AAN establish a continuum of orderly change, assuring a disciplined approach to meeting the challenges of an uncertain future and maximizing the innovativeness of the military, academia, and industry. They are the essence of our being, and neither the geostrategic environment nor technology will break the common threads that tie yesterday's soldiers at Valley Forge to today's soldiers on the demilitarized zone in Korea, or in Bosnia, or elsewhere around the globe, to tomorrow's soldiers in the 21st Century. The power to deny or to destroy is possessed by each of the military Services. The contribution of land forces to the joint warfight is the power to exercise direct, continuing, and comprehensive control over land, its resources, and its peoples. It is this direct, continuing, and comprehensive control over land, resources, and people that allows land power to make permanent the otherwise transitory advantages achieved by air and naval forces.
Land forces perform important, and largely unique, functions besides denial and destruction.
Because of their versatility, they are distinctly capable of making contributions in a sustained and measured way across the broadest array of national requirements. Primary among these contributions is the role land forces play in support of preventive defense. They are the force that protects and controls populations, restores order, and facilitates the transition from hostilities to peace. It is through this dimension of influence that the land force component, the Army, serves to strengthen the Nation's position in security and foreign policy, in negotiating treaties, in dealing with foreign governments, and in establishing alliances. In a dynamic and unpredictable geostrategic environment, the U.S. Army provides a full range of choices to the Nation and a hedge against uncertainty- a unique asset, a national asset.