The Fredendall Defense
Government's Prioritization of Credentials over Competence
In 1943, General Dwight Eisenhower assigned General Lloyd Fredendall to head the US II Corps as part of the North African campaign against the Germans in World War II, as part of Operation Torch and the opening of the second front to take a bit of pressure off Russia, fighting for its life in the east. Fredendall had many of the makings of a US Army general officer.: graduated from MIT in 1907, scored at the top of his class in the army qualifying exam in 1906 and shortly after received a officers’s commission as a second lieutenant. He served with distinction in the Philippines and in France in World War I, quickly rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He excelled in managing enlisted and officer training and was particularly adept at administration. Between the World Wars, Fredendall excelled at the US Army Command and General Staff school, scoring in the top 20% of all participants. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1939 and due to the support of many of his superiors, was given a second star under a year later, to major general.
Eisenhower assigned Fredendall to lead the US II Corps in its first battle with vaunted Africa Corps, the German North African army commanded by the brilliant Field Marshal Irwin Rommel at Kasserine Pass in the Tunisian desert. The result was devastating to the Allies (American, British and Free French): over 10,000 dead and wounded, including 3,300 Americans. Over 3,000 Americans were captured. The Germans dished out a 10:1 killed and wounded ratio on the Allies, one of the worst proportional defeats the US Army experienced in the war.
During the review of what happened, Eisenhower fired Fendendall, although he was not the only commander at fault in the disaster. A few things came to light, most notably that Frendendall did not speak with standard military lexicon, designed to ensure clarity in the fog of battle. For example, he referred to infantry as “walking boys,” artillery as “pop guns” and failed to use proper map coordinates in his orders. This created confusion for his commanders who failed to implement his orders because they could not understand them. Fredendall also failed to follow US Army fighting protocols, as he failed to do any reconnaissance of the area to find out where German position were. His young men walked right into a trap that he could have reasonably foreseen.
Even after the complete morale destroying disaster at Kasserine Pass, Fredendall was promoted and General George Marshall added a third star. He was sent stateside to manage US Army infantry training. Connections and an impeccable set of credentials has its benefits.
President-Elect Donald Trump has now indicated the people he wants to serve in his administration. The usual suspects that served him in 2016 are not anywhere on the list. Trump is obviously learning about what does not work during his second and final stint in the White House. His picks to head vital (and some not so vital) federal agencies and departments have been done with a specific intention: non-establishment leaders with high capability who have instructions to “clean up” government. This resonates with supporters because of Trump’s “drain the swamp” slogan aimed at restructuring how government operates. This is definitely a massive undertaking because of the many structural and process barriers within the government designed to prevent a restructuring: civil service/government union protections, required minimum time requirements for procedural changes, Congressional authorization requirements on certain changes.
Yet, the President-Elect remains undaunted by the challenge. Here are some of his picks for senior government positions, all of these are new to the agency they will head and will require a significant orientation to the inter-workings of their particular organization, along with the legacy news criticism:
Secretary of State - Marco Rubio, former Senator
Secretary of Defense - Pete Hegseth, formerly with Fox News
Secretary of Homeland Security - Kristi Noem, former governor
Director of National Intelligence - Tulsi Gabbard, former Representative
U.N. Ambassador - Elsie Stefanik - former Representative
Attorney General - Matt Gaetz - former Representative
It is clear that, after perusing the list, Trump’s appointment strategy is to identify people who have domain knowledge of the agency they will operate, without the social ties to the employees who work there in order to improve their objectivity. This strategy defies conventional wisdom of promoting people through the ranks who have relationships to the agencies they head, plus presidential loyalty. Trump is certainly taking a risk here. If it doesn’t work well enough, Trump looks totally incompetent and the main steam media will remind all voters of that.
Trump, of course, has many critics in the media who think our government is just fine; statism and government corruption are simply a part of the American social fabric. However, there are more conventional critics in the government and the media who have a more specific take: credentials far outweigh capability or actual performance of a job in question. In the slowly dying legacy media’s perspective, the criticism of many of Tump’s picks is that they are often not adequately formally educated, they don’t have experience or have not “paid their dues,” having been in the organizations they now have been appointed to run.
Much of the criticism of Trump’s picks assume credentials are important in senior government roles. A candidate’s university pedigree, family relationships, personal connections, key areas of experience are all included in credentials. Governments often place a premium on ivy league educations, connections, awards and family pedigree. Someone with the last name Kennedy or Bush would be considered for a government position, especially if they graduated from Princeton, perhaps regardless of their capability.
Many organizations, governments in particular, have a fixation on the singular use of credentials as the entry point into senior government positions. Credentials, however, are past focused, sometimes significantly in the past such as Ivy League education. By contrast, ideas, paradigms, capabilities and strengths are future focused. Trump is using a strategy to be future focused, with the mission of making government more accountable to the people and more efficient.
This model also partially explains the government’s support of Kamala Harris, beyond her Democratic Party affiliation. She graduated law school, was a prosecutor and a US Senator. Great credentials, but what of her actual capability? She had difficulty talking with a teleprompter, she had challenges expressing herself forthrightly in interviews and failed to demonstrate how her policies would be successful. Once challenged, the Democratic Party-friendly media’s consistent refrain was simply repeating her credentials and ignoring the obvious capability challenges right in front of the voter. The election for Democrats was the 2024 version of George Marshall promoting Lloyd Fredendall to major general, although the 3,300 American boys at Kasserine Pass would disagree.
Each time the media or members of the current administration and other Trump critics focus on the lack of credentials possessed by the President-Elect’s picks, remember, they are engaging the Fredendall Defense. Yes, Trump could fail and he owns the risk of his administrative picks. However, could he do worse than the current and previous administrations? We will find out in 2028.
I learned something here. Thank you.
Excellent points in this essay. I especially appreciate drawing from historical examples to illustrate the point.