By MARK F. HALL
Karl Von Clausewitz's On War tells us that "the purpose of a military is to be in a state of readiness and capacity to give true battle," said Sir Michael Howard, professor of history emeritus at Yale and Oxford, who lectured at the Library on May 9. "In war, battles are [comparable to what] a cash settlement is in a business transaction - the bottom line. Sooner or later the check must be presented and paid, in blood."
Clausewitz's work, first published shortly after his death from cholera in 1831, remains relevant to the study of military science today in spite of the vast changes in the technology of warfare over the past century and a half, Sir Michael said.
Shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Clausewitz set out to write a book about military science, hoping only that it would not be forgotten after two or three years. Sir Michael said that Clausewitz would be amazed that On War is still required reading in war colleges, let alone the subject of a lecture such as this one.
Presented by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library and the Center for the Book and sponsored by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the lecture was the last in a series of lectures about books "that have mattered to Western citizenship, statecraft and public policy."
Sir Michael, born in 1922, had his own education at Oxford interrupted by World War II. During his military service, he rose to the rank of captain and was wounded twice. Finishing his education after the war, Sir Michael has since taught military history and strategic studies at King's College in London, Yale and Oxford in addition to writing numerous books, including the authoritative translation of On War.
Noting that the book is "well known but little read," Sir Michael's lecture placed On War in the context of its times. A fundamental aspect of Clausewitz's philosophy was a reaction against the then prevailing view of the conduct of warfare, which had led to Prussia's defeat at the hands of Napoleon's armies. This thinking focused primarily on troop movements and the exploitation of quantifiable data regarding enemy forces and positions. Clausewitz believed that this approach was fatally flawed because it overlooked several vital, yet unquantifiable, factors.
Willpower, courage and passion were more important, in Clausewitz's view, than weapons and tactics, by as much as 3-to-1, Sir Michael said. In the chaos of battle, soldiers often do not behave as expected. Thus an experienced and dedicated army can defeat an enemy that on paper seems to be the stronger force.
Today, Sir Michael warned, "an army which relies on high technology to fight bloodless wars will be at a disadvantage if they meet an adversary with equal technology which possesses moral fervor and is not afraid of bloodshed." Further, an army must be prepared to change its tactics because, as Clausewitz said, "war is fought against a living animal which reacts."
Why is Clausewitz's theory, which Sir Michael called "ideal" for waging war, so rarely followed? There are two reasons, he said.
The first, which Clausewitz calls friction, is the inherent difficulty in pushing matters to a climax. Sir Michael compared waging a war to walking in water, which makes it difficult to move as far and fast as one might want.
The second reason is that wars do not exist in a vacuum - they are waged for political reasons determined by governments. Perhaps the most famous passage from On War is that "war is not an individual act, it is the continuation of policy by other means." A perfectly executed military strategy that destroys the enemy might not be the most effective means of achieving the government's political objectives.
The modern model of Clausewitz's ideas is President Truman, who, by relieving Gen. Douglas MacArthur of command during the Korean War, demonstrated the subordination of military to political objectives.
Sir Michael concluded that Clausewitz was a "child of his age" and noted that many things in his book are "no longer of relevance, while others are still subject to misinterpretation." However, On War contains passages that are able to "transcend their age to help us analyze our own age."
Mark Hall is a cataloger in the Copyright Office Cataloging Division.