Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
From the acclaimed author of Panzer Commander Hermann BalckFalse Flagscomes an in-depth, critical evaluation of the maneuver warfare revolution that has transformed the American military.
Colonel John Boyd, a maverick fighter pilot, revolutionized the American art of war through his ideas on conflict and the human mind. Boyd claimed that victory is won by the side which transitions through 'decision cycles' faster than the enemy, mentally checkmating them with minimal violence. Maneuver warfare concepts became military doctrine during the 1980s but this revolution accidently undermined American security.
When formulating his theories on conflict, Boyd relied upon fraudulent accounts of WWII written by Wehrmachtveterans who fabricated historical evidence to disassociate their reputations from Germany's defeat and cover up their willing participation in Nazi war crimes. Boyd fell for this deception and unknowingly injected dangerous misinformation into the American military mind. Maneuver warfare has accordingly corrupted the art of war and resulted in catastrophic decisions made in Iraq and Afghanistan during 21st century conflict.
The Blind Strategistseparates fact from fantasy and exposes the myths of maneuver warfare through a detailed evidence-based investigation. A must-read for anybody interested in American military history.
- Classic Military Vehicle magazine
“Overall, Robinson provides a convincing historical account of the origins of the German problem within the US military and why it has persisted.”
- Franz-Stefan Gady, International Institute for Strategic Studies
“While Robinson does not fully discredit Boyd's thinking, he forces even the most ardent Boyd acolytes to reexamine the substance and utility of Boyd's works.”
- thestrategybridge.org
“The book is bound to spark controversy and debate within the US defence establishment, and that is a good thing. To those who would challenge followers of Boyd in deliberating on future US force structure and doctrine, the book provides rich food for thought. Ideally, Robinson will advance the same goal that Boyd himself ultimately sought to achieve: an understanding of warfare more in line with reality.”
- Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
“This remarkable volume is absolutely essential reading for any military professional and highly recommended for their political masters as well.”
- Military History Matters (UK magazine)
“The book is bound to spark controversy and debate within the US defence establishment, and that is a good thing.”
- Survival (UK print magazine)
“Robinson carries out a meticulous demolition job that will be of interest to students of the Wehrmacht and to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, demonstrating how grand theories with an emotional appeal can go a long way on the back of dubious history.”
- John Boyd, Foreign Affairs
"The Blind Strategist is a timely, controversial and iconoclastic book. Stephen Robinson takes aim at a shibboleth of American military doctrine: maneuver. Re-interpreting the story of John Boyd, it debunks the orthodoxy that maneuver is the self-evidently superior form of warfare in all circumstances. Instead, it seeks to re-habilitate the concepts of mass, firepower and attrition articulated in the apparently superseded concept of Active Defence proposed by General William DePuy in the 1970s. This book is essential and challenging reading for US military officers returning to the problem of high-interest inter-state against near peer competitors, after two decades of counter-insurgency."
- Professor Anthony King, War Studies, The University of Warwick
"An important book, one Boyd's advocates will not want to read, but should."
- Antulio J. Echevarria II, US Army War College
"Robinson's well researched book questions the tenets of Boyd's OODA loop, maneuver warfare, infiltration tactics, blitzkrieg, World War II historiography, Desert Storm success, and much more. This will be controversial. Let the debates begin!"
- Mark F. Cancian (Colonel, USMCR, ret.), Center for Strategic and International Studies
"Stephen Robinson does a superb job of analyzing the momentous debate about the virtues of "maneuver warfare" that took place in the United States during the latter years of the Cold War. He shows in great detail that the proponents of maneuver - including their guiding light, John Boyd - based their claims on a deeply flawed understanding of history. The Blind Strategist is a must read for all serious students of modern warfare."
- John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago
"Robinson reveals, the more that scholars learn about German operations and about Hart’s determination to fit all military history into his own simplistic framework, the flimsier Boyd’s thesis appears. Robinson carries out a meticulous demolition job that will be of interest to students of the Wehrmacht and to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, demonstrating how grand theories with an emotional appeal can go a long way on the back of dubious history." - Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs
“Extensively researched and very readable, This work truly exposes the ‘if it’s said often enough, then it becomes truth’ modus operandi that so often pervades society today. A most valuable adjunct to military theory and doctrine.” - Royal United Services Institute