Book contents
- War’s Logic
- Cambridge Military Histories
- War’s Logic
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I First Principles and Modern War
- Part II The Revolt of the Strategy Intellectuals
- Part III The Counterrevolution of the Military Intellectuals
- 6 Henry Eccles and the Reform of Strategic Theory
- 7 J. C. Wylie and Strategy as Control
- 8 Harry Summers and the Principles of War
- Part IV The Insurrection of the Operational Artists
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
8 - Harry Summers and the Principles of War
from Part III - The Counterrevolution of the Military Intellectuals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2021
- War’s Logic
- Cambridge Military Histories
- War’s Logic
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I First Principles and Modern War
- Part II The Revolt of the Strategy Intellectuals
- Part III The Counterrevolution of the Military Intellectuals
- 6 Henry Eccles and the Reform of Strategic Theory
- 7 J. C. Wylie and Strategy as Control
- 8 Harry Summers and the Principles of War
- Part IV The Insurrection of the Operational Artists
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 8 analyzes the thinking of Harry Summers, especially his critique of the Vietnam War. Summers was an outspoken military practioner who exposed the harmful effects of applying academic (and untested) strategic theories in Vietnam. He believed most armed conflicts would be fought below the nuclear threshold and hence he maintained the principles of war, which he regarded as timeless, were still sound guides for crafting military strategy. This chapter discusses his model of war’s nature, which retreated somewhat from that of Eccles and Wylie because it paid less attention to war’s sociocultural dimension. It did, however, bridge to the modern model by reemphasizing the importance of the concept of Clausewitzian friction.
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- War's LogicStrategic Thought and the American Way of War, pp. 143 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021