Munger an expert in foreign policy
It’s one thing to spout off. It’s another to know what you’re talking about.
So when Dee Munger says he thinks U.S. foreign policy is “adrift,” it helps to know he has spent his life in the company of world leaders and their military might.
Munger, 81, was in town over the Memorial Day weekend for his 65th class reunion from Iola High School. Born and mostly bred in Iola, Munger also served with Iola’s National Guard unit from 1968 to 1973, including as its commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion 137th Infantry unit.
In 1973, Munger moved to Carlisle, Pa., where he began a career of foreign service through the Strategic Studies Institute after graduating from the U.S. Army War College. He’s traveled to 42 countries in the line of duty that had him meeting sometimes with heads of state to assess their relationship to the United States.
“I was a collector of information,” Munger said, reporting either directly or indirectly to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and even the White House.
Munger has investigated the growth of state-sponsored terrorism beginning with the Soviet Union during the Cold War and up through current times in the Mideast; reported on the civil unrest in Central America; investigated the underwater sonar system used to detect submarines; and studied the war on drugs and border patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border, just to name a few of his areas of concentration.
THOUGH there’s probably not a stauncher defender of American values, Munger doesn’t necessarily see it as the role of the U.S. to try to instill democracy around the world.
“You can’t go into a tribal country such as Afghanistan and force-feed democracy,” he said. “National sovereignty is foreign to them,” noting the boundaries of individual countries in the Mideast were drawn largely by Britain and France after World War I and little attention was paid to the ancient tribal, ethnic and religious differences.
As for Iraq, “It should have been divided into three countries, among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds,” Munger said of their religious factions.
“Their differences are irreconcilable. We’re not going to change that.” Same goes for the current insurgency in Syria.
Munger contends current foreign policy under President Obama is at loose ends.
“He’s attempting to do too much with too little help from our allies,” he said.
“You can’t go in and kill all the bad guys, because there’s a never-ending supply. When dealing with a foreign country, you have to be careful. The best course is to win the hearts and minds of the people, by teaching them farming methods and how to start up new businesses.”
Munger said the reserve forces, those who combine a military career with a civilian career, are the most effective in working with the people of a foreign country such as Afghanistan.
“They have the crews with expertise,” he said. “There’s always competition between the reserve forces and active forces for funding. But when a long-term project is at hand, you need the people with the better training.”
WHEN MUNGER walks the streets of Iola, he says he “sees ghosts.”
“I can’t say I’m really seeing the Iola of today. My mind fogs over with so many memories.”
There’s Art Murphy of Aladdin Grocery walking with his signature limp. Gene Cook of Cooksey’s Drug, where Munger was a soda jerk for four years. Jack Hixon of the paper goods store and A.D. Gordon of the insurance business.
In his mind’s eye, there’s more memories than fact as Munger views today’s downtown Iola.
Reaching even further back, Munger can still smell the baked goods he delivered for Mrs. Potts up on North Street. It was his first job. Still wet behind the ears, the young lad carried a basket of freshly baked goods to merchants around the square and into the courthouse selling slices of coffee cake, breads and cookies.
As an only child of the Depression, Munger didn’t grow up to have big dreams. The family was poor. His father died at 58 of a heart attack when Munger was in his late teens. His mother, Vica, remarried “a wonderful man,” Bill Young, a county engineer.
Munger attended the University of Kansas where he majored in geological engineering and began working for the Corps of Engineers in Kansas City.
By then the Korean War was in full swing and Munger enlisted.
“It changed my whole life,” he said of joining the military.
In fact, Munger never worked again as an engineer except on an occasional consulting basis.
Because of his previous experience with the National Guard’s 195th artillery unit, Munger was able to join the Army as a commissioned officer.
For the next 34 years Munger wore an officer’s uniform that grew more heavily decorated over his years of service. He’s most proud of being awarded the Legion of Merit, recognizing his many years with the armed services.
MUNGER married an Iola native, the former Joan Thornbrugh, class of 1954. They met while students at KU. They have four children.
They have made every reunion except one, even though it’s been 40 years since they last lived in Iola.
Munger’s Iola roots exert a strong pull.
Munger’s great-grandfather, Louis C. Munger, came this way serving with the 9th Volunteer Calvary during the Civil War and for the next three generations the Munger family called Iola home.