Word: keegan
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Hitler? Yes, there are asymmetries in Keegan's battle plan. Though Hitler was indeed the German supreme commander in World War II, he is the only civilian political leader in this quartet. He is also the only loser. If we study Hitler, why not Napoleon instead of Wellington? Conversely, the modern analogue to Wellington is not Hitler but Dwight Eisenhower. But Keegan is following a somewhat unorthodox method, not deriving a theory from his examples but choosing his examples to illustrate a thesis...
About each of his four characters, Keegan poses a fundamental question: Did he believe that it was necessary for a commander to fight at the head of his soldiers? Keegan's answers: Alexander always, Wellington often, Grant no more % than necessary, Hitler never. Keegan attributes this chronological evolution to the continuing development of longer-range weapons, which made a general's presence on or near the battlefield increasingly perilous. At the same time, technology also provided the telegraph, telephone and radio, making possible the commander's separation from his troops. This trend reached its culmination in World War I, when...
...successful leader, Keegan argues, a commander must master five imperatives: the imperative of kinship (persuading his troops that he understands and cares for them); the imperative of prescription (being able to tell his troops exactly what he wants and why); the imperative of sanction (convincing the troops that they will be rewarded if they fight and punished if they don't); the imperative of action (knowing when to attack); and the imperative of example (showing that he shares in the troops' dangers...
...things stood until the coming of the nuclear missile, when all the rules abruptly changed and the leadership of men in combat suddenly became secondary to the decision on when to push buttons. What is needed now, says Keegan, is "an end to the ethic of heroism . . . for good and all." In a nuclear showdown, he concludes, a leadership can justify itself only "by its detachment, moderation and power of analysis." Keegan thinks the U.S. got that leadership from John Kennedy during its only real nuclear confrontation, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. As for the next time...
...Journalist Tom Wolfe' s first novel satirizes the New York style. -- Historian John Keegan analyzes military commanders...