305-306 ARMY MANUAL SAYS G.I.S WILL FOLLOW UN ORDERS

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by Bill Gertz
(The Washington Times)

US forces will serve under United Nations command in peace-keeping operations by the world body, a US Army field manual now under preparation says.

Except for allied command in World War II and the NATO alliance, US combat forces have never been placed under foreign command. This may raise constitutional questions, since the Constitution makes the president the commander-in-chief of all US military forces.

The Army manual on peace operations, now in its fifth draft, says that commanders of UN military operations will report to a special UN representative in the country, or to the secretary-general of the United Nations.

'The force commander will normally exercise operational control over all assigned units, including US units,' the manual says. 'The commander has full command authority over says. 'The commander has full command authority over operational and logistics matters with the exception of purely national administrative matters.'

A primary author of the manual, Col. Jack Clarke of the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., said the manual recognized the prospect that commanders of UN 'peacekeeping operations' may not be US military officers.

'This is a reality we must deal with,' he said in a telephone interview.' Our doctrine is not making policy statement. We have done this kind of thing in the past, we may see it in the future, and we're obligated to tell commanders how the UN functions.'

As examples of the different types of peace operations, the manual lists military support for diplomacy in Cambodia, preventive deployments in Macedonia, protection for humanitarian aid in Somalia and enforcing sanctions in Iraq.

In Somalia, UN control of the operation prompted a change of mission from humanitarian support to taking sides in a civil war when US forces were assigned to hunt Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

The above article has been extracted from The Washington Times (15 December 1993).