The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

78 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 lapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe.” That is a well-deserved trib- ute to this admirable work. Aurelius (Aury) Fernandez was post- ed in Berlin as a U.S. Army civilian employee during the 1961 Berlin Cri- sis. He knew the author only slightly then; but years later, when Smyser was political counselor in Bonn and Fernandez was the press spokesman for the NATO Ad Hoc Group in Vi- enna, Smyser provided wise counsel on the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions negotiations. Now a re- tired USIA Foreign Service officer, Fernandez has been an AFSA Gov- erning Board secretary and member of the FSJ Editorial Board, among many other activities. The Military Model The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army David Cloud and Greg Jaffe, Crown Publishers, 2009, $28, hardcover, 328 pages. R EVIEWED BY D AVID T. J ONES The title of this fascinating book by David Cloud and Greg Jaffe refers to the rank of general, the highest rank in the current U.S. armed forces. A fifth star designates the recipient as “General of the Army,” a rank not awarded since the end of World War II, when warriors such as Douglas MacArthur, Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower all received it. Cloud and Jaffe recount the careers of four of the present generation’s most successful U.S. Army officers: George Casey (Army Chief of Staff); Peter Chiarelli (Army Vice Chief of Staff); David Petraeus (Commander, Central Command); and John Abizaid (retired CENTCOM commander). It weaves their professional lives and the post- VietnamArmy into a review of U.S. mil- itary action and the Army’s evolution over 35 years as it confronts themilitary challenges of the post–Cold War era and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, including the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The book’s reporting runs through the end of 2008.) The Fourth Star provides an in- sightful, if not unique, review of Iraq focused primarily on strategic issues. That the Army eventually identified and devised approaches combining economic incentives, a substantial mil- itary force surge, protection of the cit- izenry, and de facto purchasing of Sunni insurgents through fostering and funding “Sons of Iraq” units has been widely recounted elsewhere. While the Petraeus-McChrystal counterinsurgency programs appear to have drawn the right lessons from the failures of the Vietnam era for ap- plication in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is entirely possible that, five years from now, we will still be seeking a way to drain the cesspool. While not targeted to Foreign Service personnel, the book does offer some lessons worth heeding — and not just by Kevlar-toting FSOs headed for assignments to provincial reconstruction teams. Mentoring guides success. Each of the generals Cloud and Jaffe profile had powerful patrons who identified them early, guided their careers and protected them. Leaders of every or- ganization network, of course; but to read The Fourth Star is to appreciate just how effective the results can be. In comparison with Army mentoring, the Department of State is still in el- ementary school. Institutional think-tanks serve as a policy seedbed. The West Point So- cial Science Department teaches cadets the basics of political science and international relations. But even more important for the Army’s future, it serves as a seedbed for heterodox thinking and writing. Army officers think, write and publish a steady stream of articles and reflections. That Gen. Petraeus has a Ph.D. is widely known; but he is hardly unique for that within the U.S. military. It is troubling that the Foreign Service lacks any comparable institu- tion to foster systematic thinking and writing about the profession. Senior diplomats rarely write critical analyses of their profession while on active duty. For all its strengths, the Foreign Serv- ice Institute does not serve this role. The Army reads. And not just field manuals, either. U.S. Army officers read and internalize books such as T.R. Fehrenbach’s This Kind of War , a cautionary model on the perils of a “hollow army” that might have emerged from post–Cold War reduc- tions. A current favorite, Jean Larte- guy’s The Centurions , is a fictional- B O O K S Unlike military leaders, senior diplomats rarely write critiques of their profession while on active duty.