Tommy Franks: The most important soldier in a world on the edge

You can make the essential judgement about Tommy Franks from what he wears. To be sure, he cuts a fine figure in his dark green official uniform with the four general's stars on his epaulettes, as he strides briefcase in hand into a White House meeting to resolve the fate of nations. But he looks even more comfortable in his other uniform, the brown and olive desert fatigues, with the patch on the left breast pocket, Franks, US Army.

Tommy Franks is a "muddy boots soldier", an old pro who likes to be where the action is, who wants to be treated without frill nor favour, who gets the job done. Note the name. Not Thomas Ray Franks as he was born, (or Tommy R Franks as the obligatory news references have it). Even his official army biography has him as plain old Tommy Franks, while his granddaughter calls him "Pooh". Yet plain old Tommy Franks is right now the most important soldier on the planet, the man who heads US Central Command, who will be in charge of the American-led invasion of Iraq which could take place as early as next week.

Franks' job makes him Washington's mightiest proconsul in the enforcement of pax Americana. Central Command ("CentCom") is but one of nine regional commands by which the US armed forces carve up the world. But it is by far the most sensitive, covering 25 countries, most of them in the "arc of instability" stretching across the Arab world, through the Middle East and Gulf to East Africa and Afghanistan.

Franks has already fought one war on his beat. Just months after moving to Tampa Bay, where CentCom is based at MacDill Air Force Base, he was ordered on 12 September 2001 to come up with a plan for an Afghan campaign, to destroy the Taliban regime and al-Qa'ida and its infrastructure in the country. Now another, far larger, conflict looms, on whose outcome the very future of the Middle East may depend.

It is a daunting task and one made no easier by the acts he had to follow. Everyone remembers the burly Norman Schwarzkopf, "Stormin' Norman", who led the broad UN coalition that drove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991.

Schwarzkopf was followed by Anthony Zinni, whose brains and political skills (not to mention his Italian heritage) earned him the nickname "The Godfather". Nor can it help that in their retirement, both Zinni and Schwarzkopf have publicly spoken out against the wisdom of this war against Baghdad, at least without the endorsement of the UN. It is unknown whether Franks, who may well head a "coalition of the willing" (essentially the US and Britain), feels the same way. Still in uniform, he does not enjoy the luxury of dissent.

Afghanistan did not play to Franks's strengths. His background is the artillery, not known as a hotbed of strategic innovation. But Afghanistan was truly the first war of the 21st century, a different sort of conflict demanding swift and nimble tactics on the ground. Franks was criticised for adopting the tried old tactics of Gulf War One and Kosovo, of heavy aerial bombardment – but this time against a country which had been reduced to stone age status well before the B-52s entered the picture.

He was taken to task, too, for picking up too slowly on the suddenness of the Taliban's collapse, and then for failing – for whatever reason – to commit enough American troops to the mountain battles of Tora Bora in December 2001 and Operation Anaconda the following March. As a result, many al-Qa'ida fighters (probably including Bin Laden himself) were allowed to escape.

Franks is no Schwarzkopf, an opera lover who speaks foreign languages and was a master of the sound bite. His habits run to mid-range cigars, the odd chilled margarita, and tinkering with the old Ford Mustang in his garage. He is also an avid fan of the American football team Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In private, among his own, "Tommy is not quiet about anything", says General Leo Baxter who has known Franks since the 1970s, and marvels at his friend's fondness for profanity, "but profanity in a humorous sort of way". But the public Franks is another matter. He almost never gives interviews. It's not that he handles the press badly; he just doesn't much enjoy it.

At 6ft 3ins, he towers over the stocky Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, at the rostrum in the Pentagon briefing room – but early on in the Afghan campaign, he had to be practically ordered by his boss to answer questions. And when he does, don't expect fireworks. Take this specimen of Franks-speak during Operation Enduring Freedom in autumn 2001: "The efforts that we're about to what we're after for this objective are going very, very well, and I'll leave it at this point."

Whether he likes it or not however, this unassuming man stands on the threshold of the pantheon of American military heroes. Americans love their generals, accord them larger-than-life status, and on occasion elect them president. But someone remarked, "They expect them never to lose a war, never lie, and never act like a superstar."

The most cherished legends are the ballsy straight talkers: General Anthony McAuliffe, who replied to a German demand for surrender of his encircled division during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge with single word, "Nuts"; or George Patton, known as "Old Blood and Guts"; or Douglas MacArthur. Not the imperious, superstar MacArthur sacked by Harry Truman in 1951 for gross insubordination, but the MacArthur who a decade earlier vowed simply "I shall return" after being driven from the Philippines by the Japanese.

