Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace

by Rick Francona

Book Overview

Much has been written about the Iran-Iraq War, Desert Storm, and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but until now no one has chronicled the perilous, spiraling course of U.S.-Iraqi relations from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557502811
• ISBN13: 9781557502810
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Revealing Narrative

If you were an intelligence officer fluent in speaking Arabic and served in Iraq during its war with Iran and later as General Schwarzkopf's interpreter during Desert Shield and Desert Storm you would have a lot to tell that could not be found in American news reports--and Rick Francona does just that in Ally To Adversary.This book takes you into Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, where you will come away with a better understanding of the political, military, and cultural mishmash of the region.The book is full of revealing tidbits, such as: --Government Control - In order to mail a letter outside of the country of Iraq, one must get government permission to buy postage stamps. A woman "sobbing quietly" told the author that she had a sister in the United States but could not correspond with her. --Bunker Opulence - The Saudi king's bunker deep below the palace is itself an underground palace with kitchen, living areas and medical clinic, "opulent beyond description." --Allies? - When the first Iraqi missiles hit Israeli soil, inside the coalition operations center every Saudi officer was on his feet applauding and cheering the attack. --Monster Marines - The fighting ferocity of a small group of U.S. Marines surrounded and greatly outnumbered by Iraqi soldiers spread through the Iraqi army spawning wild perceptions about American marines. Among them: each marine had to have killed a member of his own family as a condition of entering the corps; and that marines practiced cannibalism on the bodies of their foes.Find out why Iraq did not use chemical and biological weapons against the coalition forces.

Iraq: A Fascinating Look Behind the Headlines

At a time when many Americans want to understand Arab and Islamic influences and their effect on current events, Rick Francona's book is an excellent and enduring source. As an Air Force intelligence officer, a Middle East veteran, and a fluent Arabic speaker, Rick had seen the Iraqis, first as an ally, and later as an adversary, as the title suggests. Early in the book he tells us about visiting Iraq during its long war with Iran. He visited areas of grinding combat around Al-Basrah and observed, as an ally, the army we would later face in the Persian Gulf War. His unique, first-hand observations would be invaluable later. He also entertains us with stories of life in Baghdad, once even escaping his Iraqi escort and conversing in Arabic with surprised ordinary Iraqis in the marketplace. Later in the book, he gives us an insider's view as General Schwarzkopf's interpreter at the meeting at Safwan where Iraq was to receive surrender terms. Asked to translate instructions to the senior Iraqi representative, Rick tells us, "I translated the words into Arabic; the Iraqi interpreter, a brigadier who had spent several years living in Michigan, nodded to Sultan Hashim that my translation was correct." He ties many of his experiences together at a meeting later in the book when he finds himself facing an Iraqi major with whom he had worked during the Iran-Iraq war. "I was stunned to be now face-to-face with Majid Al-Hilawi, whom I had not seen since my last night in Baghdad at the end of the US-Iraq military relationship in 1988. I simply walked over to where Majid was sitting and offered my hand which he took warmly."Rick Francona makes us feel like a personal witness to all these events. This is a great story from an observant eyewitness. It is all the more compelling because we saw the highlights on CNN and many of the observations will probably be relevant far into the future.

HIGHLY recommended.

Rick Francona, a retired USAF LtCol., has written an account of the Gulf War as no one else can. He is probably unique in that he served in Baghdad during the Iran/Iraq war (to include excursions into Iraqi frontline trenches during the fighting) and then on Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's staff as an interpreter and intelligence officer. Francona's experiences and perspective make for an interesting memoir of the war. He was there for most of the key decisions and events of the war, and he is very frank in his description of working with the Coalition partners, particularly the Saudis. Likewise, he provides an honest account of the efficacy of the air war, summed up in the placard over the desk of one of the airpower planners in Riyadh: "We are not preparing the battlefield, we are destroying it." Also, readers will learn how the politics of realism comes into play in the Middle East -- from US involvement in the Iran/Iraq war to the decision to end the Gulf War without moving into Baghdad.Francona has written an extremely readable history. This book belongs on the shelves of historians, collectors, and military history buffs.

For all those who remember Dust and Tanks.

As both a student and tutor of the Middle East, I found Lt. Col. Francona's book the most comprehensive and accessible account of the Gulf War, it's prelude and it's immediate antecedents, that I have had the pleasure to read. This book is unique in that it forces the reader to think about the individuals involved at a personal level. Many students of the Gulf War, particularly those studying outside of the USA, come to the field with little hard knowledge beyond remembered television footage of dust and tanks. The Gulf war and it's causes have in recent times been obscured under a cloud of weapons inspections, sanctions controversy and politicians. This book, however, examines issues that have been largely neglected by scholarship and academia, namely the military capabilities of the Iraqi army, the disposition of her leaders and the threat they were therefore capable of posing. Lt. Col. Francona's book offers students an account of more than pure political ideologies, or a ground war. He manages instead to combine both the military and political issues of the war in a book that is unique for its ability to not alienate the reader as acadeimc text whilst retaining the standard of such a text. I will not hesitate to recommend "Ally to Adversary" to all those, particularly students, with an interest in Middle Eastern or American affairs, both military and political.

A unique perspective on Iraq!

I approached this book as an American who had lived in Saudi Arabia and worked for the Saudi national airline for ten years and who, five years after leaving the Kingdom, found himself involuntarily recalled to active military duty in operations Desert Shield/Storm and deployed to a remote U.S. Army interrogation facility as a human intelligence officer and interrogator.First, Ally to Adversary is very readable. To Rick Francona's credit, he doesn't write like someone who has spent years in military staff positions; he makes the human element integral to every anecdote. And his personal "war stories" are both pertinent to the larger settings and understandable to those of us who aren't military techies or bureaucratic insiders. Those readers who saw the Gulf war on TV will gain added appreciation of both the complexity and the politics of planning the ground assault against Iraq.In the interrogation center in which I worked, one of our more frustrating tasks was sorting out the contradictory information on designations and locations of the various Iraqi units in Kuwait. The author explains why that was so difficult and why it was critical information. His description of how it was learned that CBS News' Bob Simon was captured by Iraqi soldiers is alone worth the price of the book!Francona discusses the reasoning of the various executive agencies' political analysts in Washington that led to President Bush's decision to suspend all coalition offensive operations at the 100 hour point of the ground war, a decision that both confused and angered those of us in the field at the time, but which proved to be the correct decision.I strongly recommend Ally to Adversary to anyone interested in Middle East affairs.