ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DISCLAIMER

This book is a work of independent scholarship. The author is solely responsible for all statements of fact and expressions of opinion, which do not represent official statements by Air University, the United States Air Force, or any other agency of the US government. As author, however, I gratefully acknowledge successive commandants and deans of education at the USAF Air Command and Staff College who encouraged the pursuit of individual research and publication agendas by members of the ACSC faculty.

I am grateful to Stephen P. Hull, editor at the University Press of New England, for his open-minded consideration of this project, as well as the trust with which he allowed me time to complete it.

My thanks are due to the staff of the Air University Library, officially known as the Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center, for the knowledge, energy, and courtesy with which they support the research of students and faculty alike. The entire AUL/MSFRIC staff is unfailingly helpful, but I must particularly acknowledge the many personal kindnesses of Donna Billingsley, Barbara Jiles, Mark Moore, Michael Rojas, and Josephine Turner.

As with the Air University Library staff, my professional and personal debts to faculty and staff members of the Air Command and Staff College are so numerous that it is painful to realize I cannot name them all. I can only hope that they will grant me the further kindness of accepting this acknowledgment.

Comments on the work in progress by Michael Kraig, Richard Muller, Thomas Ira Savoie, Thomas Whigham, and the late Karl Westhauser saved me from many errors and infelicities. My office mates during 2016–18, Richard Milburn and Tenaya Humphrey, not only patiently permitted me to think aloud, but also generously responded with much good advice as well as kindly encouragement. Jason Trew generously provided me with some of the fruits of his studies in history and myth; Wesley Hutto gave timely and much-needed assistance in my struggles with information technology. While all these colleagues and friends greatly contributed to any merit the work may possess, I must reemphasize that responsibility for its shortcomings is mine alone.

In a special category is Paul J. Springer, without whose intervention at a critical point, this book might never have been published.

John T. LaSaine, Jr. | September 2017