During the Second World War the US Army commissioned seven films from the director Frank Capra under the title Why We Fight. The first, Prelude to War, was released on May 27, 1942.
General George Marshall explained their purpose in a letter to President Roosevelt. The films would “replace the series of lectures given newly inducted soldiers as to why we are in the war.”
In September 2009 Simon Sinek gave a talk at TEDxPuget Sound called “How great leaders inspire action.” Its central sentence: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” The talk has been played more than 71 million times on the TED website.
Because I said so. This is what a parent says when the reasons have run out. Every American child has heard it.
The phrase is an order without reasons. It ends the conversation without winning the argument.
The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics list practices that students should learn. The third reads: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.”
The standard explains: “Mathematically proficient students understand and use stated assumptions, definitions, and previously established results in constructing arguments.”
“Until early 1994, the Fed did not issue a statement after an FOMC meeting,” the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis writes. The first statement in 1994 was “just four sentences.”
The explanations grew. “In April 2011, then-Chairman Ben Bernanke began the practice of holding a post-meeting news conference four times a year.”
Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a vote that has been taken can be reopened with a motion to reconsider. Only certain members may make it. An early edition says the motion must be made “by a member who voted with the prevailing side,” and it “can be made on the same or succeeding day.”
A losing member cannot reopen the question. Under current rules, the Municipal Research and Services Center explains, rescinding a decision without previous notice “takes a two-thirds vote of votes cast to pass.”
On December 13, 2000, Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush. “I accept the finality of this outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College.”
He added: “for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.” And: “We will stand together behind our new President.”
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance opposed President Carter’s plan to rescue the American hostages in Iran by military force. On April 21, 1980, he gave Carter his resignation letter: “I wish I could support you in it. But for the reasons we have discussed I cannot.”
Carter accepted it. The resignation was announced on April 28.
A quotation attributed to General Colin Powell is repeated in American leadership training and military writing: “When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I’ll like it or not.” Once a decision is made, it continues, the debate ends, and loyalty means “executing the decision as if it were your own.”
Leadership writers trace the words to Oren Harari’s 2002 book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. The research for this post did not find them in any text written by Powell himself.
On April 23, 1949, Defense Secretary Louis Johnson canceled the Navy’s new aircraft carrier, the USS United States. Navy officers kept fighting the decision in Congress. On October 13, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Louis Denfeld, testified: “There is a steady campaign to relegate the Navy to a convoy and antisubmarine service.”
Time magazine called it “the revolt of the admirals.” On October 27, 1949, President Truman removed Denfeld as Chief of Naval Operations.