MASTERS OF THE ART OF COMMAND

An anthology of Army Magazine puffs of various more or less unappealing and intellectually deficient commanders. Though the Roman general Sulla is included, the emphasis is on straight-talking, quick-thinking, tough-as-hell Americans. There was World War I platoon leader Woodfill, for example, whose predilection for daredevil action got him rehired by the Army to tell and retell his exploits to recruits; Lieutenant Robert C. Kingston, known as ""the Chink-killer""; maverick Charley Stone, who commanded the National Guard during the Detroit riots; and twenty more you wouldn't want your son to emulate. Actual military science is sloughed off with short-cut judgments that Eisenhower, for example, drew criticism from the jealous. However, the ""best-loved-officer"" roll call is spiked by the inclusion of one North African major general who seems to have been hopelessly manic-depressive and managed to do everything wrong. The real fault of the book is its own disdain for the serious dimension of its subject.