Should the United States Army Have a Professional General Staff?
Abstract
With the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, on 1 October 1986, the United States Military faces the greatest reorganization challenge to its leadership structure since the passage of the National Security Act of 1947, with its amendments, abolished the Army War Department and its General Staff and created the Department of Defense. This study seeks to examine some of the forces and reasons behind the 1986 Act. It also explores the design of the Prussian/German, Russian/Soviet, and U.S. Army War Department General Staffs. The purpose behind exploring the background and Methodology underlying these General Staff systems is: To shed some light upon, and perhaps dispell, some of the myths, superstitions, misconceptions, and apprehensions concerning the whole concept of the General Staff; To examine the methods used to select, train, educate, and manage General Staff Officers; To illustrate that the concept of the General Staff is not foreign to the U.S. Army; To look at the demanding standards used for selecting, training, and educating the General Staff Officers of our chief military competition in the Soviet Union; And finally, the study attempts to highlight some of the problems in the present American system, draw some conclusions, and provide an answer to the question posed by the title in the form of some recommendations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 23, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA180215
Entities
People
- Bradley H. Petersen Jr
Organizations
- United States Army War College