An Offer He Could Refuse

By DAVID ELLIS

General Norman Schwarzkopf returns home this week to a hero's welcome -- and that has some disgruntled military colleagues anxious to amend the record. They say that contrary to many reports, Schwarzkopf was never in line to be Army Chief of Staff. Top Pentagon officials contend that the general was offered -- and rejected -- an appointment as Supreme Allied Commander for Europe. The general turned down the NATO job, they assume, largely because he realized that it has become less important in the post-cold war era. Some top brass consider Schwarzkopf too mercurial for the bureaucratic Army job and aren't shedding many tears over his decision to retire. Could the lucrative private-sector offers that Schwarzkopf has received, along with a possible honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, have anything at all to do with the sniping?

With reporting by Sidney Urquart