Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace [Hardcover]

Rick Francona (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

The author takes the reader behind the scenes of the Iran-Iraq War and into the top-secret tactical decision-making meetings of Desert Storm.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Francona had a front-row seat on the military relationship with Iraq...[his] firsthand experiences provide interesting information...[and] a bevy of anecdotes." -- Middle East Quarterly, March 2000

BACKCOVER: In this very readable personal documentary, Lt. Col. Rick Francona, USAF (Ret.), chronicles critical events based on his unique personal experiences and unusual close-in vantage point.... During the Iran-Iraq War, he walked the streets of Baghdad and toured battlefields while involved in a highly sensitive and successful effort to further American interests in the Gulf region. During that period, the author's unique expertise and access enabled him to provide U.S. officials with valuable insights into Iraqi military research and development efforts, efforts which were key to Baghdad's development and use of a variety of weapons systems, including ballistic missiles with the potential to carry chemical and biological warheads. -- From the foreword by Leonard H. Perroots, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, 1987-1989

Clearly one of the best personal accounts of the Gulf War and long overdue...a must for any library. -- Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, April-June 2000

Francona is a retired United States Air Force officer who served as interpreter to General Schwarzkopf. In 1988, he was in Iraq cooperating with Iraqi forces as part of the American tilt towards Iraq. In Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq 's Fall from Grace, he concentrates on describing his own experiences and impressions and does not engage in discussion of high policy. The greatest interest is in what Francona writes about intelligence and rivalries between the services.

Some of the most interesting comments concern the struggle between the services. After the war, Francona was one of the team who compiled the Defence Department's report to Congress on the war. This, he declares, was "the real war", in which the services fought for recognition of its contribution, in the knowledge that the perceived contribution would be reflected in future budgets. -- London Times Literary Supplement, Friday, September 3, 1999

Rick Francona was ideally placed to write something worth reading about U.S.-Iraq relations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace," is a gem, a book that gives serious lessons in the paradoxes of contemporary U.S. foreign policy, whose author reveals himself plainly and straightforwardly, with little guile or affectation.

In 1988, Francona was assigned to the Department of Defense's "cooperative military-to-military" program assisting the Iraqi armed forces. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Francona found himself back in the Middle East, serving as the interpreter for General Schwarzkopf. The campaign brought Francona face to face with an Iraqi intelligence officer who had been his friend.

Francona's "eyewitness account," consistently easygoing and understated, conveys painful, sober truths for American readers.

Bottom Line: Francona has written a fascinating account of what he saw in the Middle East. -- The Oregonian, October 3, 1999

The publishing arm of the U.S. Navy offers this chilling account of the Iraq war by Oregon's Rick Francona, a retired Air Force Middle East specialist.

Francona was point man to Iraq in 1987-1988 and served as Gen. Schwarzkopf's personal interpreter. He chronicles the decline of United States/Iraqi relations, then offers a firsthand account of the day-to-day operations of Desert Storm.

Unlike many carefully documented histories, this is readable, with moments of both humor and tension. -- Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), August 1, 1999

Unique insights...excellent, well-written book about the US relationship with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War -- Military Review, March-April 2000

From the Back Cover

In this very readable personal documentary, Lt. Col. Rick Francona, USAF (Ret.), chronicles critical events based on his unique personal experiences and unusual close-in vantage point. . . . During the Iran-Iraq War, he walked the streets of Baghdad and toured battlefields while involved in a highly sensitive and successful effort to further American interests in the Gulf region. During that period, the author's unique expertise and access enabled him to provide U.S. officials with valuable insights into Iraqi military research and development efforts, efforts which were key to Baghdad's development and use of a variety of weapons systems, including ballistic missiles with the potential to carry chemical and biological warheads. (From the Foreword by Leonard H. Perroots, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, 1987-1989)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557502811
• ISBN-13: 978-1557502810
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,826,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lt Col Francona enlisted in the Air Force in 1970, and served as a Vietnamese linguist until 1973, conducting aerial reconnaissance missions over Vietnam and Laos. After Arabic language training, he served at a variety of locations in the Middle East from 1975 to 1977, and supported the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1976. In 1978, he became an Arabic language instructor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.

Following his commissioning in 1979, Lt Col Francona was an instructor at the Air Force intelligence school in Denver, Colorado. From 1982 to 1984, he was a Middle East operations officer with the National Security Agency. In 1984, he was assigned as an advisor to the Royal Jordanian Air Force in Amman, Jordan.

In 1987, Lt Col Francona was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as the assistant Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East. During this assignment, he spent much of 1987 and 1988 at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, as a liaison officer to the Iraqi armed forces directorate of military intelligence. Lt Col Francona traveled extensively as an observer of Iraqi combat operations against Iranian forces, and flew sorties with the Iraqi air force.

Immediately following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August, 1990 and through the Gulf War, Lt Col Francona was deployed to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as the advisor on Iraqi armed forces and personal interpreter to commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Norman Schwarzkopf. As such, he was the lead interpreter for ceasefire talks with the Iraqi military at Safwan, Iraq, in March, 1991.

After the end of the Gulf War, the colonel served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was a principal author of the Department of Defense report to Congress on the conduct of the Gulf war. In 1992, he was selected to be the first air attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, returning to the United States in early 1995.

