Jessup John E., Coakley Robert W. A Guide to the Study and use of Military History

Washington: Army Center of Military History, 1979. — 497 p.Over the years the study of military history has had its upsand downs within the Army. In the education of the World War IIgeneration of military leaders it played an important part, for thestudy of past operations held a preeminent place in the Armyschools' curricula in the period between the two great worldwars. In the years immediately following World War II. it lostthat place. This happened partly because the informationexplosion broadened so greatly the areas in which an officer hadto be knowledgeable and partly because of a belief that the paceof change in technology had rendered the study of pastexperience irrelevant. In the Army's higher schools, militaryhistory became largely a matter of using examples from the pastin courses dealing with current problems.On his retirement in 1970 as Chief of Military History, Brig.Gen. Hal C. Pattison voiced his concern to the Army Chief ofStaff, General William C. Westmoreland, over "the departure ofthe Army from its traditional reliance upon the experience ofhistory." General Pattison suggested that the Army had paid theprice of this neglect in many of the problems it encountered in thelate 1960s and urged the restoration of military history to "itsproper place in the importance of things." In response GeneralWestmoreland established an ad hoc committee to "ascertain theArmy need for the study of military history" and to "developrecommendations on how any unfulfilled needs can be met."Under the chahmanship of Col. Thomas E. Griess of the U.S.Military Academy nd composed of representatives of the higher'Army schools, the Continental Army Command, and the Officeof the Chief of Military History, the committee met over anextended period at West Point in 1971.