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US Military Commander's Suggested Reading List
kcurtis writes "I realize this has nothing to do with technology, but I found this list of books (and related Boston Globe article) suggested by the US Chief of Staff of the Army fascinating. It is basically what General Peter Schoomaker thinks officers at different ranks should read. It includes classics like "The Art of War", and newer books like "Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest". It is also interesting for the changes made to the list. As noted in the Globe article, there is a new emphasis on the way the roles of an army may change."
That's a pretty good collection and the selected books definitely fit the pay grades. I'm just glad to see that Sun Tzu's The Art of War is still on the list. Any military leader who does not read this book is a fool.
Ok, so they take an oath to defend the constitution of the united states and this isn't in the reading? No Thomas Paine, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments?
Course many think that the pentagon doesn't want soldiers to think for themselves, examples like this give them credit.
> What about a few about peace?
Have you actually read Sun Tzu? The highest measure of skill he describes is to not fight at all.
I found the list of different services
reading list on the Army War College
site (I think). The interesting thing
was that even the short ones had Clauswitz
and only the Marines had "On Strategy" by Liddell Hart. This is interesting because L.-H. who is
a respected 20C military theorist argues in
"On Strategy" that Clauswitz was a raving nut case
(and in fact Clauswitz asked, in a lucid moment LH would argue, that all his writings be destroyed
after his death, but instead they were published
posthumously). So much for the intellectual
depth of the military.
Oh yeah, Starship Troopers is on the Marine list
as well.
It is by coff... er, will, alone I set my mind in motion...
Read the Art of War. Sun Tzu made clear many times that war is the option of last resort, and when it is resorted to, to get the job done as quickly as possible and with the absolute minimum amount of destruction that will accomplish the mission.