The Common Defense: Millett And Maslowski

MEMORANDUM FOR Course Director,

SUBJECT: Book Review: For The Common Defense

1. The two authors of this book were Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski. Maslowski, the author of chapters one through nine, is a professor of U.S. Military History and U.S. History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned his Ph. D at Ohio State University and has served on the Army Historical Advisory Committee, the Executive Board of War In History, and the Board of Trustees of the Society for Military History. He holds three prestigious awards for outstanding teaching. Millett , the author of chapters ten through eighteen, is a Professor of Military History at Ohio State University. He also earned his Ph. D at Ohio State. A U.S. Marine Corps officer,
retired, for over 30 years, he has held positions such as president of the American Military Institute, chair of the U.S. Bibliographic Committee for the International Commission of Military History, and a founding member and trustee of the Marine Corps Historical Foundation. He has also won many awards for his writings, service, and teaching.

2. For the Common Defense contains accounts of the United States military from the Army's conception in 1775 all the way to the end of the Cold War in the early 1990's. His historical examinations begin with the early colonial front in the late 1500's. From the colonists' early struggles with the Indians and Great Britain's clutch to the complete allocation of resources in the Civil War to the mass invasion of World War II, Millett and Maslowski compile an easy to read, factual, non-bias account of our nation's military defenses.

3.
This book captures three main ideas as we look into our nation's military. The first is how industrialization and new technology constantly changed the way we fought. The early musket caused us to be slow on the draw and with improves of firearms, fighting became faster paced. Cannons made long range fighting more prevalent and began the early stages of field artillery. The invention of the automobile caused mobilization to become easier and more accessible. Wars were shorter due to less travel time. Tanks became a strong force on the battlefield. Eventually airplanes threw in a more strategic element to fighting. As they were developed, air strikes and air assaults were a capable force. This led to more thorough planning and threw in more opportunities to win battles. Second, is how breakdowns in leadership caused losses on the battlefield and unnecessary wars being fought. The most famous example is General Custer at Little Bighorn where he led approximately 210 men against a fierce 2,000 man Indian force. Despite warnings and obvious strategic setbacks, he fool-heartedly marched his entire element to their deaths. One less well known is General George McClellan. Maslowski writes that McClellan was reluctant to fight battles. He is quoted saying, "More Likely McClellan feared taking risks and was paralyzed by the prospect of carnage." He lacked the communication skills and the logistical techniques. Maslowski continues to say, "Only trial and error, under circumstances where error could be fatal, produced the necessary adjustments." Considering how warfare changed rapidly throughout the years, this type of adjusting was not uncommon. The last idea is the correlation between war and national policy. Almost every major new policy put in place cause some sort of military backlash, the first being the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Soon thereafter we had army's from Europe knocking at our door to try and maintain their control of the colonies.
Lincoln's proposals to end slavery and industrialize the South caused Civil War in the States. The Treaty of Versailles involved us directly in World War II. All of these are examples of how U.S. national policy drew us into military campaigns.

4. From a leader's standpoint, this book would be beneficial in the way they can learn from different leadership styles. Even though it is good to know our nation's history, one could not really take much away as far as strategy until the latter part of the book. Today we are fighting a completely different war than any other war in our history, but leading men is something that has always been and always will. Reading this book and analyzing the successes and failures of our early American military leaders will do a great deal in shaping ourselves as future officers of the Army.

Reference

Maslowski, Peter, Allan R. Millett. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States. The Free Press. New York: 1994.