James H. Webb

James H. Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is a former Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, best-selling author, and a former United States Marine Corps officer decorated for valor in the Vietnam War. Webb is running for the United States Senate as a Democrat in Virginia. He defeated Harris Miller 53.5% to 46.5% in the June 13, 2006, primary election

Early life

Webb, a native of Saint Joseph, Missouri, attended the University of Southern California on a Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship for a year, where he was a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity. He then transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1968 as a classmate of Dennis Blair and Oliver North. Webb and several other Academy graduates, including North and Senator John McCain, are the subject of Robert Timberg's book The Nightingale's Song.

Military career

Webb was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. He served with the 5th Marine Regiment in Vietnam as a rifle platoon and company commander. He remained in the Marine Corps until 1972, receiving the Navy Cross,Navy Cross Citation: Webb, James H., Jr., Date of Action: July 10, 1969. Posted on Home of Heroes. the second-highest award in the Navy; the Silver Star Medal; two Bronze Star Medals; and two Purple Hearts.

Webb wrote his first book, Micronesia and U.S. Pacific Strategy, while a law student at Georgetown University. He received his J.D. in 1975. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and then Secretary of the Navy (1987-1988) during the Reagan Administration. He resigned as Secretary of the Navy after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the Navy.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Webb wrote an op-ed piece for USA Today in which he considered the candidacies of John Kerry and George W. Bush from the perspective of military veterans. He criticized Kerry for his activism against the Vietnam War in the 1970s while affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and Bush for having "committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory" with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Webb, James H. "Veterans face conundrum: Kerry or Bush?", USA Today, February 18, 2004.

2006 Senate campaign

In late 2005, an Internet campaign was started to draft Webb to run for the Senate. On February 7, 2006, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against incumbent Virginia Senator George Allen.

Webb faced longtime businessman and lobbyist Harris Miller in the Democratic primary Shear, Michael D. "Reagan Navy Secretary Will Run for U.S. Senate", Washington Post, February 7, 2006. and on June 13, 2006, he won the nomination in a low-turnout race, collecting 53.5% of the vote^*. In May, Webb said that if elected, he planned to introduce a bill establishing a five-percent tax break for U.S. citizens who have honorably completed a term of military service.Trowbridge, Gordon. "Candidate Webb calls for veterans’ tax break," Army Times, 3 May 2006

Political Analyst Larry Sabato has said that, "Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions…. Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it.”

Webb as author

Webb's successful first novel, 1978's Fields of Fire, drew from personal experience to tell the story of a platoon of US Marines in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Reviewers hailed its pull-no-punches descriptions of infantry life and combat.

He followed that with five other novels, then wrote a work of non-fiction, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. The book traces the role of the people of Scots-Irish ancestry in the development of American history and culture. Webb argues that, far from the "cracker" and "redneck" stereotypes often applied to the Scots-Irish, many of whom settled in Appalachia, the American Midwest and the American South, the Scots-Irish were central to defining American working class values and culture. He cites the fiercely independent streak and individualism of the Scots-Irish as laudable values, and their political pragmatism as explaining their role as swing voters in elections, in recent decades as Reagan Democrats, and as Ross Perot and Reform Party voters.

Books

Fields of Fire (1978) ISBN 0553583859
A Country Such as This (1983) ISBN 1557509646
Something to Die For (1992) ISBN 0380713225
A Sense of Honor (1995) ISBN 1557509174
The Emperor's General (1999) ISBN 0553578545
Lost Soldiers (2002) ISBN 0440240913
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004) ISBN 0767916883

Movies

Webb wrote the story and was the executive producer for the 2000 movie Rules of Engagement, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.

Warner Brothers acquired Webb's script for Whiskey River. Currently in production, the movie is directed and produced by Rob Reiner. The story is about a fictional American soldier injured in Iraq.

Trivia

Webb has been interviewed as a guest on The Colbert Report, aired March 8, 2006.
Webb won a varsity letter for boxing at the U.S. Naval Academy. In his second-class (junior) year, he fought and lost in a controversial decision to Oliver North, who later to become famous in the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s.

References

External links

Webb's Navy Cross citation
Webb for Senate
James Webb Enterprises
Webb, James H. "The Price of Duty", PARADE Magazine, May 27, 2001. URL accessed December 29, 2005.
Webb, James. "Purple Heartbreakers, New York Times, January 18, 2006.
About James H. Webb, Jr., from the Naval Post Graduate School.
Draft James Webb
Interview on Comedy Central

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