The late General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the most famous American military hero of the second half of the 20th century, makes clear in these memoirs that the combat readiness and morale problems that dogged the U.S. in the Vietnam era were actually the result in part of an officer corps from World War II and Korea which stayed too long. Schwarzkopf's remarkably candid biography demonstrates how he and other battle commanders fixed these problems and how the lessons learned led to the success of the first Gulf War.
Like the fictional helicopter gunship pilot in the 2006 novel, "From West Point to Watergate," Wayne Riley, Schwarzkopf realized early in his military career that he was not a good bureaucratic infighter and if he was to advance in the Army he would have to do it on the battlefield and avoid Pentagon desk assignments as much as he could. By staying in the field, Schwarzkopf was able to make blunt and honest disagreements with his superiors, a style that stood him in good stead when he later led the coalition to kick the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait.
He was son of a West Point General who created the New Jersey State Police and solved the Lindberg kidnapping case, and played a secret and critical diplomatic and military role in Iran during World War II. Like his father, he was a man of action, and wound his way up the greasy pole of Army rankings by commanding troops, not making political connections at the White House. His long gray line of assignments included commander roles with the 187th Airborne Infantry, 101rst Airborne Division, Berlin Brigade, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, ARVN Airborne, 198th Infantry Brigade, 172nd Infantry Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, U.S. Pacific Command, 8th Infantry Division, 24th Infantry Division Mechanized, Grenada invasion chief Army adviser, I Corps, and of course, the U.S. Central Command, (CENTCOM), which he took over in November 1988, and which included the territory of the Middle East. He was also a man of feeling and he practically invented the Army's new protocol in taking the morale of his troops seriously, giving his men time off with their families when he felt they needed it, and providing them with diversions and better food whenever possible. He also made it his business if he felt that nearby towns overcharged and ripped off his soldiers while they were on base.
A true hero despite his modest title, "It Doesn't Take a Hero," Schwarzkopf was wounded three times in Vietnam in battle, once in the arm where he continued to direct his men from a tank despite the obvious pain. He retired for the day only after being ordered to rest by a superior officer, and then in the morning was helicoptered out of the battle zone to a hospital.
A no nonsense problem solver, Schwarzkopf is diplomatic but revealing about the eagerness by politicians with no military experience to send troops into battle under questionable circumstances, usually for political gain. And despite the fact that it was Schwarzkopf who developed the plan to rescue medical students in Grenada more or less on the fly, he reveals how skeptical he and the rest of the military were about the vast armada gathered to take over tiny Grenada. He also is candid about the intra service rivalry in battle, in the case of Grenada between his Army troops and the Marine Corps in what was a Navy directed operation.
The opposite was true in Desert Storm, which occupies nearly half of these pages, and where Schwarzkopf asked for more troops than Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney was originally intending to give him, in order to keep battle casualties down for political reasons. As it turned out, in the one place in the book where Schwarzkopf is not particularly candid, he vastly overrated the fighting capability of the Iraqi forces, particularly the vaunted Revolutionary Guards. And nowhere does Schwarzkopf acknowledge the reality on the battlefield: that the superior U.S. technology, such as B-52 concussion bombs which literally blew out the eardrums of the dug-in Iraqi ground forces, and the more sophisticated tank missiles which incinerated Iraqi tank divisions, was what won the 5 day war. Schwarzkopf praises President George W.H. Bush as the rock who stood behind him and let him command the war without interference.
That is not to denigrate the masterful coalition battle plan, which Schwarzkopf points out was developed by planners in his Central Command in Tampa, not himself. Besides, running such a politically delicate war, having to juggle the sensibilities of Israel under Scud attacks, Saudis and other Arab troops who wanted to punish Saddam Hussein but do it in a way that would not antagonize their Islamic breathren throughout the region, having to provide Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell with enough rationale to pacify both hawks and doves in the White House, took a man of Schwarzkopf's experience and more importantly, his temperament.
[Hansen Alexander is a New York lawyer and author of "Introduction to the Laws of the United States in the 21rst Century," an Amazon e-book exclusive.]
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
Aboud Dandachi
A superb history and inside look into a distinguished military career
Reviewed in Canada on December 26, 2022
Thomas Hörmann
Sehr interessante Einblicke in das Leben eines der bekanntesten Generäle der US Armee
Reviewed in Germany on July 27, 2023
BS Chhikara
An Autobiography you can't afford to miss
Reviewed in India on January 25, 2019
