In reading Rick Atkinson’s excellent “Day of Battle” regarding the Italian campaign, I have begun to reassess my views on General Mark Clark. Whereas I once regarded him as a cold, ruthless press whore, I now see him as a capable and intelligent commander; if one with many flaws. Atkinson paint’s a somewhat sympathetic portrait of a man that was just powerful enough to be isolated from those in his own command that sought to avoid him in a manner comically reminiscent of the Major Major character in “Catch 22” (he brought his dog back with him from a leave for some companionship) and forced to make difficult decisions in which he was fully accountable for, but not with the kind of sway that Ike had in pressing his will. Often isolated, Clark was caught in a very difficult position between the British under Churchill that wanted to prosecute the war through Italy while placing a great deal of importance on the Mediterranean Theater and the Americans that generally thought this was a useless sideshow distraction preventing the entering Europe closer to German industry.
He faced a tough, determined enemy, was fighting on ground mostly favorable to the defender, and real problem with feeding the liberated Italian population causing logical nightmare. He was also beset with the prospect of the Italian campaign becoming a backwater theater that would be shorted in supplies and manpower once D-Day was underway.
I think the most interesting thing is that I learned that at least some of what history has painted as Clark’s incessant press whoring was actually a case of his wife granting interviews and exposing his private letters to her to the newspapers in order to celebrate her husband and to push him into politics after the war. He actually found this quite embarrassing and it caused him rebuke from Gen. Marshall…
