The Masks of War: American Military Styles in Strategy and Analysis: A RAND Corporation Research Study

Why was the Navy ready to clear the skies over the Persian Gulf, yet surprised by the mines laid under it? Why is it that the Army is always prepared for war in Europe, but was caught off guard in Korea and Vietnam? In The Masks of War Carl H. Builder asks what motives lie behind the puzzling and often contradictory behavior of America's military forces. The answer, he finds, has little to do with what party controls the White House or who writes the budget. Far more powerful--and glacially resistant to change-are the entrenched institutions and distinct "personalities" of the three armed services themselves: - The Navy sees itself mainly as heir to a glorious tradition dating back to the British navy. Equipped with its own land and air force, it jealously guards its independence and is happiest when left alone. - The Air Force is the embodiment of a single idea-one that also happens to be a strategy of war. Not love of "the Air Force" but love of flight and flying machines binds its members together. - Traditionally, the Army has considered itself the nation's servant, charged with teaching citizen-soldiers the art of war in times of crisis. But heady memories of triumph in the closing months of World War II contradict this modest role. Is today's Army "schizophrenic"? The Masks of War explains why things sometimes go wrong for the American military. It also explains why things will always go wrong for military reformers. Changes in the military's strategic thinking have come only in the wake of full-blown disaster - Pearl Harbor, for instance. Today's nuclear world can't afford such lessons. "Few of us will agree with everything in this provocative book. All of us, however, will benefit from the author's invitation to look beyond what the strategists, analysts, and even the military services themselves say they are doing in the name of military planning and national security in an effort to understand why the military services act as they do.