mmm@apple.com (10/27/89)
From: portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@apple.com The recent discussion of the future of the military, and this week's NOVA episode on the history of radar, remind me of the following passage from the autobiography of Vannevar Bush (he convinced FDR to authorize formation of the OSRD, civilian forerunner of DARPA during WW2): : As I write there is a war in Vietnam. It started as a fight by proxy, : with Russia and China backing one side and the United States, with : some, but not much, support from the rest of the free world, backing : the other. It is still a proxy fight for Russia, but not for us. Both sides : have pulled their punches to avoid direct confrontation. This is clear : enough in our restraint in bombing the north. It is not so clear, but : should be, from the other viewpoint, for there is a great deal Russia : could do and has not done. : : There are lessons to be learned from it, even some in technical : areas. There we are with complete air dominance, with undisputed : sea control, with lavish supplies of all sorts, faced by a third-rate : power, supplied over a great distance. It should be over at once. It is : not. The power of modern weapons has its limits. : : But there are far more important lessons for us than this. : : [long discussion of how engineers influenced WW2 decision-makers, : but never became the decision-makers, omitted] : : We can learn much from Vietnam. One thing we can learn is that : our military planning has not been good enough--and this is quite : apart from the question of whether our political planning also has : been faulty. In particular, it appears we did not plan well in regard : to the power and limitations of modern weapons, their evolution, : their applicability under novel conditions of warfare. : : Is the answer to place a civilian scientist at the top table, where : the military plans are made and the campaigns controlled? I do not : think so. : : I do think there should be in that position a military officer who has : made a lifetime study of the evolution of weaponry, who has made : himself a master of this subject. He should of course be also a master : of the military art in all its traditional phases. Such men exist. Many : more would exist today if we had been fully determined to develop : and encourage them. There is an old doctrine among the military : that he who is fully skilled in weaponry is not qualified for top : command. It is a superstition only and has no validity in the modern : world. At the planning table there should be at least one man who : understands weapons, those of the present and of the probable future, : in all their aspects, as completely as the conductor of a symphony : orchestra understands music, in its traditions and its current trends. : That man should be a military officer. But he should be there, and it : is up to the military men of this country to see that he is.