Entropy writes:

IOW, the level of influence a particular theorist has is pretty subjective. I don't know who the "greatest American military theorist" is and furthermore I don't really care - it doesn't really matter in the end.
Oh, so true...but this isn't any fun!

Feel like going back the the beginning of this thread, trying to figure out where the appellation of Boyd being "the greatest American military theoretician/strategist" came from. It must matter to somebody. I don't count him as a strategist by any means, although he did talk about strategy a good bit. But talking about something doesn't make you that same thing. I can talk about pro football all day long, but that doesn't make me a footballer.

The best than can be said about Boyd in this regard is--I'd argue--he counts as the greatest American military theoretician in the latter half of the 20th century. Wilf will argue that properly belongs to Bob Leonhard. So what is the criteria for "great?" He and I will probably disagree, and that's okay, because at least I could concede that Bob deserves to be a candidate/contender for that characterization. But who else would be in that field? Here's my list of contenders other than Leohard and Boyd...and none stack up given my personal criteria:

Admiral William Owens ("Lifting the Fog of War," anyone?)
Douglas Macgregor (Breaking the Phalanx)
Trevor DuPuy (Quantified Judgment Model)

If I included the early 21st century, I could toss in:

Thomas Barnett (The Pentagon's New Map)
TX Hammes (The Sling and the Stone)
Steven Biddle (Military Power)
Philip Bobbitt (The Shield of Achilles and Terror and Consent)

And if I wasn't so U.S.-centric, I could include people such as:

Colin Gray
Martin van Creveld
Sergei Gorshkov
Nikolai Orgarkov

and more....

Now, if I had to characterize the "Greatest American Military Theoretician" of all time (at least at this writing), it would be dirt easy--Alfred Mahan. I'll just say right now--before the literary punches start flying--find or start another thread somewhere else on that!

Seriously, it may be worthwhile--admittedly purely for fun since it truly does not matter--to determine your criteria for what "great" means. If it will help, consider the question of who is the greatest baseball player of the 20th Century? Have fun with that one!