Desert Warrior: A Personal View of the Gulf War by the Joint Forces Commander

Nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, HRH General Khaled served in parallel command with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Gulf War. ``We were the two luckiest generals ever to fight a war,'' he writes. ``Few commanders in history can ever have been as certain of victory as we were.'' Their relationship was stormy, however, and one shouting match included this exchange: ``Should I treat you as a general or a prince?'' ``Both!'' Khaled describes how, as a point of national policy and personal pride, he avoided even the appearance of subordination to the Americans, making certain, for example, that he always had the same number of bodyguards as Schwarzkopf. Khaled has much to say about the nature of the coalition against Saddam Hussein and the peculiarities of various contingents (e.g., the superior attitude of the French troops) and argues that Saudi Arabian participation was the linchpin of the counterattack against the Iraqi army. He complains that the peace agreement was weak, lacking a formal document of surrender ``which... might have helped remove Saddam.'' Khaled's winning personality, intelligence and ready sense of humor combine to make this Saudi insider's view of the 1990-91 war as entertaining as it is informative. Seale is a British journalist. Photos not seen by PW. (May)