Generally Speaking
A Memoir by the First Woman Promoted to Three-Star General in the United States Army
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Claudia J. Kennedy retired as the Army's first female three-star general and the highest-ranking woman ever in that branch, overseeing 45,000 soldiers worldwide. During her 32-year career she witnessed the dramatic advances made by military women, and she was a long-time champion for fairness and equality in the Army. As she recounts her experiences in a male-dominated profession, beginning as a young Women's Army Corps officer in 1969, moving through her Pentagon service as a three-star general, and ending with her retirement in 2000, General Kennedy charts the struggles and triumphs in her inspiring life and career.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beginning in a Women's Army Corps still largely restricted to clerical duties, Kennedy finished three-plus decades in the army as a senior intelligence officer during a period when military intelligence was no longer an oxymoron, but a critical element of national security. Her memoir says the expected from a successful senior officer. It stresses the importance to a soldier of physical, mental and spiritual fitness. It offers a few generalizations about the future of the army and the world, making familiar points about the increasing likelihood of asymmetric violence by substate actors. Readers, however, are unlikely to seek out this book for its perspectives on national security. Kennedy was known within the army as a determined advocate for women soldiers. She gained national recognition for successfully blocking the promotion of another general, on the grounds of his having sexually harassed her. More significant, however, is Kennedy's principled commitment to creating a more domesticated army, a female-friendly force whose male soldiers wish neither to drink to excess, to use bad language, nor to consider women as sexual objects. The possibilities of this kind of civilized force are more important than whether a particular general engaged in inappropriate touching. They should be the focus whenever Generally Speakingis discussed. PW's readers are advised not to hold their breaths waiting for that to happen.