From 1995 to 1996, Lt Col Francona served with the Central Intelligence Agency, and participated in a variety of sensitive operations in the Middle East, including the escape of an Iraqi scientist's family. During one of these operations, he survived an attempt on his life by Iraqi intelligence service agents.

In 1996, the colonel was selected to develop the Department of Defense counterterrorism intelligence branch. In late 1997, the colonel led a special operations team supporting NATO forces in Bosnia - capturing five indicted war criminals. He returned to the United States and retired from active duty in 1998.

Since retiring from the Air Force, Lt Col Francona has written Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace, and consulted with government and private firms. From 2003 to 2008, he was a media analyst on Middle East political-military events for NBC News, and appeared regularly on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, Hardball, Countdown, and others.

The colonel has a bachelors degree in government and the Arabic language, and a masters degree in international relations with a concentration in Middle East studies. His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, and nine Air Medals, as well as campaign awards for service in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and the Balkans. The colonel was awarded the Central Intelligence Agency Seal Medallion for his service with that agency. In 2006, Lt Col Francona was inducted into the Defense Language Institute Hall of Fame.

Lt Col Francona and his wife Emily reside on the Oregon coast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique perspective on Iraq!, November 27, 1999

By 

Doug Carmichael (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace (Hardcover)

I approached this book as an American who had lived in Saudi Arabia and worked for the Saudi national airline for ten years and who, five years after leaving the Kingdom, found himself involuntarily recalled to active military duty in operations Desert Shield/Storm and deployed to a remote U.S. Army interrogation facility as a human intelligence officer and interrogator.

First, Ally to Adversary is very readable. To Rick Francona's credit, he doesn't write like someone who has spent years in military staff positions; he makes the human element integral to every anecdote. And his personal "war stories" are both pertinent to the larger settings and understandable to those of us who aren't military techies or bureaucratic insiders. Those readers who saw the Gulf war on TV will gain added appreciation of both the complexity and the politics of planning the ground assault against Iraq.

In the interrogation center in which I worked, one of our more frustrating tasks was sorting out the contradictory information on designations and locations of the various Iraqi units in Kuwait. The author explains why that was so difficult and why it was critical information. His description of how it was learned that CBS News' Bob Simon was captured by Iraqi soldiers is alone worth the price of the book!

Francona discusses the reasoning of the various executive agencies' political analysts in Washington that led to President Bush's decision to suspend all coalition offensive operations at the 100 hour point of the ground war, a decision that both confused and angered those of us in the field at the time, but which proved to be the correct decision.

I strongly recommend Ally to Adversary to anyone interested in Middle East affairs.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ally to Adversary, April 11, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace (Hardcover)

Francona, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, learnt Arabic and had a front-row seat on military relationship with Iraq, starting with "a professional, cooperative relationship" during the Iran-Iraq war (involving six trips to Baghdad between March and July 1988) and ending with warfare following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

As might be expected, Francona's first-hand experiences provide much very interesting information. He explains how, having grown accustomed to an Iranian enemy, the Iraqis became complacent about camouflaging their military activities, to their later intense regret. The Iraqis captured "almost 75 percent" of Iran's armor and artillery, including a North Korean field gun that the American military desperately wanted to - and did - get its hands on. Francona calls Iraq's victory over Iran "directly attributable" to American intelligence assistance. But with that victory, American assistance to Iraq "ceased virtually overnight." The author asserts that by July 27, 1990 (six days before the actual Iraqi invasion), his office, that of the Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism, flat-out told the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States that "Iraq would invade Kuwait." Despite the certainty of this prediction, "no U.S. forces" were alerted, nor were any logistical preparations made to deploy in the Persian Gulf.

His experiences also offer a bevy of anecdotes, less consequential but telling. Trying to send a letter in Iraq, Francona was told he needed authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to purchase stamps. The Iraqis proudly showed off to him "huge piles" of captured Iranian equipment apparently manufactured in Israel. Iraqis disdainfully referred to Kuwaiti men as "bearded women." Many American diplomats in Saudi Arabia resented the presence of the troops who came to save the country, to the point of petulantly wanting to deny soldiers access to a (DoD-run) commissary. But that was mild compared to those Saudi religious figures who demanded that all trash generated by the U.S. troops in their country be carted out of it. The Saudi decree permitting female American soldiers to drive had this quaint formulation: "U.S. female military personnel in uniform are not women when driving military vehicles."

Middle East Quarterly, March 2000

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY recommended., March 6, 2002

By 

Peter L. Belmonte (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace (Hardcover)

Rick Francona, a retired USAF LtCol., has written an account of the Gulf War as no one else can. He is probably unique in that he served in Baghdad during the Iran/Iraq war (to include excursions into Iraqi frontline trenches during the fighting) and then on Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's staff as an interpreter and intelligence officer. Francona's experiences and perspective make for an interesting memoir of the war. He was there for most of the key decisions and events of the war, and he is very frank in his description of working with the Coalition partners, particularly the Saudis. Likewise, he provides an honest account of the efficacy of the air war, summed up in the placard over the desk of one of the airpower planners in Riyadh: "We are not preparing the battlefield, we are destroying it."

Also, readers will learn how the politics of realism comes into play in the Middle East -- from US involvement in the Iran/Iraq war to the decision to end the Gulf War without moving into Baghdad.
Francona has written an extremely readable history. This book belongs on the shelves of historians, collectors, and military history buffs.