Supreme Command

Once again we go back to war college. My son-in-law was selected to attend the U.S Army War College. He received his book list, shared it with me, and I thought it was interesting. One of the books in particular caught my eye, Supreme Command, by Elliot A. Cohen. I bought it. My days as an English Major got me interested in war because so much of the literature I liked was infused by both the First and Second World Wars. This one is about soldiers, statesmen, and leadership in wartime.

I mostly liked this book. He studies a wide range of leaders, Lincoln, Churchill, Clemenceau, and Ben Gurion, and offers a great many insights that are worth contemplating. Of course, I’m always on the lookout for the sound of grinding axes. So, I had no idea why he picked the latter two leaders, and skipped Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, or Lyndon Johnson. It seemed to me that given his early support of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there might be political rather than academic reasons for this, given that all three of those leaders were Democrats.

I mentioned this to my son-in-law because it made the book seem doctrinaire. But he said they select the reading material to use as the starting point for conversations and examination of situations. So, Elliot’s book is not being presented as dogma. That sounded totally plausible, and now I’m going back for a second reading, and will try to be less doctrinaire myself.