Military Strategy & History: Key Concepts and Wars

Strategic Level of War

National objectives, grand strategy, alliances, overall war aims.

Operational Level of War

Campaigns and theater-level planning that link tactics to strategy.

Tactical Level of War

Individual battles, engagements, and unit-level actions.

Annihilation

Destroy enemy forces outright.

Attrition

Wear down enemy forces over time.

Exhaustion

Break enemy will/resources.

Clausewitz's Trinity

People (emotion), Army (chance), Government (reason).

Spectrum of War

Range from limited war to general war to total war.

Prussian/German General Staff

Professionalized military planning institution.

Kriegsakademie

German war academy for officer education.

Otto von Bismarck

Architect of German unification, master of diplomacy.

Helmuth von Moltke (Elder/Younger)

Prussian generals; Elder pioneered operational planning, Younger led in WWI.

Auftragstaktik

Mission-type tactics emphasizing initiative.

Needle Gun

Advanced Prussian rifle, decisive in Austro-Prussian War.

Austro-Prussian War (1866)

"Seven Weeks War," Prussia defeats Austria.

Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)

German victory, leads to unification.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

U.S. naval theorist, emphasized sea power.

Spanish-American War

U.S. emergence as global power; San Juan Hill, Manila Bay.

Benjamin Foulois

Early U.S. Army aviator.

WWI Battles

Verdun, Somme, Jutland, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne.

Dicta Boelcke

Rules of aerial combat by Oswald Boelcke.

Zimmermann Telegram

German attempt to ally with Mexico, spurred U.S. entry.

Treaty of Versailles

Ended WWI, imposed harsh terms on Germany.

Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS)

U.S. airpower doctrine school.

"Bomber Mafia"

Advocated strategic bombing of industrial targets.

Billy Mitchell

U.S. airpower pioneer.

Giulio Douhet

Italian theorist, "Command of the Air."

Industrial Web Theory

Target enemy's economic centers.

Blitzkrieg

German "lightning war," combined arms.

Dowding System

British radar + command network in Battle of Britain.

Operation BARBAROSSA

German invasion of USSR, 1941.

Battle of Stalingrad

Turning point in Eastern Front.

Operation TORCH

Allied invasion of North Africa.

Operation OVERLORD

D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Strategic Bombing

Hamburg, Tokyo firebombing, Hiroshima/Nagasaki.

Battle of Midway

Turning point in Pacific, 1942.

Island Hopping

U.S. Pacific strategy.

Curtis LeMay

Architect of U.S. strategic bombing campaigns.

Operation DOWNFALL

Planned invasion of Japan, never executed.

Iron Curtain

Division of Europe between East and West.

Containment

U.S. strategy to limit Soviet expansion.

National Security Act (1947)

Created DoD, CIA, USAF.

Strategic Air Command (SAC)

Nuclear deterrence force.

Berlin Airlift (1948-49)

Allied supply effort to West Berlin.

NSC-68

U.S. Cold War strategy document.

Marshall Plan

U.S. aid to rebuild Europe.

NATO / Warsaw Pact

Western vs. Eastern military alliances.

Mao Zedong / CCP

Communist leader of China.

Syngman Rhee / Kim Il-Sung

Leaders of South and North Korea.

Task Force Smith

First U.S. unit in Korean War, poorly prepared.

Inchon Invasion

MacArthur's bold amphibious landing.

Chosin Reservoir

Brutal Korean War battle.

Sputnik (1957)

First satellite, Soviet space power.

Apollo Program

U.S. moon landing program.

Nuclear Triad

Land-based missiles, bombers, submarines.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Nuclear deterrence logic.

Vietnam War

Tet Offensive, Ia Drang, Rolling Thunder, Linebacker I/II.

Vietnamization

Nixon's policy to shift burden to South Vietnam.

Arab-Israeli Wars

1948, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War.

Operation NICKEL GRASS

U.S. airlift to Israel in 1973.

AirLand Battle Doctrine

1980s U.S. doctrine integrating air/ground.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

"Star Wars" missile defense.

Desert Storm (1991)

Precision revolution, Boyd/Warden theories.

Post-9/11 Wars

Afghanistan, Iraq, "Surges."

Cyber Warfare

Digital domain, false alarms, cyber warriors.