Does Harry Summers Understand Clausewitz - Assignment Example

The point is how can a country win a war when its people are against it? The end of World War II saw the rise of nuclear threat and we started hearing terms such as “limited war” and theory “analysis”. War has now become just a gimmick and is mainly won by theatrics. The concept of victory has been entirely modified. War and military are now just the servants of an executive. Patriotism and heroism are mere drugs now that are injected into the minds of naïve and oblivious people to make them do things that no man would choose to do otherwise.

According to Summers (and Clausewitz), the system of monarchy still exists. It has just been transformed into something better looking. What conceals it is media tactics and gimmicks. Part II of this study reveals that wars can be won even in most adverse circumstances as long as the political and military objectives are kept in harmony. In the Vietnam War, American people were angry because a war was waged in their name but without their permission. Moreover, the military heads kept making all the decisions of war without any consultation and without any real support.

And as a result, the convoluted policies lead them to complete chaos. US army considered the guerillas of war as the main enemy when they were in fact just a proxy force which was very well used by the Vietnamese’s.