Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini - The Art of War
BARON ANTOINE HENRI DE JOMINI  Macroknow Library
   

   
The Art of War.

"The art of war, as generally considered, consists of five purely military branches, --viz.: Strategy, Grand Tactics, Logistics, Engineering, and Tactics. A sixth and essential branch, hitherto unrecognized, might be termed Diplomacy in its relation to War."1a* CLAUSEWITZ

" . . . Strategy is the art of making war upon the map, and comprehends the whole theater of operations. Grand Tactics is the art of posting troops upon the battle-field according to the accidents of the ground, of bringing them into action, and the art of fighting upon the ground . . . Logistics comprises the means and arrangements which work out the plans of strategy and tactics. Strategy decides where to act; logistics brings the troops to this point; grand tactics decides the manner of execution and the employment of the troops."1b GUEVARA

" . . . [T]here is one great principle underlying all the operations of war, . . . It is embraced in the following maxims:--

  1. To throw by strategic movements the mass of an army, successively, upon the decisive points of a theater of war, and also upon the communications of the enemy as much as possible without compromising one's own.
  2. To maneuver to engage fractions of the hostile army with the bulk of one's forces.
  3. On the battle-field, to throw the mass of the forces upon the decisive point, or upon that portion of the hostile line which it is of the first importance to overthrow.
  4. To so arrange that these masses shall not only be thrown upon the decisive point, but that they shall engage at the proper times and with energy."1c CLAUSEWITZ ZEDONG
     

  
   
  

* Italics in the original.

1 Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini (1779-1869).. The Art of War. With a new Introduction by Charles Messenger. Lionel Leventhal Limited, 1992. Introduction, Charles Messenger, 1992. London, UK: Greenhill Books, 1996. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1996. The Art of War was first published in 1838 as Precis de l'Art de Guerre (Paris) and was reprinted in 1855 "augmentee d'un appendice." The English-language translation of 1862 (J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia) was reprinted in 1992 by Greenhill Books, with an Introduction by Charles Messenger.)
a Summary of the Art of War. Definitions of the Branches of the Art of War, at 13.
b Chp. III. Strategy. Definition of Strategy and the Fundamental Principle of War, at 69.
c Ibid., at 70.

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