MCDP 1
Notes
The Theory of War
I.
Clausewitz, p. 87.
2.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. S. B. Griffith (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1982) P. 85. Like On War, The Art of War
should be on every Marine officer's list of essential reading. Short
and simple to read, The Art of War is every bit as valuable today as
when it was written about 400 B.C..
3.
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 2 (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923) p. 5. The passage continues: "Nearly
all battles which are regarded as masterpieces of the military art,
from which have been derived the foundation of states and the fame
of commanders, have been battles of manoeuvre in which the enemy
has found himself defeated by some novel expedient or device,
some queer, swift, unexpected thrust or stratagem. In many battles
the losses of the victors have been small. There is required for the
composition of a great commander not only massive common sense
and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of
legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy
puzzled as well as beaten. It is because military leaders are credited
with gifts of this order which enable them to ensure victory and save
slaughter that their profession is held in such high honour.
"There are many kinds of manoeuvre in war, some only of
which take place upon the battlefield. There are manouevres far to
the flank or rear. There are manoeuvres in time, in diplomacy, in
mechanics, in psychology; all of which are removed from the battle-
field, but react often decisively upon it, and the object of all is to
find easier ways, other than sheer slaughter, of achieving the main
purpose."
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