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13 Army Hist. 1 (1989)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0013 and id is 1 raw text is: ARMY HISTORY THE PROFESSIONAL BUl TIN OF ARMY HISTORY P-20494- (N .,3) Washigton, DC Fall 1989 Army Leaders and Military History General John R. Galvin Supreme Allied Commander, Europe Good militar y leaders understand historv. Leader ship without a sense of history can only be Instinctive, ad thereby1 ti;ed, in Its se. The study of hitory o i ut 1 tot t. qnewled of the uman expnenc so that in the end weare beller able torenderjtudgrnenm and what i leadership but the abilty to judge what ?us be done arid htw to accomplish t? The late World Warl historian and omhaji or nal ist Cornelius Ryan told of watching a group o f green American lieutenant replacements in Italy moving up to takv 'vr IplIitoos thal were already in heavy ac tion. A felow war correspondent at his side connwitvd simply., I hope they are well rea'( Ry: found much wisdo n in ohseraton. How else could nmen so young and new to war hope to lead ethers They had litle chance to na. they li d no expemieuce of war; they were too young to know much of life firsthand. Those wih an altty acquired sense of history, wih a knowledge of human endeavor, would be relatively wel off indeed at that moment As mlitay leaders we are charged t prep~u Ilers and r cive fr war. We go about this ma viety of ways, not least of which is to bring about some understanding of the nature of war. With this in mind wecanook hack over the Army's reucnt training pro ram, and ativili s with some satsf action that we have been able to emphasize history as a part of them. Our military schools are encouraging more and more hisorial readings and analyses. Units are visiting battlefiels making terrain walks. taking staff rides and investigAting the decisions and circmbstanCs of the men who Iug ht there. We are iequiring our juIor oficers, arnd encouraging ou ori ones, to select from recommended lists, to read and t $ 1 i MoreandmIoreof o peopleare writing,:admoreand mole of their wi. r e being pubished. 1pe fully, w are 'eing the development of a aend Gener GhM~ 4dnrmg N AT rwat here Perhaps we can take soic pride in the indica- iors that history is a more vital part of training than it has been in the recent past. But there are still those who would question whether we really need all this efforIt After all, the militmy is a busy place, the days are long, the work demanding, and the pace exhaust- ing( Can we really devote much time and effort to reading history? Clanse witz answered t question soie time ago. In his effort to understand the nature of war, he praised the use otbistorical esamrple. lie approached the use of history from four perspectives: as an -planation as a demonstration of the applIcation of an idea, as a support for a st atement, and as a detailed presentation from which one might deduce dctrine. Fach use requires greater degrees of rgor. The irst and simplest demand is for ac uracy. If we read widely enough. we can develop ant ahlity to discem and a base for compari n that will develop a feel for

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