This
[military] professional bias, or sense of responsibility, leads him
to feel that if he errs in his estimate, it should be on the side of
overstating the threat. Consequently, at times he will see threats to
the security of the state where actually no threats exists.
-- Page
66.
He
[the military men] is afraid of war. He wants to prepare for war. But
he is never ready to fight a war.
-- Page
69.
The
military ethic is thus pessimistic, collectivist, historically
inclined, power-oriented, nationalistic, miliatristic, pacifist, and
instrumentalist in its view of the military profession. It is in, in
brief, realistic and conservative.
-- Page
79.
… for
the American a war is not a war unless it is a crusade.
-- Page
151
The
trouble with the United States as a country was that „we are
perhaps the least military, thought not behind the foremost as a
warlike one.“
-- Page
221.
Military men criticized the rash and adventurous psychology, typified by the "On to Richmond" slogan of the Civil War radicals, and urged the primacy of prudence over courage and the necessity of accepting a "patient and costly defense." Some
military men almost seemed to regret that the United States had
“never known a Jena or Sedan“ to curb national arrogance and
complacency.
-- Page
266
The professional officer exists in a world of grays. MacArthur's universe was one of blacks and whites and loud and clashing colors.
-- Page 370.
Speaking less and smiling more than MacArthur, he [Eisenhower] appeared the embodiment of consensus rather than controversy. MacArthur was a beacon, Eisenhower a mirror.
-- Page 370
The
tension between the demands of military security and the values of
American liberalism can, in the long run, be relieved only by the
weakening of the security threat or the weakening of liberalism.
-- Page
456
No comments:
Post a Comment