In his first three Commanders books, Tom Clancy teamed with Generals Fred Franks,, Jr., Chuck Horner and Carl Stiner to provide masterful blends of history, biography, you-are-three narrative, insight into the practice of leadership and plain old-fashioned storytelling. Battle Ready is all of that-and something more. Marine General Tony Zinni was known as the "Warrior Diplomat" during his nearly forty years of service. His credentials as a soldier were impeccable, whether lie was leading troops in Vietnam, commanding hair raising rescue operations in Somalia, or-as Commander in Chief of CENTCOM-directing strikes against Iraq and Al Qaeda. But it was as a peacemaker that lie made just as great a mark-conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa, Asia, and Europe, and then serving as Secretary of State Colin Powell's special envoy to the Middle East, before disagreements over the 2003 Iraq war and its probable aftermath caused him to resign. They have not, however, caused him to lie silent. In Battle Ready, he is candid, thoughtful, and blunt about the good and the bad he has seen and continues to see. Battle Ready follows the evolution of both General Zinni and the Marine Corps, from the cauldron of Vietnam, through the operational revolution of the seventies and eighties, to the new realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 military-a military with a radically different job and radically different tools for accomplishing it. Opinions differ sharply about just what that job and those tools should be- and General Zinni makes it clear where lie stands. It is an eye-opening book-a front-row seat to a man, an institution, and a way both of' war and of peace that together make this an instant classic of military history.