The Boston Globe May 23, 2003
A General Changes Course
Franks planning to step down
By Robert Schlesinger
WASHINGTON - US Army General Tommy Franks, who helped realign the military to wage war against terrorists and led US forces to decisive victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq, has decided to retire, US defense officials said yesterday.
The 57-year-old Franks, who has served more than three decades in the Army, will be remembered not only for his military success, analysts said, but for honing a new military strategy that emphasizes speed, agility, and information superiority over conventional strength.
''We live in a celebrity culture where celebrity is often totally disconnected from achievement. But by the standards of historians, Tommy Franks is a real celebrity,'' said Loren Thompson, a military specialist with the libertarian Lexington Institute. ''To win wars against completely different adversaries, in different countries, in rapid succession like that, is something with few precedents.''
Franks had not set a departure date, and it was not immediately clear who would succeed him, although three-star General John Abizaid, Franks' top deputy in Qatar, has been mentioned as a candidate for the post.
After two wars over the past 19 months, Franks apparently had no appetite for bureaucratic battles. He recently declined Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's offer to become the new secretary of the Army.
''The general feels that it is time to spend time with his family and look to new challenges,'' said Jim Wilkinson, spokesman at Franks' headquarters at Central Command in Tampa.
Franks' standard two-year tenure at Central Command was originally set to expire last July, but he received a one-year extension.
Franks and Rumsfeld were reported to have had an occasionally contentious relationship, with the often brusque defense secretary urging Franks to draw up more imaginative war plans involving lighter, more agile forces. But publicly, Rumsfeld has been a vocal supporter of the four-star general. In a three-sentence statement announcing Franks' retirement, Rumsfeld said the general had ''served our country with great distinction. I consider myself privileged to have worked so closely with him over these many months.''
A native of Midland, Texas, who was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery in 1967, Franks seemed an unlikely candidate to debut a new strategy for warfare. Before the US attack in Afghanistan, critics painted him as too slow, cautious, and old-fashioned.
By the time his Iraq battle plan came together, the critics were saying that it was too ambitious.
''The campaign plan that they wound up with demonstrated far greater audacity than had been anticipated by many of his detractors,'' said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense think tank. ''His detractors viewed him as being plodding and unimaginative and I would say the campaign plan he wound up with is quite the opposite. It's to his credit that he was both able and willing to do it and that the unavoidable back and forth that was occasioned in this process a year ago did not appear to have become acrimonious.''
Franks, who saw combat as an artillery officer in the Vietnam War, has received such awards as the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, three Purple Hearts, and three Bronze Stars with ''V'' for valor. He was awarded the Legion of Merit four times.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Robert Schlesinger can be reached at schlesinger@globe.com
Copyright © 2003, Globe Newspaper Company
