Military Incompetence: Why the American Military Doesn't Win

by Richard A. Gabriel

Overview

Former soldier and author Richard Gabriel offers a prescription for reform based on his twenty years of military experience.

The history of American military operations in the post-Vietnam era has been marked by failure and near-disaster. Since 1970, American forces have been committed in five operations--in Sontay to rescue prisoners, in Cambodia on behalf of the crew of the Mayaguez, in Iran to rescue the American hostages, in Beirut, and in Grenada--and in each case they have failed. Gabriel tells how and why each was crippled by faulty intelligence, clumsy execution, or poor planning by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Much of his information is still classified by the Pentagon and is revealed here for the first time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466807792
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	08/01/1986
Series:	American Century
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
File size:	842 KB

About the Author

Richard A. Gabriel, professor of politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., served twenty-two years as an active intelligence officer, much of it spent at the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence in the Pentagon. A consultant to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, he is the author of numerous books on military subjects, including Operation Peace for Galilee and Crisis in Command (with Paul Savage).

Editorial Reviews

Gabriel begins with a good chapter on why things go wrong in the military and then details what went wrong in five small-scale American military opera tions: the raid on Sontay prison in North Vietnam; the rescue of the crew of the Mayaguez in Cambodia; the Ira nian hostage mission; the involvement in Beirut; and the invasion of Grenada. His thesis, as in his earlier books, is that command channels are so con fused that they invite failure. He dem onstrates how each of these operations was mismanaged from the top. The cul prits were not the soldiers, but the offi cers and civilians who did the planning. Gabriel makes his points with convic tion and an insider's appreciation. The journalistic writing is clear and general ly factual, but a bit too emotional to have much impact in public debate. For comprehensive collections. Edward Gibson, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, Va.

Library Journal