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23 Army Hist. 1 (1992)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0023 and id is 1 raw text is: ARMY HISTORY THE PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF ARMY 1ISTORY PB-20-92-3 (No. 23) Washington, DC. Summer 1992 Field Marshal von Moltke the Elder His Importance Then and Now Gtinter Roth Brig Geta Gunier Roth, PhA is chief of dhe Militlrgesclhichliches Forschungsaml, tMe Germanr Military Histwry Researhri Office This article is de r w l from a paper General Roth presented a : Center of Mitilary History an 22 October 1991. There are many different ways to view the great political events of our day the ideologctal. social, and economic upheavals of Eastern Ftxrope and their reper cussions on the postwar political or der . I would like to outline the importance for our present time of a unique personaity among PrussianIerman milit arTy leaders, a versatile, cosmopolitan, and Infinitely recepuve an, Fied Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke. Ti:s ap proach gives young o fIkers an opportunity to relcit upon a in teth-cenrury. multifaceted character, one wsho reflected his era's modern, sober reality of Enlghi- m I yet wto also wasarnian olphilos phical con! 1mplation. Mollke will be considered along with the othctr gkeut prsonaity of hisage, Ottovon Bismarck. Differ- enees of opinion on the primacy of politics in wart pr; :nted threr bemng triends and, indeed, made ific ant a tis also worth noutng partcuiarly foll'- ig the experience of two world wArs, Lhat Moltike reversed one of Carl von Clausewit's maxims-the may f politis in war. It will be demonstrated that Moltke%'s theory justifying absolute war and the inde- pendence of military leadership in wartime, as prac. ticed by his pale imiitator,, had a signillcant negative impact on Germany's late. Mollke and the Philosophy of Carl von Cla Nse it z For the younger generaton, World War 11 has J to be the overriding cint mn ent an tin:ly, has become a thing of the past The new tinki rg among Eastern and Western Europan nations is making obsolete the notion of war as an instrument of great power politics. To understand the contrast with the past it is necessary to r eflec t upon the ambiva lenee of Molmke, that huianit and miltary scholar. who hroke with his LeIe C a uwitz's maxim (the primacy of politics) and appealed to absolute war as ustifIkation for refusing the political leadership any r ole during w aiime. (l) The impoiance of that break with Clausewitz can har dly be overrated, since the new theory became the guideline for the German chidi; of the (encral Staff after Moilke and achieved far-reach- Ing and tragic significance ander Alfred von Schiletfen, Erich t.udendorff, and Fr an/ laker. This paper will outline Moltke's theories and their Influence on the thinking and actions of the Genan political and mih l yciaes in bothw Ird w ar TLe most recent decisions by the United Nations and the American political le adership during t he Gul f War suggest that Moltke and his imiators' view that absolute war justities exclusive leadership by the mili- lary in wartime is out of date. Moltke promotld Ciausewitxs real discovery, the idea of absolute war tu 1 from the basic premise that war is an extended duel and that its purpose is to r ender the enemy defenseless, Molike took an isolated compo- nent, and for that reason saw no room for political itt fete ecin war fare B lk vng the machinery of war completely independent In Its actions from the political leadership and allowing it to seek rhe o- plete suppression of the enemy by any means neces- Mary. Molike described the absoluteness of war with a consistency that reversed the maxims of Clausewite. lie reached a new level of purely mitary thinking on war to which Clauewit would only concede Its own grammar, but no logic (2 The problems thai resulted romr this tinking be tre and durtingWorld Wars and1 Ican be men

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