Leonard Lopate of WNYC in New York conducted a splendid interview with Clark. The General has been making the rounds on the release of his new book, A Time To Lead.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I always wanted to- I-I wanted a career of service, and I, I-I'd, I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to be i-in space or aeronautics in some way, and I had a, had a National Honor Society scholarship to Georgia Tech, and I had a, a National Merit Society scholarship, I think it was to Duke, and- But I wasn't satisfied. I couldn't see that, and I was at American Legion Boys State at Camp Robinson in the summer of 1961. It was after the eleventh grade. And they always encouraged us, there were 20 or 30 of us who were obviously college-bound they encouraged to go to Boys State and spend five days with the American Legion learning citizenship and how to be elected and leadership and all that. And a West Point cadet came and spoke to us, and I was just totally moved by the vision of the Military Academy. I walked out. I told my friends, "That's it. I'm going to West Point."
Leonard Lopate: And it was a hard school to get into, and it's a hard school to survive in.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It's a challenge, and it was tougher then, I think, to get in, because the school was a little bit smaller than it is today, and the nomination process was strictly political. I wrote to the - the most prominent Senator in the state I thought was Senator Bill Fulbright - and I wrote to, to Senator Fulbright, and I got back a postcard that was, in essence said, 'Thanks for your interest in national security, but there's no vacancies.' It didn't say, 'Apply again.' It said, you know, 'That's it.' I got interviewed by Senator McClellan, and it was one of those funny moments that you remember a long time. You knock on the door. You report in. I'd been at this military high school. So, I kind of knew how to deal with senior people, and so, I knocked on the door and said, "Sir, this is Wesley Clark." And he was sitting behind this huge desk, and McClellan wasn't a big man. He was like four, five-four or five-five I guess, but I didn't know that then. I just saw an older man behind a desk, and he looked me up and down. And it was September of my senior year in high school. And he looked at me, and I was, I was wearing chinos and a, and a short-sleeved shirt. He say, "Boy," he said, "How old are you?" I said, "Well, Sir, I'm 16 years old." He said, "How much do you weigh?" I said, "Sir, I weigh 137 and a half pounds. I, I'd weighed myself at the Boy's Club the night before, and I don't know why I said that, but- He said- So, he put, put on his best investigatory stance. He said, "So, I guess you make good grades, huh?" And he gave me one of these hard looks that you'd give one of his witnesses before his racketeering committee in the Senate. And, and I said, "Yes, Sir." And he said, "All A's?" And (laughs), and, and I said, "Yes, Sir." And then I realized well, not exactly and I tried to explain that I'd taken Honors Math and in my junior year, and it was pre-calculus, and it was a, one of these first advance placement courses. So you got five points for an A and that, even though an A was only four points. So, if you got a B, it counted as an A, and the guidance councillor said it would count as an A. And I'm, and I'm trying to explain all this, and he's looking at me just sort of, you know, watching me shrivel under his, under his intense prosecutorial gaze. And he just, he finally just said, he said, "Son," he said, "you're not old enough, and you're not big enough, and you're not smart enough to go to West Point. So, if you still want it next year, you come back and see me then." And (laughs) that was all.
Leonard Lopate: And you did.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, I didn't go back and see him. I found one other way.
Leonard Lopate: (laughs)
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We had a Congressman. (laughs) I wrote the Congressman. The Congressman had several other people who'd wanted it, and he let us take a test. So, I took the U.S. Civil Service Test in December, and I got the highest score, and I got the test- I got the appointment to West Point.
Leonard Lopate: And you call West Point an 'achievement training factory.' So, obviously you think that it was, it really was a good education.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Tremendous education. It was like, it was like-
Leonard Lopate: Would you like to see all of our schools teach that way?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: If you had the right faculty, and you could teach that way, I think it does some remarkable things. I was lucky though, because I balanced it with Oxford later. West Point was a, it was recitation every day, we called it - six days a week of math plebe year for an hour and 15 minutes. You roared through the math book. And they didn't teach in class. When you went into class, they said, they took attendance. There were 15 of us in the class. And then they said, "Gentlemen, take boards." And you left your seat. You stood up, faced a blackboard. And they hand out a little mimeographed list of problems, normally three or four problems. You took a ruler and chalk. You marked off your blackboard. You solved each problem. And after 20 minutes or thirty minutes, the professor would say, "Cease work," and you'd face about. If you looked to the side during the time you were supposed to be facing that blackboard, that was an honor violation, you'd be kicked out. And then you had to give the recitation, how you solved the problem.
Leonard Lopate: Well, I'm not s-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And that was the end of the class.
Leonard Lopate: I'm not sure that's the best preparation for life.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs)
Leonard Lopate: But it did get you-
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's a good one.