Franks, with his piercing blue eyes, creased leathery face and unadorned style, fits this pattern well. He is a soldier's soldier, a man of bravery who was wounded three times in Vietnam and earned three Bronze Stars. Maybe he is a mite over-cautious. But so are many commanders who have seen close up the hideous realities of war.

In that sense, he adheres to the Colin Powell school of generalship, believing in a clear mission and the deployment of overwhelming force to secure victory at the lowest cost, in the shortest time. Franks, like most of the uniformed Pentagon brass, is instinctively wary of the "outside-the-box" thinking propounded by the Rumsfelds of this world.

He also relishes the company of the ordinary grunts, the people he calls "the military's blue collar workers". Newsweek recently told how Franks, at a dinner at CentCom's new headquarters in Qatar (from where he will direct a war against Saddam), was meant to be seated with other generals and dignitaries. Instead, he settled down at a corner table with a sergeant. An aide came over to suggest Franks move back with his colleagues. "Nope," he replied. "I want to talk to the sergeant major."

In some ways indeed, he resembles a legendary British commander, Bernard Law Montgomery, beloved of his men because of his concern for them. In his time, too, Monty was criticised like Franks by impatient civilian overlords for an excessive deliberation in the build-up for an attack. Intriguingly, in the preparations for Gulf War 2003 against Iraq, the Franks approach has prevailed. And perhaps not surprisingly.

Franks knows warfare in Iraq first hand, having served as an assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry division, which executed an elaborate feint on the Saudi border during Operation Desert Storm. The Pentagon promises a "shock and awe" campaign, with a virtually simultaneous onslaught of precision-guided missiles, the heavy use of special troops, and blitzkrieg-like armoured thrusts on the ground to stun the Iraqi leadership into submission. But the planners are taking no chances, as Franks insisted from the outset. The military force now assembled, of up to 300,000 men, is at or above the upper end of previous estimates – a far cry from the civilian "new thinkers" who claimed that, with a little imagination, the job could be done with a force of only 50,000.

Even before this Iraq crisis, Franks's responsibilities were huge. They are greater now. As often as not, he's away from Tampa, either in Washington, at the Pentagon, the White House or Capitol Hill – or visiting his distant domains. The hours are killing, and family life is next to non-existent. All this too for a four-star general's pay of about $150,000 (£95,000) a year – far less than he could make in civilian life, not to mention the lecture or talk-show circuit.

Instead Franks has taken his family life with him, to his considerable recent embarrassment. By any standard, he is exceptionally close to his wife Cathy, the high school history teacher he married on his return from Vietnam in 1969. He calls her his "anchor" and she has travelled with him everywhere. The upshot, though, was a Pentagon investigation into allegations he had given her free rides on the Boeing 707 that goes with the CentCom job. The probe cleared her on the travel charges, but found she had been present when classified information had been discussed.

But it is inconceivable any action will be taken with war so close. Franks also has had a ringing endorsement from Rumsfeld. Even more important, the general gets on very well too with his Commander-in-chief, the man in the White House.

George Bush and Tommy Franks are light years apart in social background. The President is a mix of East Coast blue blood and Texas oil. Franks is of much humbler stock, who attended not Yale but the University of Texas at Austin, before heading off to Vietnam as an artillery lieutenant. But less obvious similarities outweigh the differences.

Both were raised in the Texan oil town of Midland. Neither is a smart talker, and both are easily underestimated. "Don't be taken in by that good ol' boy style," a long-time friend cautions of Franks. The same is true of Bush. Franks describes the President as "the most self-effacing human being I've been around for a long time". Such warm feelings are doubtless reciprocal.

For all the pressures on him, Franks has retained his enthusiasm. Returning recently to Qatar from Washington, he stepped off the plane and shouted into the night air, "Showtime." For Tommy Franks, the most important show is about to begin.

LIFE STORY

Born Thomas Ray Franks, 17 June 1945, in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

Family Wife Cathryn; daughter Jacqueline; two grandchildren.

Education Bachelor's degree, University of Texas, 1971; master's degree in public administration, Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania, 1985; graduated from Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Still, Oklahoma, 1967.

Military career Commissioned second lieutenant in 1967; squadron commander in West Germany in early 1980s; assistant commandant field Artillery School, Fort Still, Oklahoma; commander second infantry division, in Korea; commander, Third US Army, Fort McPherson, Georgia; reached the rank of general in 2000; ranking officer in charge of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, 2001-02; Commander in Chief of the US Central Command since 6 July 2000, responsible for US security interests from North Africa across the Arabian peninsula to Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Medals Include Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Service Medal.

Pastimes Country music, Mexican food, antiques, golf.

He says "The doctrines that existed for our armed forces several years ago really don't apply to the first war of the 21st century."

They say "In the sweep of his command, General Franks is the modern equivalent of a proconsul in the Roman Empire." Newsweek