Structuring to Project Force: The Unified and Specified Commands

When military forces of the United States are used in combat against a foreign enemy, they operate under the auspices of one of the unified commands or one of the specified commands. The number of such commands and their responsibilities are determined by the President and are outlined in his Unified Command Plan. The circumstances surrounding the establishment, abolition, and changing of these commands -- especially those commands which have had turbulent lives -- provide much insight into both the international and domestic political situations of the time. The most long-lived and venerable of these commands have been those which resulted from the immediate aftermath of World War II. Such organizations as the European Command, the Pacific Command, the Atlantic Command, and the Strategic Air Command were born as vestiges of World War II combat commands, and, even today, reflect the experiences of that War. They have been used to preserve the hard-won gains of the War, primarily through countering the Communist threat throughout the Cold War period.