Arthur's right on the history:
no plan of operation can extend with any prospect of certainty, beyond
the first clash with the hostile main force. Only a layman can pretend
to trace throughout the course of a campaign the prosecution of a rigid
plan, arranged beforehand in all its details and adhered to the last.
All successive acts of war are therefore not pre-mediated executions but
spontaneous acts guided by military tact.
- Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, "the Elder"
Helmuth von Moltke, "Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings,"
Hughes, Daniel (Ed). Novato, Calif.: Presidion Press, 1993
Count Helmuth von Moltke expressed his philosophical views on the
necessity of war. Moltke was born in Mecklenburg, served the King of
Denmark and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire before returning to Prussia
in 1839. From 1858 until his resignation in 1888, he served as Chief of
the General Staff from which position he planned the successful wars of
unification against Denmark, Austria, and France. He was also a member
of the Reichstag, 1871-91. Source: Harry Pross (ed.), Die Zerstörung der
deutschen Politik: Dokumente 1871-1933 (Frankfurt, 1959), pp. 29-31.
Translated by Richard S. Levy.]
Napoleon was a keen believer in the now well known dictum that no plan
of action survives contact with the enemy. In his own words, "On
s'engage l'enemi, et puis, s'on vois", ("you engage the enemy, and then
you see".)
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3165/anecdotes.html
Cybercollegially,
Charles Wankel
Mg-Ed-Dv List Director
wankelc@stjohns.edu
-----Original Message-----
my first encounter with this saying is the Prussian Chief of Staff
during the Franco-Prussian War of 1880 ish, not that I claim to have
heard it first hand of course.
cyberhistorically
Arthur Morgan
> -----Original Message-----
> Hi Mg-Ed-Dv-ers!
>
> Reading today's New York Times (online of course) I encountered
in
> the lead article
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/08/international/asia/08STRA.html
> the opening sentence:
> "There is a saying at the Pentagon that no plan survives contact with
> the enemy."
> I suggest this as an opening for a class discussion today. If
your
> classroom has a computer screen projector you might project the
> article as a visual effect and read the first sentence (drama?). (If
> you are using Internet Explorer of course click VIEW then TEXT SIZE
> then LARGEST as I hope you always do in such a circumstance).
> Then you might ask "what parts of what we've been reading and
> discussing would seem to definitely require jiggling when applied at
> work?" How should we be preparing for inevitable need for revision
> and correction and what are the components of such processes? Which
> things that we've discussed do not allow adjustment after
> implementation.
>
> Cybercollaborating,
> Charles Wankel
> St. John's University, New York
>
wankelc@stjohns.edu