Operations Other Than War: US Intervention into Russia 1918-20
Abstract
Clausewitz described war as fighting "a trial of moral and physical forces through the medium of the latter" and an "act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." But not ah military activity is fighting and military forces are not always employed in armed combat. Now there is a term for military activity operations other than war. These operations have characteristics and present issues in ways that challenge the precepts of 19th and early 20th century military theorists -- and 1994 leaders. An interesting example is the U.S. intervention in Russia after the November 1917 Bolshevik coup d'etat. This operation, the first of its kind by the United States outside the Western Hemisphere, presented a number of problems that have recurred in operations other than war mounted more recently: poorly designed strategy without a clear end point, poor comprehension of the purpose and nature of the U.S. deployment, inadequate knowledge of the local situation, inadequate cooperation and coordination between the State and War/Defense Departments in Washington and overseas, and bad alliance politics. This paper, which does not pretend to look comprehensively at America's policy toward Russia during this period, seeks to illuminate these and other issues that played out in this early operation other than war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 02, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA440767
Entities
People
- Ross L. Wilson
Organizations
- National War College