Customer Reviews

Wesley K. Clark: A Biography

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3 star:		(1)
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This book is very thin as a biography; it appears as something produced in haste to take advantage of the national political scene. My interest was on General Clark's military career with an emphasis on the early years. The writing appears as a collection of comments from past officer efficiency reports and some of the narrative from awards and decorations General Clark received over his long career. It was obvious that the author doesn't know much about the military as an organization and it shows. General Clark deserves a better biography written some someone who understands the military culture as well as national politics; Ms Felix did the basic job of putting the facts together; she didn't take the time to do an interpretation of the facts. Over the past few years as more is know about General Clark, the critics both in and out of the military, are providing many valid questions for the next biographers.

Full disclosure: I served as the brigade operations sergeant for then Major Wesley Clark in Bamberg Germany in 1977. Of the five operations officers over three years plus clearly Clark was the most brilliant, intelligent and complex of the five and two of them, still friends today, were really intelligent officers and worked well with the Noncommissioned Officers Corp. I was disappointed that his time as a battalion and brigade operations officer was skipped over. Besides, the biography misspelled the name of his rater Lt Col Dick Schonberger. All that not withstanding, I bought several copies of the book to give to others who were in Bamberg at the time.

Felix has written a very positive, but not especially deep, biography of former and probably future presidential candidate Wesley Clark. This looks like something of a political leap for her, since she has written bios, apparently equally uncritical, of Laura Bush and Condi Rice. But it's less of a leap than it seems; there is nothing in this book to offend the strongest Clark supporter, but also nothing to offend partisan conservatives. For instance, Felix mentions that Clark's decision to run for President in 2003 was motivated partly by his disapproval of the direction of Bush's policies, but goes into little detail about what he disliked or why.

What she has focussed on is a list of the many highlights of Clark's life and career, from his early successes in High school swimming and forensics competitions to the numerous companies that invited him to become a director from 2000 - 2003. She particularly highlights the impressive list of awards and honors Clark has won, from "Boy of the Year" as a Little Rock teen and the oddly named Peruvian Army plaque (for 1st in his class at West Point) to the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his retirement from active duty.

Most of the book is necessarily about Clark's career in the military. There's an important and potentially fascinating story here of how the US military rose from its disastrous post-Vietnam condition to become the efficient powerhouse of the first Gulf War and the Kosovo campaign. The generation of young officers who served as junior field commanders in Vietnam and then rose through the ranks, such as Clark and Colin Powell, played a big role in this story. Felix does show Clark's focus throughout his career on training and the welfare of his troops, but her account of Clark's rise is too much a listing of positions held, units commanded, and honors awarded to adequately tell this broader story.

Certainly those unfamiliar with Clark and his background will learn a lot from this book; those already aware of the general story from the coverage of the 2004 campaign will be disappointed by the relative lack of new information. The book reads almost like one aimed at children due to its short length, simple vocabulary, and generally superficial treatments.

For folks interested in the prestigious and impressive history of Wes Clark, this book presents the basics. While not the in-depth biography I hoped for, I found it - coupled with Clark's own "Winning Modern War" to provide a fairly fleshed out picture of one of our history's greatest Generals.

Worth a read.

This is a great primer on the life of Gen. Wesley Clark. I think this would make a great pairing with Clark's own book "Winning Modern Wars." Both books gives the reader thought to how the military and the White House work together. In Felix's book she paints a picture of an American who not only worked towards his American dream he gives back to his country.

It's a good read, but didn't add much to what I already knew. But I doubt that it was written for avid Clakies.

I'ts breezy, easy to read, and a good primer or introduction to Gen. Clark who don't know much about him.

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO