Head of British Force Both an Officer and a Politician

Lt. Gen. Peter de la Billiere, who has been named to command British forces in the Persian Gulf region, is a lean, elegant specialist in unconventional warfare and the most decorated man in the British army.

Like Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the American commander in the region, De la Billiere is 56 years old and a fighting soldier, as distinguished from a staff soldier. But there the resemblance ends.

De la Billiere looks like the amateur sailor and squash player he is, while “Stormin’ Norman” has the appearance and manner of a middle linebacker on a professional football team.

Schwarzkopf has been criticized for his outspoken style in dealing with Saudi officials, while De la Billiere has spent many years in the Middle East and, as he puts it, speaks “untidy but workable” Arabic.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is reported to have given her personal approval to De la Billiere so that he can play a diplomatic as well as military role in dealing with the Saudis and the Americans.

“I have worked with the Americans intermittently over 38 years in the army,” the British general said after his appointment, “and never had any problem. We will put together a finely coordinated act.”

De la Billiere first served with Americans in the Korean War as a young Light Infantry officer. Assignments in the Suez Canal zone and Jordan followed.

In 1956, he was accepted by the elite Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment--its motto is “Who Dares Wins”--and was mentioned in dispatches for his work in rooting terrorists out of Malaya’s jungle swamps. In 1959, he won the Military Cross in Oman leading an SAS-led attack against Yemeni-backed guerrillas.

Next, in 1962, he was assigned to Aden and made the 4,000-mile trip out from England in his 22-foot-long sloop. In Aden, he won a second Military Cross, in 1965, for undercover work.

De la Billiere then served briefly in Borneo and afterward commanded SAS operations in Oman. For this, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

In 1979, he took command of the SAS, a post he was to hold until 1983. It was during this period that SAS forces stormed the Iranian Embassy in London to rescue hostages and took part in the Falklands War campaign. Army friends say it was the Falklands that brought De la Billiere to the prime minister’s attention. He received his knighthood in 1988.

According to associates, De la Billiere is an excellent choice to command British forces in Saudi Arabia and to coordinate with the Americans, the Saudis and others.

“He realizes,” another retired general commented, “that in the Arab world you can’t separate military activities from politics. They are the same thing.”

Another said, “He is an unlikely general who is much more shrewd than he lets on.”

De la Billiere will command as many as 10,000 British troops, but recognizes that in the event of hostilities, he will come under the tactical control of an American commander.

“This makes sense,” he says.

The British 7th Armored Brigade, on the way by ship from Germany to Saudi Arabia, is expected to be deployed on the U.S. Marines’ flank near the Kuwaiti border.

In a sense, De la Billiere shares Schwarzkopf’s views.

“I am not a desk soldier,” he said. “I feel uncomfortable behind a desk.”