War and Politics

General Willam DePuy, one of the more thoughtful of modern American officers, offered as one of the lessons of the Vietnam War that we should never start wars that may stretch across two Presidential administrations:

Prudent military planners should draw the obvious conclusion that operations which span two administrations may lose their support in midstream. Very short operations like Grenada are about perfect. Long inconclusive operations like Vietnam are now known to be doomed. We may take this to be a legitimate consideration in connection with the doctrine governing operational art. It is a political refinement which is no less organic to the problem.