The Third World War

Strategy at Dead Center

Although the United States has fought many wars, domestic and foreign, its citizens have preferred not to think about them. Our armies in the field, when given unambiguous directives, strike terror to the hearts of friend and foe, but we wish to see ourselves as the most pacifist of peoples. We do not consider acquaintance with military history, geopolitics and strategic principles to be a normal part of a liberal education. We have turned out only a thin supply of serious military literature. This modesty before the military facts of life has a certain charm, but its contribution to national security is doubtful. If more of our leaders had had a little strategy drummed into their heads in school, we would have lost some peace-studded oratory, but the outlook for national security might well be improved. In response to the cold war’s irritations, the production of military literature has rapidly expanded. Specialists in military history and science are being domesticated within the universities, and are writing as well as teaching for a widening audience. Princeton’s Center of International Studies is one such locus, from which an excellent volume of essays has recently issued (Military Policy and National Security, Princeton University Press, $5.00).

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James Burnham

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Strategy at Dead Center

Although the United States has fought many wars, domestic and foreign, its citizens have preferred not to think about them. Our armies in the field, when given unambiguous directives, strike terror to the hearts of friend and foe, but we wish to see ourselves as the most pacifist of peoples. We do not consider acquaintance with military history, geopolitics and strategic principles to be a normal part of a liberal education. We have turned out only a thin supply of serious military literature. This modesty before the military facts of life has a certain charm, but its contribution to national security is doubtful. If more of our leaders had had a little strategy drummed into their heads in school, we would have lost some peace-studded oratory, but the outlook for national security might well be improved. In response to the cold war’s irritations, the production of military literature has rapidly expanded. Specialists in military history and science are being domesticated within the universities, and are writing as well as teaching for a widening audience. Princeton’s Center of International Studies is one such locus, from which an excellent volume of essays has recently issued (Military Policy and National Security, Princeton University Press, $5.00).