tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick) (11/27/89)
From: tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick)
On the subject of cuts in the defense budget, a good reference is
"Thoughts of a Soldier" by von Seeckt (who rebuilt the German army
after WW1).
In outline, von Seeckt's program for rebuilding the army in a
time of severe constraints was to create a highly trained, highly
mechanized, highly mobile, hard hitting force. Soldiers were to
be trained so well that they could be immediately used at higher
rank so that the army could be quickly expanded in case of need.
Hope this isn't too political for this group.
Best,
-Tomefrethei@BLACKBIRD.AFIT.AF.MIL (Erik J. Fretheim) (11/29/89)
From: efrethei@BLACKBIRD.AFIT.AF.MIL (Erik J. Fretheim) In article <11734@cbnews.ATT.COM> tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick) writes: > > >From: tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick) >On the subject of cuts in the defense budget, a good reference is >"Thoughts of a Soldier" by von Seeckt (who rebuilt the German army >after WW1). > >In outline, von Seeckt's program for rebuilding the army in a >time of severe constraints was to create a highly trained, highly >mechanized, highly mobile, hard hitting force. Soldiers were to >be trained so well that they could be immediately used at higher >rank so that the army could be quickly expanded in case of need. > This has been exactly the philosophy of the United States for most of it's existance. The simgle exception has been the post-Vietnam period. Of course, the US has also relied on the citizen soldier (national gaurd, militia) as a portion of these forces, but the idea has remain much the same and was a matter of considerable thought for Eli Root and a whole bunch of other early American military thinkers. I guess it just became another of our exports. erik .