The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost?From Ancient Greece to Iraq

AuthorReviewed by Major David Trainor
Pages372-380
372 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 220
THE SAVIOR GENERALS: HOW FIVE GREAT
COMMANDERS SAVED WARS THAT WERE LOST—FROM
ANCIENT GREECE TO IRAQ1
REVIEWED BY MAJOR DAVID TRAINOR*
I. A Classicist’s Take on Military Turnaround Specialists
When Apple Computers, Inc. was on the brink of bankruptcy in the
mid-1990s, Steve Jobs was called back in to turn the company around.2
When the Internal Revenue Service stood accused of targeting political
opponents in 2012, the President called in a turnaround specialist to clean
up its image.3 When townspeople in Hollywood’s version of the Wild
West need to be saved, they call on gun-slinging outsiders to turn the
tide.4 From business to government to popular western films,5
Americans are familiar with the phenomenon of the outsider called in to
save a seemingly desperate cause. In The Savior Generals, author Victor
Davis Hanson argues that armies in conflict sometimes need such a
turnaround specialist to ride in and save a war. Using a broad range of
historical sources he then attempts to profile the type of general who fits
that mold.6 Part historical survey, part leadership essay, and occasional
polemic against politics and bureaucracy in military circles, The Savior
Generals is an easy read for the casual reader of military history. While
it makes a thought-provoking addition to a growing body of literature
teaching leadership principles by historical biography,7 it is likely not a
comprehensive answer to the question of who or what exactly saves lost
wars.
* U.S. Army Judge Advocate. Presently assigned as Command Judge Advocate, 2d
Combat Aviation Brigade, 2d Infantry Division, Camp Humphreys, South Korea.
1 VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, THE SAVIOR GENERALS: HOW FIVE GREAT COMMANDERS
SAVED WARS THAT WERE LOST—FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO IRAQ (2013).
2 Apple Inc.: The Greatest Turnaround in Corporate History?, OXYGEN, THE
TURNAROUND MAG., No. 6, Autumn 2011, http://www.endlessllp.com/oxygen/apple-inc-
issue6.aspx; see also WALTER ISAACSON, STEVE JOBS, 359–65 (2012).
3 Josh Hicks, Obama Picks Restructuring Expert John Koskinnen to Head IRS, WASH.
POST, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/obama-picks-restruc-
turing-expert-john-koskinen-to-head-irs/2013/08/01/bf4a3e30-fada-11e2-9bde-7ddaa186
b751_story.html (last visited Aug. 27, 2013).
4 DAVIS, supra note 1, at 240.
5 Id. at 238–41.
6 Id. at 2–7, 253–95.
7 Id. at 3–4.

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