Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

One day in a garden in Cairo during WWII: Seeing a senior general fired

I wrote in my book The Generals a lot about the need to remove underperforming generals. After writing it, I continued my research and came to believe that high-performing organizations in dangerous environments tend to remove roughly 10 percent of their subordinate leaders every year. In the book I had some accounts by generals of ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
Wikimedia
Wikimedia
Wikimedia

I wrote in my book The Generals a lot about the need to remove underperforming generals. After writing it, I continued my research and came to believe that high-performing organizations in dangerous environments tend to remove roughly 10 percent of their subordinate leaders every year.

I wrote in my book The Generals a lot about the need to remove underperforming generals. After writing it, I continued my research and came to believe that high-performing organizations in dangerous environments tend to remove roughly 10 percent of their subordinate leaders every year.

In the book I had some accounts by generals of being fired, or of firing someone. But I can’t recall a single instance of someone witnessing the act. So I was interested to read in Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran that Moran, Churchill’s doctor during the war, saw this happen during World War II. One morning in August 1942 Moran was sitting under a tree on the lawn of the British Embassy, reading a book and watching two hoopoe birds. He saw General Alan Brooke, the chief of the imperial general staff (that is, the top officer in the British military), take a seat under another tree with General Auchinleck, then the beleaguered British commander for the Middle East.

Moran wrote that,

I could not hear what the C.I.G.S. was saying, nor could I see the expression on Auchinleck’s face, but I did not need any help to follow what was happening. Auchinleck sat with his forearms resting on his thighs, his hands hanging down between his knees, his head drooping forward like a flower on a broken stalk. His long, lean limbs were relaxed; the whole attitude expressed grief: the man was completely undone.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

More from Foreign Policy

The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy

The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.
Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now

In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet

As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.