Retired Army Maj. Gen. David Zabecki edits Vietnam magazine and has provided an interesting angle to understanding leadership. There are literally thousands of books on the great commanders such as Napoleon, Grant, Patton or Rommel, but little about the persons who comprised their staff and transmitted their vision into tangible action on the battlefield.

This book is a collection of 28 such men who have stood behind these great commanders to be known as the Chief of Staff. The book illustrates how great leaders require the leadership of others to accomplish victory in war. It highlights how each and every one of us, regardless of rank, has the opportunity to provide leadership within the armed forces. It could be recommending a solider, sailor, marine or airman for school, or helping them attain an officer’s commission, to submitting an idea that could make the difference in battle. The armed forces, commands and units are complex organizations in which the human element is vital to success. The book is divided into two volumes, and each part represents a major period of history from the nineteenth century to Vietnam. Chapters are authored by noted military historians and academics.

The book opens with an explanation on the development of the military staff which is divided into two levels. One of recent creation is national level chief of staff, who today is responsible not for command of units, but as top military officer worries about budgeting, training, policy and organization of a country’s armed forces. In the United States, this role is fulfilled by the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff. Before World War II, the national-level Chief of Staff exercised a direct role in military operations.

The second level is the Chief of Staff, at the divisional level, in the American, French and British system. That person is the principal staff officer and closest advisor. In the Russian and German system that person is the deputy commander. This is by no means a hard rule, as the executive officer, or operations officer has been known in some armies to fulfill the role of chief of staff.

All modern European staff systems trace their beginnings to Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus (died 1632) who was known as the ‘‘Lion of the North,” for his successful military campaigns in Poland and the Thirty-year War. Adolphus standardized regimental staffs with a colonel, lieutenant colonel, major (in charge of operations), chief quartermaster, two chaplains, two judge advocates, four surgeons, four provost marshals, one assistant provost marshal, a myriad of clerks and a hangman. Adolphus’ headquarters staff mirrored the regimental staff, with the addition of artillery, engineers and scouts at the regimental.

The evolution of the French, German, Russian and British Staff systems are discussed briefly. Despite the Swedish origins of the military staff that supports the commander, it was the Prussians (Germans) that profoundly influenced all other military staffs, and the majority of the Chiefs of Staff discussed in the two volumes are German. The numbering system of American staffs with G-1 (administration) and G-2 (intelligence) can trace its origins to the German method of military organization.

The first Chief of Staff discussed is Louis-Alexandre Berthier, who translated Napoleon’s strategic visions into practicable operational orders. Although he was a capable chief of staff, and had to deal with the difficult and abusive personality of Napoleon, he could not exercise independent command of a field army. Napoleon had Berthier by his side in every battle from 1796 to 1814, except for Waterloo. He had a skill at reorganizing and refitting French armies, after Napoleon deployed them against a wide array of European armies. In the United States, the American Civil War produced Randolph Marcy, the first operational Army chief of staff under Gen. George B. McClellan. The second Civil War Chief of Staff was the indispensable John Rawlins who served Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and helped implement Grant’s daring plan against Vicksburg. Rawlins handled Washington D.C., allowing Grant to concentrate on planning campaigns against the Confederacy.

In World War II there was Frederich Wilhelm von Mellenthin, a German General Staff officer, who planned the great armored campaigns of World War II from Africa to Russia. Among the Russian Chiefs of Staff featured are Aleksey Antonov and Vasily Sokolovsky who were part of the mechanism that moved thousands of armored divisions against German formations in what was the largest armored battle in history.

The two books provide tactical details and explore the relationship with such leaders as Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower under conditions of great stress. It is a great contribution to the understanding of military leadership and the operational art.

Editor’s Note: Aboul-Enein writes a regular book column for three military base papers. He has had the privilege of advising Defense Department leaders on counter-terrorism and Middle East policy at the national level since 2002.