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SWJED
02-08-2008, 01:58 AM
Unlocking the Keys to Victory (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2008/02/unlocking-the-keys-to-victory/) by Frank Hoffman at SWJ Blog.


Frans P. B. Osinga, The Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415459524?ie=UTF8&tag=smallwarsjour-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0415459524), New York: Routledge, 2007, 313 pgs, $140 hardback, $35.95 paperback

I first met John Boyd on a very warm summer day in 1983 at Headquarters, Marine Corps. Frankly he did not make much of an impression to a then young Captain of Marines. The briefer went through an extensive set of slides extolling conflict over the ages. I recognized the various strands of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu and Liddell Hart (and thus indirectly T.E. Lawrence) weaved throughout the pitch. In the aftermath of a long run and a too large lunch, I preceded to take a somberly tour of the insides of my eyelids.

This mental rest stop did not impress my boss, a Vietnam veteran who was taken with Boyd’s ideas. As penance for my nap, he insisted I take the brief again the next day. Although I did not know it at the time, I never got a more valuable or more intellectually enriching experience over a decade in the Pentagon...