Fred C. Ikle

·       Author: Fred Ikle
o   Context: written in the middle of Vietnam
·       Publishing: Columbia University Press:1971/2005
·       Central Proposition:
o   People spend much more time re how and why wars begin than they do re how they end - xvii
o   My thought: What do we do about it, though?  
·       Supporting Information
o   Successful democracies have refrained from seeking revenge - xii
o   Vietnam - xx-xxi
§  Forces must not be committed w/out clear strat
§  Should not be sent merely to demonstrate resolve
§  Should not enter war based on strat of inflicting punishment
§  May hasten defeat...important for US & other modern democracies to avoid...otherwise, will lose political support @ home & with allies
o   **Good quote: "planning effort similar to designing an elaborate and expensive bridge that reached only halfway across the river" - 5
o   As fighting continues, purpose changes - 8
o   **Gov's find it hard to back out b/c both sides want a peace that will bring greater and more lasting security than prior to war - 9
o   Aim of preventing future wars often overshadows original reason for war - 10
§  Each side risks losing ongoing war while trying to improve position for future conflict
§  Fighting is not the only way to reduce threat of future conflict
§  Reconciliation can be successful and today's enemy can be tomorrow's enemy - 11
o   Means become ends
§  One view: nations fight wars in pursuit of postwar objectives
§  2nd view: wars serve many purposes, not the lest of which is to further personal and organizational interests - 14
§  ANSWER: A mixture of the two - 15
o   **Good quote: "If the decision to end a war were simply to spring from a rational calculation about gains and losses for the nation as a whole, it should be no harder to get out of a war than to get into one" - 16
o   Military estimates are unreliable because - 20
§  It's hard to estimate potential on both sides to mobilize men and resources (neither side has committed everything)
§  Possibilities of outside help
§  Pressures of war's violence on public morale
o   Stuggle within: Patriots against "traitors" - doves usually called traitors, but hawks can ultimately be just as or more detrimental to future of nation - 60
§  State has strong institutions to combat treason via "dove," or helping the enemy, but much weaker defenses against the hawk - 61
§  "Treason can help our enemies destroy our country by making them stronger; adventurism can destroy our country by making our enemies more numerous" - 61 (See: Athens)...may wind up trading kingdom for distant province - 82
o   Neither hawks nor doves has actual plan for future - after the peace - 85