Association of Graduates, USMA, West Point
 
The West Point Connection: Telling our Bicentennial Story to the Nation The West Point Connection: Telling our Bicentennial Story to the Nation
IF WEST POINT WERE BEING GRADED on its ability to connect with the American public, “you’d get a D,” says Ivan Kronenfeld. As one of the two principals of KKP, the New York production firm engaged to help publicize the Academy’s Bicentennial, Kronenfeld is out to fix that. He and his partner, Carl Koerner, have created and marketed books, television shows, Broadway productions, and a wide variety of other properties. They’re bringing their considerable talents to bear on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Military Academy. The project’s three major components — celebrations at the Academy itself, a book, and a television special, as well as numerous potential spin-offs — are all designed to bring West Point into the national consciousness in ways never before attempted.
West Point’s Bicentennial, in their estimation, offers a unique opportunity to connect the nation to its history through an institution. “It’s impossible,” says Ivan, “to separate the history of the country from the history of the Academy.” Carl also sees West Point as a unique leadership school, unlike any other in the world. “It’s all about creating leaders for democracy and, boy, is that complicated.” Carl also sees the Bicentennial as trend-making: he sees the country slowly turning away from a period of intense self-absorption to a period of self-sacrifice. West Point’s mission and history are ideal, in his opinion, to serve as a catalyst to push this nascent trend along, particularly among young people. West Point’s broad national student body, mission of service to the nation, and sense of self-sacrifice are exactly the kind of messages people need to hear. “Most people,” Carl says, “don’t get on board a trend until they see everyone else changing too. We can start that process with West Point right now and lead the way for others.”
The overall effort, begun several years ago, turned to this team more than a year ago to help tell the story of West Point. The West Point Project, LLC, headed by MG Joe Franklin ‘55, realized that the Academy’s celebration would require a sophisticated media approach to gain the broad national audience it deserves. Approached more than a year ago, KKP first decided to gauge current public perception of the institution. They interviewed a variety of New Yorkers on videotape and found a great deal of ignorance. Most people under 50, say, have barely a clue about what the Academy does. Many placed it in the wrong state, connected it with another military service, or had never even heard of it. Few knew it exists to educate Army officers, or that it is free, or even that it provides a superior undergraduate education. Once the partners realized the extent of public ignorance about USMA, they brought on some distinguished publishing and television consultants to shape a package of properties to correct this.
Among the top talent brought on board is Tom Guinzburg, a former president of the Viking Press and Viking Penguin, leaders in traditional publishing; Stanley Moger, an experienced media packager who has a long history of success marketing network and cable television productions; and Gary Smith, a multiple–Emmy-winning distinguished producer of special events for television. KKP acts as the overall coordinator and idea factory for the media aspects of the Bicentennial project and links to the Academy through the AOG and the USMA Bicentennial office, as well as being under contract to The West Point Project, LLC.

If West Point were being graded on its ability to connect with the American public, “you’d get a D,” says Ivan Kronenfeld.
OF THE PROJECTS UNDERWAY, a large-format book marking the 200 years is furthest along. Distinguished military historian Robert Cowley, founding editor and editor-in-chief of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, whose most recent book is What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, has assembled a collection of essays from some of the country’s most notable writers. Arthur Miller, David Halberstam, Carlo D’Este, Thomas Fleming, Stephen Sears, Tom Wicker, William F. Buckley, Steven Ambrose, Hugh Sidey, Lance Morrow, and several others are included. Fleming, D’Este, and others will provide a formal, comprehensive account of West Point’s history, with the other writers contributing a variety of short and long pieces about aspects of “the West Point experience.” These will range from interpretive to philosophical to introspective in nature and will flesh out the history provided. The book also will contain short sidebars, 200–400 words long, about specific personalities, trivia, legends, uniforms, and the like. Former West Point History Department faculty member COL Ken Hamburger has prepared a timeline that illustrates the Academy’s chronology. Thayer Award winners Colin Powell, Walter Cronkite, and Henry Kissinger will also be included. Inge Morath, Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer (and wife of Arthur Miller), will contribute a photographic essay of West Point today, and the book will include numerous illustrations from West Point’s past. West Point’s archives and museum have been instrumental in supplying material — much familiar, some not seen before — to create the whole. Tom Guinzburg calls the illustrative material “so good” and the archive items “extraordinary.”
Tom Guinzburg, a wounded veteran of the Iwo Jima Campaign, a founding editor of The Paris Review, and former chairman of the American Book Awards, sees the country as a “natural market” just now for such a book. The recent election, he says, has raised the nation’s “awareness of military readiness,” and he thinks “there’s a certain patriotic fervor” that the book will tap into as well as feed. The book will spawn a number of spin-offs, aimed mostly at a variety of educational markets, an approach that will expand the number of readers and raise awareness about the Academy, he hopes. It also must be somewhat complementary to the Bicentennial television production.
SFM Entertainment, headed by Stanley Moger, will be working with Gary Smith’s Smith-Hemion Productions to put together a network show that will bring West Point’s history and mission to the country as a whole. The show currently has as its theme America’s youth looking to West Point for leadership and will likely feature such young leaders as Tiger Woods, Britney Spears, and many others. Smith is one of the country’s most distinguished and successful makers of televised events. His company produced the celebration around the Statue of Liberty rededication, Liberty Weekend, a Desert Storm homecoming, several presidential inauguration galas, films, television plays, and dozens of other shows. Nominated for more Emmys than any other television production company, Smith-Hemion has received 24 of these awards in its 30-plus years of existence.
Smith sees many similarities between the Academy’s Bicentennial production and his successful rededication of the Statue of Liberty. That project, he said, “snowballed” because of the national values involved. “People connected with it.” West Point is similar because it is such “a huge element of our history.” What motivates him in particular is the dedication he sees in the cadets he has interviewed, and he says he is “moved by the passion and emotional commitment of these young people.” He also thinks that West Point offers a rich source of material. “It’s extraordinary to me to think of the emotional, theatrical, and even creative and artistic content” that West Point offers, he says.
Stanley Moger and his company have been one of television’s most successful media companies, creating, among other projects, a film series that metamorphosed into American Movie Classics on cable, The American Film Institute’s celebration of the first 100 years of the movies with annual three-hour specials on CBS, as well as numerous other television shows and other forms of entertainment. Their task is to package the Bicentennial television special so that it attracts both network and advertiser interest, which is the kind of work they do best. Stan’s objective is to “infuse and instill in the American public how important West Point is to the nation.” He admits that the most difficult part of his work has been “translating the real spirit of West Point to network executives,” but he senses that momentum is building in this regard. He says that the “happiest day of my life will be the day after the show if there’re lines around recruiting offices around the country.”

