Doctrinal differences within the military profession have long been a central feature of the development of tactics and strategy, and in earlier periods of history there have been controversies over the appropriate employment of certain arms and units, such as the relative merits of infantry in line or column and the use of cavalry for firepower or shock, as, for example, discussed by Oman (1929) and Quimbey (1957). More recently there has been the question as to the effectiveness of so-called ‘Strategic Bombing’, and the tendency of U.S. doctrine to undervalue the morale factor of guerrillas in their military calculations (Wilson 1970: 142–146).
The Military Profession under Pressure