalization,
iniquitous tax cuts, and speedily rising health care
costs, and attacked the "elites" whom Webb said perpetuate the aforementioned
woes for their personal economic gain.
Exchange with President
Bush
On November 28, 2006, at a White House reception
for those newly elected to Congress, Webb did not choose to wait in the line to
have his picture taken with the president, whom Webb often criticized during the
campaign. The president approached Webb later and asked him, "How's your boy?",
referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
Webb replied "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr.
President." Bush responded, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" Webb
responded, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President." The Hill cited an anonymous source who claimed that Webb was so angered by
the exchange that he confessed he was tempted to "slug" the president. Webb
later remarked in an interview, "I'm not particularly interested in having a
picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall."
In response to the incident, some conservatives
criticized Webb, including George Will, who called
Webb a "boor" and wrote, "[Webb] already has become what Washington did not need
another of, a subtraction from the city's civility and clear speaking." Others,
such as conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy
Noonan, reserved their criticism for Bush, writing: "I
thought it had the sound of the rattling little aggressions of our day, but not
on Mr. Webb's side."
Webb was asked about the exchange in a January 4,
2007 appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews. He told
Matthews:
"My feeling about that – first of all, it's been
kind of a bit overblown. But I think when people are now seeing how John
McCain is handling the situation with his son being in the
Marine Corps, perhaps they can understand a little
bit more what I was having to go through during the entire campaign. I greatly
respect my son‘s service and all of the people who are serving. At the same
time, I have not commented, even to many of my friends, about the operational
side. That‘s personal to me in terms of my feelings about it. And it was not a
casual comment. As I said in the piece that you just ran, I think the best
article that was written on that was by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street
Journal when she basically said that the lack of civility was not mine and I
feel that way."
After his son returned from Iraq,
Webb "buried the hatchet" with the president by setting up a private chat with
his son, the president, and himself in the Oval Office.
Tenure as Senator
On January 4, 2007, Webb was sworn into the
110th U.S. Senate, accompanied by Sen. John
Warner, R-Va., a fellow former Secretary of the
Navy; and former Virginia Democratic Sen. Chuck
Robb, who held the same seat before losing to
Allen.
On his first day in the Senate, Webb introduced
the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, to
expand benefits for military families, which he had written. The act replaces
key provisions of the Montgomery G.I. Bill
for recent veterans and “makes veterans benefits identical to those soldiers
received following World War II.” “With many of our military members serving two
or three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is past time to enact
a new veterans’ education program modeled on the World War II era G.I. bill.
This is exactly what our legislation does.” Webb said. It became law on June 30,
2008, as part of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008.
In a January 4, 2007, appearance on The
Situation Room, Webb articulated his position on the Iraq War: "What we really need to do is to get into the arena where we can
talk about a strategy, talk about the pluses and the minuses of the
Baker-Hamilton Commission and work toward a solution
that, on the one hand, will allow us to remove our combat troops, but on the
other, will increase the stability of the region, allow us to continue to fight
against international terrorism and allow us, as a nation, to address our
strategic interests around the world. And this is – this is one of the drawbacks
that we've had with so many troops having been put into this constant rotational
basis inside one country when we have a war against international terrorism
that's global."
Asked by Wolf Blitzer
if he would ever support the efforts of Dennis Kucinich to cut funding for the war, Webb said, "I – you know, I lived
through Vietnam. I lived through it as a Marine and I know that those sorts of
approaches, while they seem attractive on one level are really not that
realistic. What we want to do – and I was talking with a number of senators
today – is to try to get some of these so-called emergency legislation packages
back into the committee process so that the committees can actually
play."
On January 23, 2007, Webb delivered the
Democratic response to the President's State
of the Union address, focusing on the economy and
Iraq. Webb's speech drew positive
reviews, and was regarded as one of the stronger State of the Union responses in
recent memory. Webb, a decorated war veteran, spoke of his family’s military
past, his own passionate attachment to the military, and the way in which
previous presidents had always attempted to ensure that all precautions had been
taken when sending young Americans into harm's way.
On March 5, 2007, Webb introduced his second
piece of legislation, S.
7595 intended to prohibit the use of funds for military
operations in Iran without the prior approval of
Congress. In a statement on the floor of the Senate, Webb said, "The major
function of this legislation is to prevent this Administration from commencing
unprovoked military activities against Iran without the approval of the
Congress. The legislation accomplishes this goal through the proper
constitutional process of prohibiting all funding for such an
endea"
On March 26, 2007, a senatorial aide of Webb,
Phillip Thompson, was arrested for carrying Webb's loaded pistol as he entered
the Russell
Senate Office Building and for carrying unregistered
ammunition. The weapon was discovered when Thompson went through an X-ray
machine with a briefcase that contained a loaded pistol and two additional
loaded magazines. Charges against the aide were dismissed after prosecutors
concluded it could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson was
aware that the gun and ammunition were in the briefcase. Webb responded to his
aide's arrest by reiterating his support for gun-owners'
rights:
"I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment;
I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time; I believe that it's
important; it's important to me personally and to a lot of people in the
situation that I'm in to be able to defend myself and my
family."