The recent election, he says, has raised the nation’s “awareness of military readiness,” and he thinks “there’s a certain patriotic fervor” that the book will tap into as well as feed.
 
HE PROJECTS A VARIETY OF RELATED MEDIA PROJECTS, including a video series on West Point’s history and contributions to the nation, marketed for high schools, as well as internet, cable television, and even merchandise tie-ins. A West Point movie series, again aimed at cable television, is another possibility. He also plans to broadcast the military music concert at Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2002, as well as 100 “factoids” on radio and television to create and prepare an audience for the Bicentennial special itself. Exploiting the full spectrum of media opportunities is the goal.
More than successful innovators in media, KKP also seeks the betterment of the world around them. Among their many projects include a novel stage production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, scheduled to be rehearsed and shown first in Cuba before coming to the United States. This required them to consult with the Cuban government as well as numerous art and cultural organizations in that country. They hope this project will break old stereotypes about the countries involved as well as the work itself.
One of their other properties, the Rough Riders boxing organization, carefully prepares young boxers in New York City to compete successfully, which in the long run, they hope, will clean up boxing’s image. What makes this project unique is that all of its participants must have, or be working toward, a high school diploma. “Too many boxers end up with nothing,” says Kronenfeld, who himself was an amateur boxer when younger. “Our goal is to give them a life besides the ring.”
The rest of the team shares the same passion for doing good. Tom Guinzburg serves as chairman of a committee associated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York City that makes the wishes of adult cancer patients possible, in the same way as other national charities address this need for children. Stanley Moger, in addition to his work in television production, is a trustee of the International Documentary Association, a nonprofit group of filmmakers; a standing committee chair for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; and a director of the Broadcasters’ Foundation. Gary Smith, the producer of the network special, has devoted a great deal of his time to coaching Little League baseball and youth soccer teams in Los Angeles.
As for cost, the project has no set limit. Financed almost exclusively with alumni investment, the project is expected to become self-supporting once the various media packages are sold. It might even make a profit, an unusual outcome for this sort of event. “The more money it costs, the better,” says Ivan, pointing out that reaching a large audience successfully will require much up-front expenditure. Right now, he says, “we need two things: ‘juice’ and more money.” Both will come as the various projects move further along. The team has expanded its fund-raising efforts to include people outside the West Point family. The project’s Board of Advisors includes alumni, such as Herbert Lichtenberg ’55, William Murdy ’64, and Bonnie Schweppe ’83, as well as such notable non-alumni as William J. van den Heuvel, Elihu Rose, Pamela Newman, and James Kiss.
The end result of this complex and exciting process will be a raising of the public’s consciousness about the contributions of the Military Academy to our country’s history. The first-rate team of media professionals so far assembled will go a long way toward telling West Point’s story to the nation.  

The end result of this complex and exciting process will be a raising of the public’s consciousness about the contributions of the Military Academy to our country’s history. The first-rate team of media professionals so far assembled will go a long way toward telling West Point’s story to the nation.
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