Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 141

BOOK REVIEWS

history of airpower, the interwar period, leadership, or
leading change.
Robert Rielly, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

AN UNSUNG SOLDIER: The Life of Gen. Andrew J.
Goodpaster
Robert S. Jordan, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis,
Maryland, 2013, 240 pages

T

he elusive Andrew Goodpaster, “the man
with the briefcase,” is the model of a grand
strategist in action. Robert Jordan’s biography shines much needed light on the overlooked
military career of this central figure in President
Eisenhower’s inner circle. Goodpaster rose quietly on
merit more than self-promotion. He graduated second in his class at West Point, was molded in George
Marshall’s “command post,” and earned a doctoral
degree from Princeton well before embarking on this
soldier-to-scholar path. With Eisenhower’s personal
knowledge that he possessed one of the country’s top
minds, Goodpaster was later pressed into long-term
service at the White House because of a friend’s sudden
death. Although he would become a four-star general
and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe
(SACEUR), we are only now gaining an understanding
of his role at the dawn of the nuclear era.
Jordan, a NATO scholar, leads us through the
unique career of an officer swept up in the rush to
expand the Army before World War II. He had been
a local union leader before he received his appointment to the class of 1939, which is known as “the
largest of the large classes.” His mentor, early Rhodes
Scholar George “Abe” Lincoln, nominated Goodpaster
to a Council on Foreign Relations conference, where
his foreign policy speech left an early impression.
He completed his assignments quickly, even with a
compressed nine-week Command and General Staff
College course, before leading an engineer battalion in
the Italian Campaign of 1943.
Recovering in Washington after being wounded,
Lincoln recruited him for the new Operations and
Plans Division of the War Department. In another
key strategic planner job, he came to the attention of
Gen. Eisenhower and was assigned to a special project
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

to look at the future shape of the postwar Army. His
planning duties provided him the opportunity to use
his technical skills concerning the employment of
nuclear weapons. When Eisenhower became the first
SACEUR, Goodpaster was moved to Paris to play a
central role in “militarization” of NATO as part of the
select advanced planning group. In 1953, Eisenhower
brought him back to Washington for the New Look
grand strategy focusing on massive nuclear retaliation,
readiness, and mobilization.
Although Jordan makes the case for Goodpaster as
a premier military leader and a scholar, it is evident he
made his greatest mark as an exceptional presidential
adviser. He was a central figure in U.S. foreign policy
development throughout the 1950s, especially when
he served as staff secretary for the fledgling National
Security Council. Eisenhower changed the presidential relationship with the military and had less direct
contact with the individual services. Instead, he relied
more on Goodpaster, who started as the liaison to the
Defense Department as well as being the president’s
daily briefer concerning State and CIA activities. Later,
he was the insider who assessed Eisenhower’s competency to make nuclear decisions after the president’s
health setbacks. His work was highly sensitive, and he
avoided the press. In another book, John Eisenhower,
Goodpaster’s deputy and the President’s son, speculated
he was “too good a soldier.” His austere manner may
have stunted the recognition it seems he truly deserved.
This book should be read closely by military professionals who want to understand the true complexities
of the civil-military relationship at the highest levels.
James Cricks, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

THE STAR OF AFRICA: The Story of Hans
Marseille, The Rogue Luftwaffe Ace Who
Dominated the WWII Skies
Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis, Zenith
Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2012, 240 pages

H

eaton and Lewis drafted an eminently
readable book relating to the life and exploits of one of the most colorful and flamboyant pilots of any nation during World War II,
Hans-Joachim Marseille, who died on 30 September
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