U.S. Joint War Planning for Twentieth Century Large Scale Combat Operations: Case Studies and Implications for Current Joint Planners

The mid twentieth-century US military did not think in terms of campaigns to shape and deter war in the same way as today's Joint Force, but its planners navigated similar bureaucratic and civil-military obstacles. Historical planners worked within complex environments and operated under shifting, vague, or conflicting thoughts on national policy and strategy, causing them to make assumptions to adjust to actual or projected reality. They probed the boundaries of their roles as military advisors, embarking on intellectual journeys that elevated the role of the US military in shaping national security policy and strategy. The monograph will explore how past planners proposed courses of action to address great power competition and conflict. How, and how well, mid-century joint planners worked within constraints to craft realistic war plans for threats potentially leading to large-scale combat operations provides insight into how current planners can mitigate the bureaucratic and civil-military tensions of the Department of Defense and Executive Branch to provide contingency and campaign plans supporting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's statutory responsibilities.