"Do Generals Matter?" Topic

"Do generals matter? Well, of course they do, on some level. But do they matter as much as military history suggests they do, or as much as most people believe? In thinking about generalship and outcomes while writing Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost, I was surprised to come to the conclusion that generals matter far less in the history of war than is usually represented in traditional military history. This is especially true of those generals praised by military historians as geniuses of maneuver warfare. Superior generals may win a tactical or operational victory by overmatching an opponent in a day of battle or a campaign, but in the protracted fighting that marks major wars among modern nations and coalitions, they do not deliver strategic victory.

I didn't always think that. I was impressed by histories of spectacular battles and brilliant campaigns said to be obvious fulcrum moments in war — the ones where a genius on horseback found a way to maneuver past stone borders, to isolate a plodding enemy army and defeat it in battle on a red day or in a summer campaign. Those rare, and rarified, "Great Captains" of history whose military genius stand as exemplars for all times and wars, and whose close study and emulation Napoleon recommended as "the only means of becoming a great captain, and of acquiring the secret of the art of war." The timeless generals who changed the face of war for our time with a unique coup d'oeil and highly aggressive tactics that historians and theorists celebrated ever after…"
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