It was perhaps inevitable that the first-ever war broadcast live on TV would produce an outsize media hero like its commander, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
But the four-star general, who died Thursday at 78, was no creation of the media — though he was a natural in front of the cameras.
He was, instead, a battle-hardened, highly decorated combat veteran and a brilliant tactician who resisted the impulse of too many other generals to play politician.
Never before had America enjoyed such a stunning military success as the air and land assault that drove Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.
True, that first Gulf War didn’t finish the job — Saddam Hussein remained in power for another decade, and his vaunted Republican Guard largely escaped the meat-grinder.
But those were political decisions made in Washington. And while Schwarzkopf acceded to them, he generally left policy-making to the politicians.
Though largely unknown outside the military before Iraq, Schwarzkopf had long ago earned the hero’s mantle.
The son and namesake of the New Jersey State Police’s founding commander — himself notable for having led the investigation of the notorious Lindbergh baby kidnapping — Schwarzkopf graduated in the top 10 percent of his class at West Point.
He served two combat tours in Vietnam, where he was twice wounded and earned three Silver Stars for bravery — including for personally rescuing troops trapped in a minefield.
In 1983, he coordinated the task force that won another lightning victory, toppling the Cuban-supported Marxist government of Grenada.
He had his critics — his “Stormin’ Norman” nickname came as much from his volatile temper as from his combat attitude.
But journalists and the public ate him up: His often-lengthy Gulf War briefings, aired live, were immensely popular both for their sense of humor and their free-of-military-jargon clarity.
Norman Schwarzkopf was truly one of a kind. RIP.