FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Courtney Greenhalgh

212.782.8971; cgreenhalgh@randomhouse.com

They were four exceptional soldiers, a new generation asked to save an army that had been
hollowed out after Vietnam. They survived the military’s brutal winnowing to reach its top
echelon. They became the Army’s most influential generals in the crucible of Iraq.

THE FOURTH STAR

Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the
Future of the United States Army

By DAVID CLOUD and GREG JAFFE

“This is the best book I have read on the military in a long time. It is a sparkling account of today’s U.S.
Army─a work of art that offers novelistic details but also carries the impact of well-reported fact. I
learned something on nearly every page, and much of it astonished me.”
─Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times bestselling author of Fiasco and The Gamble

“Must reading...A remarkably candid portrait of four colorful personalities that shows how the world's
largest corporation, the U.S. Army, molds its top leaders.”
─Bing West, author of The Village, No True Glory and The Strongest Tribe

“Impressively profiles four generals who have earned the fourth star…also deals a blow to any
monolithic conception of the “military mind,” a balloon that cannot be deflated too often.” ─Booklist

“Insightful…a perceptive look at intelligent, capable generals trying their best.” ─Kirkus Reviews

In THE FOURTH STAR: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the

Future of the United States Army (Crown; October 13, 2009), David Cloud and

Greg Jaffe show how the American military elevates the best and brightest to power.

Cloud, the newly appointed special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan

(most recently the chief national security writer at Politico.com and formerly the

Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times), and Jaffe, the Pentagon

correspondent at the Washington Post (who previously held the same position at the Wall Street Journal),

obtained full access to Iraq’s most influential generals as well as to their family members and subordinates.

The result is a detailed portrait of these remarkable men and the U.S. Army that no newspaper or magazine

article could capture and no book, until now, has attempted.

THE FOURTH STAR follows:

 General David Petraeus, a driven soldier-scholar. Determined to reach the Army’s summit
almost since the day he entered West Point, he sometimes alienated peers with his ambition and
 competitiveness. When he finally got his chance in Iraq, he─more than anyone─changed the
Army’s perception of what was possible.

 General John Abizaid, one of the Army’s most brilliant minds. Fluent in Arabic, he forged an
unconventional path in the military to make himself an expert on the Middle East, but this unique
background made him skeptical of the war he found himself leading.

 General George Casey Jr., the son of the highest-ranking general to be killed in the Vietnam
War. Casey had grown up in the Army and won praise for his common touch and skill as a
soldier. He was determined not to repeat the mistakes of Vietnam, but would take much of the
blame as Iraq collapsed around him.

 General Peter Chiarelli, an emotional, take-charge leader who, more than any other senior
officer, felt the sting of the Army’s failures in Iraq. He drove his soldiers, the chain of command,
and the U.S. government to rethink its occupation plans─yet rarely achieved the results he sought.

Collectively, their lives tell the story of the Army over the last four decades and illuminate the path it

must travel to protect the nation over the next century. The careers of this elite quartet show how the most

powerful military force in the world entered a major war unprepared and how the Army, drawing on a

reservoir of talent that few thought it possessed, saved itself from crushing defeat against a ruthless, low-tech

foe.

Masterfully written and richly reported, THE FOURTH STAR ranges far beyond today’s

battlefields, evoking the Army’s tumultuous history since Vietnam through these four captivating lives and

ultimately revealing a fascinating irony: In an institution that prizes obedience, the most effective warriors are

often those who dare to question the prevailing orthodoxy and in doing so redefine the American way of war.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David Cloud is the special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Most recently he was chief
national security writer at Politico.com and prior to that was the Pentagon correspondent for the New York
Times. He joined the Times after seven years at the Wall Street Journal, where he covered national security and
intelligence issues. He has also worked at the Chicago Tribune, where he covered foreign affairs, and at
Congressional Quarterly. In 2002 he was a co-recipient of the Jesse Laventhol Prize awarded by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors for coverage of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. He is a graduate of the
College of William and Mary.

Greg Jaffe is the Pentagon correspondent at the Washington Post and held the same position at the Wall Street
Journal. In 1994 he was a Pulitzer finalist for a series of stories he authored on the Southern Poverty Law
Center, and in 1999 he was part of a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer for national reporting. He is a
two-time winner of the National Journalism Award, presented by the Scripps Howard Foundation. He also
won the Gerald R. Ford Award for coverage of national defense, the National Headliner Award for beat
reporting, and the top prize awarded by the Military Reporters and Editors group. He is a graduate of
Williams College and has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

ABOUT THE BOOK

THE FOURTH STAR
Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
By David Cloud and Greg Jaffe
Crown • On-sale date: October 13, 2009 • ISBN: 978-0-307-40906-5 • Price: $28.00

For more information, or to schedule interviews with David Cloud and Greg Jaffe, please contact:
Courtney Greenhalgh, Publicity Manager/212.782.8971 or cgreenhalgh@randomhouse.com.

Visit us on the Web at www.crownpublishing.com.