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BOOK REVIEW: the Generals BOOK REVIEWS Ryan Crocker’s diplomatic savvy, and runaway inflation, and, most importantly, George Kennan’s strategic acumen—in wasting 58,000 American lives. other words, to approximate a fraction of Ricks’s generalized portraits of the the soul of George Marshall. World War II generals will meet with broad The Generals is a serious study of acceptance. His model officer is Marshall, senior-level leadership that rivals H.R. an Army chief of staff who was in the right, McMasters’s Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, place at the right time. The main attribute McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ricks cites is Marshall’s inclination to the Lies That Led to Vietnam, and Lewis relieve officers he thought were inadequate Sorley’s A Better War: The Unexamined to the task. He let hundreds go in his 6 years Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s as chief, which became a lost art (except for Last Years in Vietnam. Ricks’s tone toward Ridgway) after he left. certain of his subjects eclipses censure His number one antihero is Taylor. and borders on vituperation, while others The Generals: American Military Ricks, unfortunately, gets carried away here: bask in the gentle glow of his prose. This Command from World War II to Today “Maxwell Taylor arguably was the most may bother some readers, but not this By Thomas E. Ricks destructive general in American history. reviewer—in fact, it is refreshing to read Penguin Press, 2012 As Army Chief of Staff in the 1950s, he a commentator calling a spade a spade in 576 pp. $32.95 steered the U.S. military toward engaging terms of his unvarnished criticism of the ISBN: 978-1-59420-404-3 in ‘brushfire wars.’” Also, “[H]e encour- shortfalls of certain generals (and their aged President John F. Kennedy to deepen civilian counterparts and seniors) whose American involvement in Vietnam. As decisions unnecessarily cost American Reviewed by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he poisoned lives and strategic currency in Vietnam ALAN L. GROPMAN relations between the military and the civil- and Iraq. His warranted criticisms of the ian leadership. He was also key in picking leadership failures of certain senior gener- om Ricks has done it again, Gen. William Westmoreland to command als, insidious careerism, moral cowardice, producing an interesting the war there.” and self-interest (Maxwell Taylor, MacAr- and useful book. He has To begin with, Taylor steered neither thur, the Vietnam Joint Chiefs of Staff, the two major themes in The the Army nor the military in any direc- T tion while he was chief of staff. Dwight Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Generals. The first is with Army generals Freedom Joint Chiefs of Staff), the policies today: senior leaders are unable to remove Eisenhower was the President, and his that led to those failures, and the dysfunc- inadequate generals. His second is more grand strategy did not focus on “brushfire tional civil-military relationships (Harry important: the costly incapability of the wars,” and certainly neither did the Air Truman–MacArthur, Lyndon Johnson–the generals to think and act strategically. In Force strategy. This was the era of strategic Joint Chiefs of Staff, Donald Rumsfeld–the every case of disaster Ricks cites, strategic bombers, massive retaliation, and bomber- U.S. military writ large) are underwrit- thinking was absent. pilot generals put in command of Air Force ten by scholarly research and meticulous The book contains 30 chapters (and fighter commands by bomber-pilot chiefs documentation. If the military truly is an epilogue) covering World War II, the of staff. Secondly, Eisenhower was never the as reflective and self-critical as it likes to Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the two ultimate decisionmaker (certainly not in the advertise, The Generals should land on the Iraq wars. The author sketches portraits 1950s), and in the next decade, he worked Chairman’s and Service chiefs’ reading lists of U.S. Army (and one Marine Corps) under a strong-willed Secretary of Defense soon. JFQ general officers from World War II forward. and determined Presidents who were much There are heroes including George C. Mar- more culpable for the Vietnam tragedy. