This book could not have been written without the active support and encouragement of the senior leadership of the Army. They not only provided the time and the means to research and write the book, but also widely distributed the original paperback edition throughout the Army and the Defense establishment. This early edition is now being used as a student text at the Army War College, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, and for selected seminars at the National Defense University, the Air and the Naval War Colleges.
It also could not have been written without the help of a number of Army officers, both here at the War College and throughout the Army, who had been involved in the articulation, formulation and execution of military strategy. Among those who provided comments and suggestions were Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (then Army Vice Chief of Staff) General John C. Vessey, Jr., Army Chief of Staff General Edward C. Meyer, Commander of the Army Training and Doctrine Command (then Chief of Operations and Plans) General Glenn K. Otis, retired Generals Andrew P. O’Meara, Bruce Palmer, Jr., and Richard G. Stilwell; former Army War College Commandants Lieutenant Generals Jack N. Merritt and DeWitt C. Smith, Jr., Lieutenant General Richard L. Prillaman, retired Lieutenant Generals John H. Elder and William B. Fulton; Major Generals Dave R. Palmer and Dale R. Vesser; Brigadier General Dallas C. Brown, Jr., Colonel Donald P. Shaw, Director US Army Military History Institute; Chaplain (Colonel) Charles Kriete, Colonels Keith Barlow, Sanders Cortner, Zane Finkelstein, Charles Hines, Thomas Leggett, Donald Lunday, Henrik Lunde, Dandridge (Mike) Malone, Lloyd Matthews, Ramone Nadal, Andrew Remson and Joseph Sites, Major David Russell and Captain James Waters of the Army War College Staff and Faculty; Colonel Roger MacLeod and Lieutenant Colonels Creighton Abrams, Ronald Griffith, William Orlov and Thomas Rhen of the Army War College Classes of 1980 and 1981; Colonel William Stofft and the members of the Combat Studies Institute US Army Command and General Staff College; and Colonel Andrew P. O’Meara and Major Charles Scribner of the Army General Staff.
In addition to the Army reviewers, comments were also received from former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Oxford University Professor Michael Howard, Georgetown University Professor Edward N. Luttwak, Congressional Staffer William S. Lind, author and strategist John M. Collins and Herbert Y. Schandler, as well as Department of State Representative Frank E. Cash, C.I.A. Representative James Dimon, Marianne Cowling, Lisa A. Ney and Rita Rummel of the Army War College Staff and Faculty.
Particular thanks goes to Colonel Wallace P. Franz, United States Army Reserve. A former member of the consulting faculty of the US Army Command and General Staff College now on active duty with the Army War College faculty, he served as an infantry company commander in the Korean war and as a district advisor in Vietnam. Colonel Franz, an avid military historian and student of military tactics and strategy, was the source of much of the detailed information on the evolution of military theory. His critical page-by-page review of this work added much to the clarity of the final product.
Thanks must also go to my wife, Eloise, and our two sons, Captain Harry G. Summers III and Captain David C. Summers, United States Army, whose comments provided a unique perspective and who were the inspiration for this attempt to help make their Army of the future a more effective instrument for national security.
A final word of thanks to Colonel Robert V. Kane (U.S. Army, Retired), publisher of Presidio Press, who not only provided the means for this analysis to reach a wider public audience, but also made it possible for royalties to accrue to the Army War College Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the War College’s education mission … in former Secretary of War Elihu Root’s words, “not to promote war but to preserve peace.”
In expressing my thanks to those who provided comments and advice I must add that the conclusions and such errors as this book contains are solely my responsibility.
H. G. S.
Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania
6 May 1982