Problems of Command in Limited Warfare: Thoughts from korea and Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract This century has seen the two greatest wars of human history. The fi.rst was characterized by failure and futility at the cost of staggering human casualties. The second, while still containing elements of futility, saw military force used with telling effect from the campaign in Poland through to the amphibious drive on Japan through the Pacific. The successes of the Axis Powers proved transitory but largely through superior operational techniques and forces trained and organized for their use, they gained in five spectacular campaigns between mid-1940 and mid-1942 vastly more territory in Europe, Africa, and Asia than the Central Powers had been able to conquer in four years of desperate effort in 1914—18.