Tommy Franks

3967. American Soldier, by General Tommy Franks with Malcolm McConnell (read 25 Dec 2004) Except for the pro-Bush and pro-Iraq War propaganda, this book is a good book. I thought his account of his time in Vietnam was exciting and informative. His account of how he could keep track of what was going on in the Iraq war was of high interest. Imagine if Napoleon had been able to have had the knowledge of what was happening that Franks did.

Very interesting to read about how the attack in Afganistan and Iraq was planned and executed. Includes behind the scenes discssions with the President and Rumsfeld during and after 9/11. Also interesting to note the differences in how we have changed the way our military command structure works with CENTCOM commanding all services in a geographical area rather than the different branches of the services controlling their assets as we did in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. It seems like the show more practice works well here. Interesting to note that after commanding CENTCOM Gen Franks turned down the chief of the Army job becasue he was only interested in a warfighting position.

His experiences in Vietnam as a young artillary officer was a high point of the book as he was in the thick of the fighting on many occaisions. It is somewhat comforting to see commanders sending people to die that have experienced combat themselves and know the price and how to count the cost. show less

3 Stars

Great book, shows why he was chosen to lead the fastest, most comprehensive ground assault in the history of warfare. Obviously doesn't discuss the aftermath or expectations of insurgency.