Smokey Joe & the General

Former Ambassador and Lt. General USA (Ret.) Edward L. Rowny recently published a book, Smokey Joe & the General, which is a combined memoir of his military and diplomatic career and biography of his mentor, Gen. John E. Wood.

Gen. Rowny, now 96, served in the Army from 1941until 1979. He commanded forces in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. He also served in senior positions in the Department of Defense on the staffs of Gens. Marshall, Eisenhower and MacArthur. He also served as Gen. MacArthur’s official spokesman during the Korean War. He rose to the rank of lieutenant general before retiring from the Army in protest over President Carter's signing of the SALT nuclear arms reduction treaty, which he viewed as unequal and unverifiable. He later campaigned for Ronald Reagan, and upon Reagan's election as president served as chief negotiator of the SALT II talks and an arms control advisor with the rank of Ambassador. President Reagan awarded Rowny the U.S. Citizen’s Medal as one of the chief architects of “peace through strength.”

Gen. Rowny's book offers readers with military and civilian backgrounds a unique look into some of the defining foreign policy events of the 20th Century. Beginning with his experience as a West Point cadet and a young officer under Gen. Wood's command, he tells how Gen. Wood and other senior officers innovated Army training techniques and command procedures. Gen. Rowny relates how he applied this type of ability to innovate in his own command experiences, from air-dropping a bridge to evacuate Marines from Chosin, Korea to introducing the concept of armed helicopters into Army combat. The book provides the reader with a unique perspective on senior-level government service both in the military and the political spheres.

The book is available now from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/149353842X