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53 Army Hist. 1 (2001)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0053 and id is 1 raw text is: ARMY HISTORY T HE PROFESSIONA L BULETIN OF ARMY HISTORY P-20-01-3 (No. 53) Washington, D.C. Summer-Fall 2001 An Infamous Legacy: Schlieffen's Military Theories Revisited By AntulioJ. Echeiarria 11 ield Marshal Alfred son chefen chief of the German Generl Statt from 1891 to 190, is among the most infamous of Germany's military figures. lHistorians hav e criticiied him for has ing designed the ilated war plan Germany used in 1914. the so-caled Sebbeflen Plan, Aimed at destroying the French Army with one gr eat enveloping maneus er through Belgium and northern France. that plan was hopelessly flawed rm the start critics hate mintained. For one thing. a relied on an of fensise solution w hen. for the prev ious iternyi C years. technological adiances had apparently favored the defense. Second. it called for ses eral more corps than the German Army possessed. Third. i required strict adherence to a rigid imeIable that not only deprived subordinate commlanders of freedom of action but o\ erlooked the ine\itabls diruptive inluence of the fog and fition of war. Finally. it spurned all political guidance in favor of a purely miliary solution to Germany' strategic dilenima. one that attempted to elevate a tactical principle. envelopment to the level of strategy. Consequently, foi historians and strategists alike. Shieffena name has been tied to a legacy of miltary thnkig at its worst. a iision that appeared myopic, mechanical. and obsessse. However, recent scholarship concerning both Schlieffen ideas and the underpinnings of the German war plan ol 1914 reveals a different story We now understand that Schlieffen's thinking both reflected and conrbuted to a general intellectual transition that occurred mn al European armies as wel as in the U.S. Army, before the First World War. Moreover, some historians base recently shown that the traditional understanding of the so-caled Selilieflen Plan ma> require considerable revtsion. The Gesamtschlacht Schhclecn's series of Cannac essays, published tn the German General Staffs (Quanterlv flr Ta cn and Military Science betw een 1909 and 191 3 and later as a colected \olume. has been w rongly iewed as the culmination of his tmilitary thought T hese hitorical esay s appear to demonst rate Schlelnn's preoccupation. if not obsession, with the doctrine of a itid Marshal n S hlieffen. © Corbis

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