23 Quotes by Andrew J. Bacevich

As it turned out, Clark’s shortcomings as a strategist – particularly failing to accurately take the measure of Milosevic – were as nothing in comparison to his deficiencies as a battlefield general.

Given the brief attention span of the American people, the liberation of tiny Kuwait eclipsed the fall of the Berlin Wall as a historical turning point.

Americans entrust their security to a class of military professionals who see themselves in many respects as culturally and politically set apart from the rest of society.53.

In short, Vietnam had demonstrated that when it came to deciding when to go to war and how to fight, civilians were not to be trusted.

For American officers, the starting point for retrieving professional legitimacy lay in avoiding altogether future campaigns even remotely similar to Vietnam. As.