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

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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.

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

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.

If you were an intelligence officer fluent in speaking Arabic and served in Iraq during its war with Iran and later as General Schwarzkopf's interpreter during Desert Shield and Desert Storm you would have a lot to tell that could not be found in American news reports--and Rick Francona does just that in Ally To Adversary.

This book takes you into Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, where you will come away with a better understanding of the political, military, and cultural mishmash of the region.

The book is full of revealing tidbits, such as:
--Government Control - In order to mail a letter outside of the country of Iraq, one must get government permission to buy postage stamps. A woman "sobbing quietly" told the author that she had a sister in the United States but could not correspond with her.
--Bunker Opulence - The Saudi king's bunker deep below the palace is itself an underground palace with kitchen, living areas and medical clinic, "opulent beyond description."
--Allies? - When the first Iraqi missiles hit Israeli soil, inside the coalition operations center every Saudi officer was on his feet applauding and cheering the attack.
--Monster Marines - The fighting ferocity of a small group of U.S. Marines surrounded and greatly outnumbered by Iraqi soldiers spread through the Iraqi army spawning wild perceptions about American marines. Among them: each marine had to have killed a member of his own family as a condition of entering the corps; and that marines practiced cannibalism on the bodies of their foes.

Find out why Iraq did not use chemical and biological weapons against the coalition forces.

At a time when many Americans want to understand Arab and Islamic influences and their effect on current events, Rick Francona's book is an excellent and enduring source.
As an Air Force intelligence officer, a Middle East veteran, and a fluent Arabic speaker, Rick had seen the Iraqis, first as an ally, and later as an adversary, as the title suggests. Early in the book he tells us about visiting Iraq during its long war with Iran. He visited areas of grinding combat around Al-Basrah and observed, as an ally, the army we would later face in the Persian Gulf War. His unique, first-hand observations would be invaluable later. He also entertains us with stories of life in Baghdad, once even escaping his Iraqi escort and conversing in Arabic with surprised ordinary Iraqis in the marketplace.
Later in the book, he gives us an insider's view as General Schwarzkopf's interpreter at the meeting at Safwan where Iraq was to receive surrender terms. Asked to translate instructions to the senior Iraqi representative, Rick tells us, "I translated the words into Arabic; the Iraqi interpreter, a brigadier who had spent several years living in Michigan, nodded to Sultan Hashim that my translation was correct." He ties many of his experiences together at a meeting later in the book when he finds himself facing an Iraqi major with whom he had worked during the Iran-Iraq war. "I was stunned to be now face-to-face with Majid Al-Hilawi, whom I had not seen since my last night in Baghdad at the end of the US-Iraq military relationship in 1988. I simply walked over to where Majid was sitting and offered my hand which he took warmly."
Rick Francona makes us feel like a personal witness to all these events. This is a great story from an observant eyewitness. It is all the more compelling because we saw the highlights on CNN and many of the observations will probably be relevant far into the future.

As both a student and tutor of the Middle East, I found Lt. Col. Francona's book the most comprehensive and accessible account of the Gulf War, it's prelude and it's immediate antecedents, that I have had the pleasure to read.

This book is unique in that it forces the reader to think about the individuals involved at a personal level. Many students of the Gulf War, particularly those studying outside of the USA, come to the field with little hard knowledge beyond remembered television footage of dust and tanks. The Gulf war and it's causes have in recent times been obscured under a cloud of weapons inspections, sanctions controversy and politicians. This book, however, examines issues that have been largely neglected by scholarship and academia, namely the military capabilities of the Iraqi army, the disposition of her leaders and the threat they were therefore capable of posing.

Lt. Col. Francona's book offers students an account of more than pure political ideologies, or a ground war. He manages instead to combine both the military and political issues of the war in a book that is unique for its ability to not alienate the reader as acadeimc text whilst retaining the standard of such a text.

I will not hesitate to recommend "Ally to Adversary" to all those, particularly students, with an interest in Middle Eastern or American affairs, both military and political.

This book is a must read for all those who are interested in the history of the Gulf War and U.S. relations in the Middle East. But even more than that, Francona shares with the reader his adventure...from the taxi drivers in the suk...to negotiating with nomads; this is the kind of story the generals cannot tell because their position prevents them from ever dealing with such people.

More than history, Ally to Adversary, cracks open the door not only to reveal the inner workings of the Pentagon, but the intelligence community as well. No wonder the "bureaucracy" tried to keep this book from being published. From Francona's position writing the "official" report on the war for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) we also learn the disheartening reality of the Pentagon "turf wars".

Francona's description of the air war surely sends shivers through the Department of the Army! It certaily supports the use of air power in the current argument.

Last, and not least, Ally to Adversary is not just another book about the war, but a real human interest story. Not told by another general, but a highly qualified officer who found himself in an incredible situation. It is easy to read and a damn good book.

This is an excellent overview of the brief and limited courtship between Washington and Baghdad in the 1980s, and the subsequent deterioration of US-Iraqi relations. Told by one of the participants in the American-Iraqi collaboration, who went on to become General Schwartzkopf's Arabic translator, it lays out the educated US perspective on Iraq. More importantly, LTC Francona, was part of the US Central Command's deliberate planning effort for the war. He provides a first-hand perspective on this period, which readers of Woodward's "The Commanders", Rick Atkinson's "Crusade" and Traynors' "The Generals' War" will find it of interest. Not a scholarly study, there is a erroneous reference to the origin of Shia Islam, but it doesn't detract from the story.

A veteran of several tours with the Defense Intelligence Agency over the course of his Air Force career, LTC Francona was a unique observer of Iraqi affairs. Until now, memoirs about the second Persian Gulf War have been told by soldiers or politicians with little insight into Iraqi culture and politics. Francona, according to various accounts (see books cited above), was one of the most knowledgable US military analysts on Iraq... a modern Lawrence with the same complicated relationship to the bureaucrats back home. The book provides glipses into the limitation of that knowledge in the 1980's and the maturation of his perspective over time. Unfortunately, the author provides little insight into the workings of and debates within the DIA during this crucial period.

The book concludes soon after the end of the war and once again, one is left to ponder what happened to the wealth of knowledge on Iraq that Francona acquired. There is little sense that Francona's expertise proved to be the wellspring for future generations of DIA analysts. The author concludes with a brief mention of his military career concluding with a tour in the Defense Attache Office in Damascus, Syria. However, we can only hope that LTC Francona follows up "From Ally to Adversary" with a second volume of his memoirs covering what must have been a remarkable and interesting tour as a US Embassy officer in Syria. The author hints at such in his closing paragraphs. After reading "From Ally to Adversary", I would expect that the education of LTC Francona from 1987 to 1991 culminated in the mid-1990s during his Damascus and follow-on tours. A tell-all about these experiences would be a great book to read!

I truly enjoyed this book. It is somewhat parochial regarding the air force, but not awful about it. Some of the personal anecdotes were quite interesting, especially the description of the Saudi officers. I laughed out loud at the anecdote of "you are now leaving Saudi Arabia, please set your watches ahead 600 years".

This book assumes the reader has something of a military background, which isn't an issue to me but I can imagine some people struggling w/the story. If your interested in military history in the mideast, you can easily afford the day or two it will take to read this.

Boy, I certainly enjoyed this book. It really keeps you on the edge of your seat as you relive his experiences in Iraq and with GEN Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War.

With his unique first-hand experiences in Iraq and the Middle East and being fluent in Arabic, Col. Francona has certainly had a most exciting career. I'm sure he must still be an extremely valuable consultant to the Bush administration in Washington.

This is the best book I've read in quite some time!