2009 visit to Southeast
Asia
See also: Burma – United
States relations
On August 14, 2009 Webb visited
Myanmar (Burma), seeing its junta's leader, Gen.
Than Shwe, and also the pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest. During
Webb's visit with Than Shwe, Webb negotiated the release and deportation of an
imprisoned American, John Yettaw.
Webb visited Vietnam
as part of a two-week trip to five Southeast Asian countries. The Senator, who
served as chair of the Senate Foreign Relation’s subcommittee on East Asia and
Pacific Affairs, stopped in Hanoi, Da
Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City on
August 19, where he met government officials, business leaders, and friends from
his past involvement in US-Vietnamese relations. Webb, who can speak Vietnamese,
has had a continuous involvement in Asian and Pacific affairs that long predates
his time in the Senate. In addition to his more recent visits as a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Webb has worked
and traveled throughout this vast region, from Micronesia to Burma, for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a
defense planner, a journalist, a novelist, a Department of Defense executive,
and as a business consultant. He worked in the 1990s as a consultant for
companies attempting to do business in Vietnam.
Criminal Justice Commission Act of
2009
On March 26, 2009, Webb filed the Criminal
Justice Commission Act of 2009 (SB 714), which would create
a blue ribbon commission to reevaluate the criminal justice system and drug
policy and make recommendations for reform. Noting that the United States houses 25% of the world's inmates
despite having only 5% of the world's population, Webb proposed a comparison
between U.S. incarceration policies and those
of other developed nations. At a United States Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs hearing, Webb described the
criminal justice system as being in "...a profound,
deeply corrosive crisis that we have largely been ignoring at our peril." He
also criticized the lack of standards in prison administration and highlighted
the justice system's negative impact on communities. The subcommittee chairman,
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), expressed support for the
bill at the hearing and indicated his intent to move the bill to the full
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. By
the end of June 2010, the bill had 39 cosponsors.
In the fall of 2009, an amendment to SB 714 was
proposed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would
have prohibited the commission created by the bill from discussing or
recommending the decriminalization or legalization of any substance prohibited
under the Controlled Substances Act. The proposed
amendment drew criticism from some in the online community and was perceived as
an attempt at censorship. Grassley later rescinded the amendment and claimed in
a Des Moines Register op-ed he had proposed it to "start a debate on this
important issue."
SB 714 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a
voice vote on January 21, 2010.
Engagement with Vietnam on
rights
On January 27, 2010, Webb condemned
Vietnam's jailing of four dissidents but urged the
Obama administration not to isolate the communist
nation. Webb voiced concern about Vietnam's jailing of the four
dissidents for subversion in a day-long trial the previous week. "The arrest and
trial of these individuals illustrates the growing pressure in Asia towards
government censorship and authoritarian control," said Webb, "Rather than
isolate Vietnam for its
actions, I encourage the Obama administration to continue to raise issues of
freedom of association and rule of law with the government of Vietnam."
Webb is a strong advocate of engagement with
non-democratic states in Asia. He is the most
prominent advocate in Congress for dialogue with military-run
Myanmar, often pointing to
Vietnam as an example of how
US engagement can lead to greater
openness. Vietnam sentenced
the four democracy advocates to between five and 16 years in prison, a decision
condemned by the United
States and European Union.
Retirement from the U.S.
Senate
On February 9, 2011, Webb announced that he would
not run for re-election of his Senate seat in 2012.
Committee
assignments
2008 vice presidential
speculation
Webb was frequently mentioned as a possible
vice presidential Democratic nominee for
Barack Obama in 2008 due to his military experience
and moderate policy positions. Although he said he was not interested in the
vice presidency, speculations about his being picked by Obama, the presumptive
Democratic nominee at the time, were still heard.
Some felt that Webb's commentary on women serving
in the military (e.g., his 1979 article "Women Can't Fight") was a strong
consideration as to his possible candidacy. His selection would have closely
followed the somewhat divisive Democratic primary battle between Obama and
Hillary Clinton, whose candidacy had received strong
support from organized feminism, and who would have been the first female major
party nominee for the presidency, had she won the nomination. This situation may
have made the prospect of Webb as Obama's running mate entirely politically
untenable, as it could have caused many Democratic Clinton supporters to balk at
switching allegiance to Obama.
On July 7, Webb effectively removed himself as a
possible candidate for Vice President in a statement made to Time,
stating that he intended to serve his term in the Senate and that "under no
circumstances will I be a candidate for Vice President." Obama went on to choose
fellow senator Joe Biden as his running
mate.
