On War Summary

In paragraphs 24 to 28 in Chapter I of On War (1976) by Carl von Clausewitz, the author presents two very relevant concepts for U.S. policymakers to understand. The first is that objectives of both policy and war need to match up. The second is that, when determining policy, the “triad” of the people, the military and the government are inherently interconnected and cannot be considered in isolation. By fully understanding and abiding by these concepts U.S. policymakers would ensure that only necessary military conflict would occur to the appropriate proportion of force and, if it did, it would be fully supported by the people and the execution of war would be aligned with the desired political outcomes.

Clausewitz wrote, “War in general…is …show more content…
A theory that ignores any one of them or seeks to fix an arbitrary relationship between them would conflict with reality to such an extent that for this reason alone it would be totally useless.” (On War, paragraph 28) Using the same examples we see that there are clear imbalances of the three during Vietnam. The conflict in Vietnam went against what the American people wanted and was not militarily proportional, leaving only the government’s desire to contain communism. World War II had the three pillars working in tandem for a total war effort.

Taking it a step further, policymakers should also take into account the possible long-term consequences of military action, both when it aligns with policy and not. Many future problems are caused by the shortsightedness of policy initiatives that feed current needs but do not play out well in the future. For example, arming the Afghanis against the Russians came back around against the U.S. during the current conflict in Afghanistan. In addition, U.S. policies and actions in the Middle East and towards Israel have contributed to “accidental terrorists” and an anti-Western terrorist movement that is