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bracknell, USMC, is a shall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, O.P. Smith, There is, therefore, a balanced short- Staff Attorney with the Trial Judiciary, Office of Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus coming in this book. Ricks has abundant Military Commissions. (the book was published before Petraeus examples of senior officers failing in their resigned from the Central Intelligence missions because they were strategically Agency). There are also villains including inept, but all of them had civilian supervi- NOTE Maxwell Taylor, William Westmoreland, sors who, while not getting a complete pass 1 See Thomas Shanker, “Three Officers Face Tommy Franks, and Ricardo Sanchez. from Ricks, are not nearly as appropriately Reprimands Over 2008 Battle,” The New York The strategic debacle in Vietnam is condemned by the author. I realize the Times, March 13, 2010, A8. exceptionally well treated. Ricks’s cogent title is The Generals, but there are levels of analysis is a searing critique of errors that authority above combat general officers. we must never make again, and it tells Presidents Kennedy and Johnson did readers how to lose a war—and in doing so not have to follow Taylor into oblivion in damaging America’s reputation, severely Vietnam. Johnson was not required to let weakening the home country, provoking Westmoreland fight with a totally backward ground strategy while dropping more tons 100 JFQ / issue 69, 2 nd quarter 2013 ndupress.ndu.edu BOOK REVIEWS of bombs on South Vietnam than were According to Herridge’s sources, al-Awlaki dropped on Germany and Japan combined had coached the Nigerian on security and in World War II. President George H.W. surveillance in Western countries and was Bush and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney the middleman between Abdulmutuallab did not have to let Norman Schwarzkopf and the bombmaker. Al-Awlaki’s sermons stop Operation Desert Storm after 4 days of also inspired Faisal Shahzad, a seemingly ground warfare, leaving Iraq’s Republican upright and assimilated middle-class com- Guard nearly intact and prolonging Saddam puter technician and U.S. citizen who lived Hussein’s murderous reign for more than a in Connecticut but was born in Pakistan. dozen years. Shahzad attempted to detonate three bombs Regarding Operation Iraqi Freedom, in an SUV parked in the heart of Times Generals Tommy Franks and Ricardo Square in New York City in May 2010. Sanchez were tacticians when strate- Once characterized as the “bin Laden of gists were needed. The former rushed to The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al the Internet,” Al-Awlaki’s pronouncements Baghdad leaving his support forces to be Qaeda’s American Recruits have been broadcast on jihadist Web sites mauled by bypassed mujahideen, and the By Catherine Herridge and YouTube. Fluent in both Arabic and latter permitted the inhumane treatment Crown Forum, 2011 English, he had an encyclopedic knowl- of Iraqi insurgents and rounded-up civil- 272 pp. $25.00 edge of Islam and was regarded as a gifted ians as well as the atrocities at Abu Ghraib ISBN: 978-0-30788-525-8 speaker who was capable of moving his prison. These actions made enemies of the listeners to action. Iraqi population, and Ricks completely mis- Reviewed by Al-Awlaki was born in 1971 in New appropriates the blame. GEORGE MICHAEL Mexico, where his father pursued his Finally, Ricks appears to believe higher education. Sometime in 1977 or counterinsurgency combat is a valid combat n the final years of his life, Osama 1978, the family returned to Yemen, where mission for the U.S. military. It is not. I do bin Laden served mainly as an the senior al-Awlaki went on to become a not understand why any political decision- inspirational figure rather than an well-respected and well-connected govern- maker, after costly failures in Vietnam, actual commander. He counseled his ment minister. In 1991, Anwar al-Awlaki I returned to America to pursue a degree in Iraq, and Afghanistan, would advocate faithful that jihad was an individual duty counterinsurgency. We go to war in places for every Muslim capable of going to war. engineering at Colorado State University. we do not understand—in order to save Ominously, a small but notable number of He misrepresented himself as foreign born, nondemocratic and often corrupt states that Americans have answered his call. In fact, presumably to receive a $20,000 scholar- are open to attacks by insurgents—against American recruits are highly valued by ship from the U.S. State Department in a adversaries who have greater knowledge al Qaeda for their passports and abilities program intended for foreign students. On than we do of the countries we fight. to blend in with American society. In her his Social Security application, he claimed We need to continue to study coun- book The Next Wave, Catherine Herridge that he was born in Yemen and was issued terinsurgency art to advise states seeking explores the travails of prominent Ameri- a new Social Security number. When he our help, and who are worthy of our help, can jihadists. She draws on her 10-year renewed his passport in 1993, however, ever careful to avoid mission creep, but experience reporting on the war on terror he presented his birth certificate, which not sacrificing our people—58,000 in a and cites numerous military and intelli- indicated that he was actually born in losing effort in Vietnam, thousands more gence officials and analysts. New Mexico, but he used his fraudulently in Iraq—and our wealth, estimated to be $1 The chief focus of her book is Anwar obtained Social Security number.
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