Thomas Ricks, author of two recent accounts of the Iraq War, Fiasco (2006), and The Gamble (2009), broadens his scope as he looks at the style and substance of leadership in the United States Army from the ascent of George Marshall through David Petraeus (though his recent woes occur after this book was published).Ricks states that the Army has lost its way in abandoning Marshall and Eisenhower's practice of quickly relieving Generals when they were not aggressive enough, or when they performed poorly for other reasons. Ricks relates stories showing that this WWII practice had some faults, Generals were often blamed for events beyond their control, but when that practice was abandoned it was the soldiers and the Army itself that suffered.
Ricks does an excellent job giving us brief views of Generals whose names are writ large in our military history, like Patton, MacArthur and Westmoreland, and those less well-known, like Terry de La Mesa Allen, William Simpson, and William DePuy. Ricks pulls no punches, pointing out the failings of even the most well respected American generals. He is harsh in his assessment of the Army's post WWII leadership philosophies.
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