Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.7
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"The Mutable Nature of War","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.7","url":null,"abstract":"The third chapter was written after listening to several ground officers and historians argue that the nature of war was unchanging and immutable. One stated that war as experienced by an ancient Greek hoplite was the same as for any soldier today in Iraq or Afghanistan. That statement bears examination. Such attitudes are almost always expressed by those who know only of land warfare—which they equate to war in general. For sailors, aviators, space or cyber warfare practitioners, the experience of war is fundamentally different, especially today. New methods, but also old ones too often ignored, clearly demonstrate that war is indeed mutable.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114822358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0002
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Busting the Icon","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Carl von Clausewitz has had a massive influence on military officers. One faculty member at a US war college had spent most of his academic life teaching Clausewitz and would brook no contrary word. Whatever the occasion, he had a quote from On War to bolster his argument. The result was a skewed interpretation of what Clausewitz was attempting to inform, and this tended to push students into a group-think mentality. Some people, in and out of uniform, take their Clausewitz very seriously, so this chapter is an attempt to restore a balance. It looks at what Clausewitz wrote, but also what military leaders and civilian pundits thought he meant in the two centuries since.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127024608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.10
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Decisive Victories and What They Mean","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.10","url":null,"abstract":"The subject of decisive victory was another subject that caught my attention while at the Naval War College, where we would ask students to list Napoleon’s decisive victories. The term “decisive” is overused, and too often engagements with only transient strategic significance—despite the number of casualties—were given the term. The number of truly decisive battles throughout history is few. The first step therefore was to define decisive, and the key was to identify victories having long-term significance. After defining the term, listed are what in my view are the Top Eleven throughout history.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"90 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122812654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0015
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Summation","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"The final chapter is an overview of the entire book, which leads to a new paradigm of war. Starting with a past overemphasis on bloody battle inherited from Clausewitz, it then proceeds through discussions of various methods to avoid such battles, to capitalize on speed and surprise, to reflect individual service and national cultures, and to capitalize on new technologies and doctrines. These varied factors suggest alternatives that emphasize the importance of speed, surprise, precision, and the limitation of risk.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125776535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.15
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Unity of Command in the Pacific during World War II","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.15","url":null,"abstract":"Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have strong opinions on how the Pacific War was fought and how victory was achieved over Japan. Too often these views have been shaped by service parochialism dressed up in the guise of war principles. Regarding the issue of unity of command, there was actually more unity in the Pacific theater than there was in Europe. Strategy is similarly seen through parochial lenses and usually breaks into three camps: sailors and sea power advocates trumpet the importance of the Central Pacific thrust commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz. Soldiers and land warfare historians instead hail General Douglas MacArthur’s island-hopping campaign in the Southwest Pacific Area. Airmen applaud the strategic bombing campaign culminating in the atomic bombs. In truth, it was a joint effort by all the services that defeated Japan.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128111809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0005
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Starting with a Blank Sheet","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Determining principles of war and the mental effort required to articulate them are important for military officers. During a crisis when time is short and there are many demands on our attention, we must simplify and extract general rules from conflicting data points. Principles of War have been espoused for centuries, but the urge to codify such rules took on added impetus in the twentieth century. Today, such principles are considered invaluable learning tools at military schools. Yet, it is time for an update, because those used today were devised a century ago by a soldier who had little or no insight into warfare at sea or in the air. His precepts have survived, largely intact, until the present day. The result has been a distorted view of war. We must begin anew—not to reshape the earlier principles, but to look at modern war and devise new ones that govern the new environment.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132669365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0006
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Second Fronts","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"War colleges often discuss what are termed “peripheral operations.” Unfortunately, it is a poor term because it connotes secondary military operations using expendable or auxiliary forces. Yet, some of these campaigns were major actions employing large numbers of troops and which had major strategic effects. Indeed, such maneuvers were often termed “the British Way of War.” “Second front operations” is a far more useful term to describe assaults occurring outside the main theater using major forces. This chapter discusses four such campaigns—two were successful and two were not. The intent is to address why such operations were launched, and then to draw lessons to guide future strategists.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123225779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.17
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Determining the Effects of the Allied Air Offensive","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.17","url":null,"abstract":"This essay deals with the massive report chartered by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 to measure the effects of strategic bombing on Germany and Japan—the US Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS). Ascertaining the effects of air strikes was critical, and airmen took steps to ensure that data would be amassed and analyzed to determine if the strategic bombing campaign was successful and worth the effort. USSBS was a massive effort employing over 1,500 personnel that conducted a detailed examination of the evidence both in Europe and the Pacific. Its unimpeachable findings and answers were fairly clear-cut, as detailed in the statistical findings published in over 300 reports. This essay closely examines the bulk of the surveys and reveals what they actually said.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"581 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132460630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2020-01-27DOI: 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0011
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Soldiers and Politics","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"When discussing the American military tradition, writers usually state that the US military has always been divorced from political affairs. Even cursory research into the subject reveals the opposite; the military has often played a major role in domestic politics, and for most of our history that role was considered normal and healthy. During the nineteenth century it was common practice for US generals to dabble in politics and to actually run for political office while still in uniform. Yet, such events are passed over lightly by historians, and many still write of an American military tradition stressing the noninvolvement of the military in politics throughout our history. That is a misreading of events, but the situation did change in the aftermath of World War II, especially around the time of the Vietnam War.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128786448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thoughts on WarPub Date : 2017-04-01DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.12
Phillip S. Meilinger
{"title":"Jointness and the Norwegian Campaign, 1940","authors":"Phillip S. Meilinger","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv411hg.12","url":null,"abstract":"The Norwegian campaign of 1940 was the first major confrontation between Germany and the Allies in World War II. Although both sides had been poised along the Western Front since September 1939, serious fighting did not break out there; instead, the belligerents first fought in the far north. Germany had sound strategic reasons for conquering Norway, but the Allies attacked them there simply because they did not wish to fight in France. Important lessons were learned in Norway, by both sides, regarding joint operations, unity of command, and airpower –specifically, the need for air superiority over naval forces.","PeriodicalId":410551,"journal":{"name":"Thoughts on War","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127285632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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