%A Schwarzkopf, General H. Norman; Petre, Peter %T It Doesn't Take A Hero %I Bantam %C New York %D October 1993 %G ISBN 0-553-56338-6 %P 626 pp. %O paperback, U.S. $6.99 The most interesting thing about this book is the subtle, mixed messages it carries about the effects that ambition can have on a career. In a way, this book is as much a monograph about the Army's promotion system as it is an autobiography of the hero of Desert Storm. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines career thus: "a pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement, especially in public, professional, or business life; ." This book is a record of exactly that. The first 300+ pages of the book chronicles in deep and heart-felt detail the course and trajectory of Schwarzkopf's consecutive postings and promotions. It would appear that the U.S. Army follows a practice of frequent rotation of officers into progressively more responsible positions. The trajectory of assignments is scrutinized with microscopic care and any deviation from the "fast track" can have a catastrophic effect on one's prospects for promotion. It is clear from this book that Schwarzkopf, a general's son, was well aware of this fact. When he receives assignments that deviate from his chosen trajectory, he describes his reaction with phrases like "I couldn't believe what I was hearing" (p. 223)"; "I was dismayed" (p. 249); and "I went back to Fort Stewart feeling as though I'd been kicked in the stomach" (p. 304). What makes this book worthwhile is what separated Schwarzkopf the man from being a careerist drone and what separated the United States military of Desert Storm from being the inefficient, unpopular meatgrinder that it was in Vietnam: the conscious renunciation of careerism, the decision to pay attention to substance rather than appearance. If war is waged inside one's own mind as well as the enemy's (a la Sun Tzu), a decisive moment in Desert Storm occurred in August 1990. Schwarzkopf describes it at p. 367: "I gazed out the window at a brilliant, sunny day, and felt euphoric that the briefing to the President had gone so well, that I'd had a front-row seat at his speech, and that he'd personally recognized me on national television--it all went to my head. For the moment I forgot all about the worries waiting for me back at Central Command and thought, 'If this thing turns out right, maybe I should reconsider my retirement plans. I've been thrust into the limelight--I could end up chief of staff of the Army!' Other people, most significantly Colin Powell, had told me I was a contender for the Army's top job; suddenly it seemed like a real and appealing possibility." "But only for a few minutes. As we flew on, I reminded myself, 'Schwarzkopf, you've never wanted to be chief of staff.' For one thing, it would mean living and working in Washington for four more years. More importantly, I realized that during this crisis I didn't want my judgment clouded by concern with how my decisions would affect my chances for a job. I'd been down the careerism road before, during the dark phase of my life that followed my service in Vietnam, and I wasn't going to make the same mistake. So I decided again, this time irrevocably, that in August 1991, I would retire. Or if Desert Shield went on longer than that, I'd stay until the job was done right, or until I got fired." The interesting thing, of course, is that Schwarzkopf would not have been Commander in Chief of Central Command if he had not paid assiduous, highly professional attention to his career. Yet he would not have been a successful leader of troops in combat if he was a careerist. There is an essential tension between the ambition to do things right and the ambition to be recognized for them. Optimal performance requires a fine balance of those ambitions; I came away from this book believing that Schwarzkopf achieved that balance in his own mind and in the minds of the Coalition; whether he affected Saddam Hussein's mind is an open question. --Frederick Zimmerman Previous IBIC Reviews, as well as links to many other Internet information resources related to books, are available via the Internet Book Information Center WWW serverspace (provided courtesy of SunSITE, a joint project of the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Sun Microsystems). The URL is http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html. Selected text resources are available by anonymous ftp to sunsite.unc.edu; directory is /pub/electronic-publications/ibic. The IBIC Gopher server is no longer available. E-mail comments encouraged to ibic@sunsite.unc.edu.