3

self-confidence to make his own laws, to make his own rules, to
improvise as the situation dictates, when that's obviously the
thing to do.

Secondly, while here you should gain a new degree of
spontaneity to go along with that self-confidence. The ability
to improvise should be a dividend that springs from such a
period of mental refreshment. This may sound highblown. But,
as I talk a little later, I think you will agree with my mentor
that inventiveness probably is the defining characteristic of
man.

Thirdly, you should gain enough sophistication to be
healthily skeptical. I'll close with a poem that frames that
virtue.

In addition to all of these, I think that, if you are like
myself, the thing you should find in this mid-career education
is a more comfortable feeling about where your profession
stands in the heirarchy of disciplines. Now this is a tough
one. You must gain at least enough historical perspective to
realize that we are in a new age -- and that most of the
slogans of the times are not really to be taken seriously.
There is nothing new under the sun.

Id we are doing our job here, those of you who are trying
in a thoughtful way o get your stuff together can attain what
my friend Dr. Rhinelander (of whom I will speak later) might
call metaphysical equanimity. I think the course should help
you do that. Naturally, I also believe that the course must
have some sort of structure and rigor -- to give you pride. I
think you should be proud to be part of this community. I
say that rather bashfully. I'm going on one input and that I
received in the week we had te Presidents of the other War
Colleges here, before I took over. Those Presidents, those
Generals, envy us in many ways; for our teaching faculty, for
our structured curriculum, for our departments and for our
grading system. It has been a long bloody road to get here. I
never had so clear a signal before to be cautious about change.
In many peoples eyes we have done something that has never
been done quite so well before. I'm talking about my predecessor,
not myself.

It takes structure and rigor for credentials. I am going
to read a paper here now that was presented to me after those
conversations. Fred Hartmann wrote it. I'll read it because I
didn't memorize it. This is in the nature of an announcement.
I hope what he describes will come to pass quickly as we can
work the bugs out:
[underlined] Cooperative Degree Program. [/underlined] I am happy to announce to you
that the CNO has approved a Cooperative Degree Program linking

3