Reading: The Military Profession and the Course of History

Abstract

Reading is the core of not only military professionalism but also human development over the last 5000 years. Reading provides a foundation for broadening Army’s capability, especially in the complex and uncertain environments of the twenty-first century. With the launch of the Chief of Army’s Reading List, the Australian Army provides an important tool to aid soldiers and officers develop their thinking skills.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

- Aldous Huxley

Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Read in order to live.

- Henry James

Introduction

On 1 November 2007, Lieutenant General Peter Leahy launched the Chief of Army’s Reading List.¹ It has been eleven years since the last reading list was promulgated. The nature of the Army, the Defence Forces, the Australian strategic situation and the international security environment have undergone significant change since then. The realisation that personnel need the ability to make strategically aware decisions in the heat of battle, often in complex and unfamiliar cultural environments characterised by uncertainty and fluidity, has come to the fore with the future operational concepts Complex Warfighting and Adaptive Campaigning. Reading enables soldiers to make better snap decisions under pressure; reading widely and deeply broadens the soldiers’ context—it is educational. This is the principal motive for the Chief of Army’s drive to enhance the educational abilities of the Australian Army.

High technology was once seen as a panacea for winning war, but the soldier was always the key factor, even if military and academic fads decided otherwise. In light of operational experience across the globe and across the spectrum of warfighting, the Australian Army views the soldier on the ground as the key for prevailing in the range of conflict scenarios. All ranks—hence the phrase ‘the strategic private’—need the ability of how, not what, to think. The primacy of education (how to think) over training (what to think) is a reality with which the Australian Army is coming to terms. A reading list, in a busy and widely deployed Army, contributes to this grand project.

Reading - An Imposition?

The reality in most units is that personnel have more tasks than hours in the day. The churn of deployments, postings, training requirements and family commitments leaves today’s officers and soldiers ‘time poor’. Is sitting down to read thoroughly and reflect deeply an additional task that can be justified? The answer must be a resounding ‘yes’. It is a professional soldier’s duty to do so—reading widely and deeply, and then synthesising what is read with their own experience, is the cornerstone of what it is to be a military professional. Surgeons, lawyers, accountants, academics and other professions all accept that reading, both into the past and what is current, is a requirement for doing their jobs responsibly. Military professionals are no different; this Reading List helps guide that responsibility.

However, it is not enough to consume the books; truly educative learning comes after thoughtful reflection that sees the reader incorporate a book’s content, themes and lessons into their existing world-view. If the book challenges the reader’s outlook, this process is more time-consuming, albeit with greater reward. A good book, one that is educative, should prompt contemplation and questioning—a design principle behind the books on the new Reading List. Yet today’s world is full of television, movies and the Internet, so why should Army personnel commit their precious resources to the consumption of books? The answer is best viewed through the context of history and what it tells us about the importance of reading.

A Brief History of Reading and Writing

The foundation stone of human development for the last 10 000 years has been the development of writing. Previously, the myths, stories and histories of cultures were passed on orally. Spoken language was the currency of human evolution. The storyteller of the village, tribe or court was the holder of knowledge, providing a buffer against uncertainty and a storehouse of ideas and concepts to help decision-makers frame their choices. Writing is the symbolic representation of language, and early developments in writing go back approximately 8000 years. These were systems called ‘proto-writing’, where pictures represented real-world objects. The next leap forward was to create abstractions, to build words and meanings beyond simple representations, and this occurred almost concurrently in several civilisations about 5000 years ago.

The cradles of civilisation, the ancient societies in Sumer and Babylon— modern-day Iraq—and Egypt invented systems of writing called cuneiform. Concurrently, ancient Chinese languages and the civilisation in the Indus Valley developed written script. Writing was a ‘revolution in human affairs’ across the world. In an oral tradition, the story changed with time and subsequent re-tellings. Writing, while also open to adaptation and evolution, provided a firmer base by which history could be secured. For Ancient Greek and Roman societies, the ability to read was a social distinction. The polity could read and the polity could vote (from Greek polīteia, meaning citizenship). Women, slaves and the large expatriate communities would also be able to read.

Written histories and analyses became a forcemultiplier and a vehicle whereby ideas could be spread further, both geographically and temporally. People, events, dates and circumstances could be accessed and interpreted by a wider range of people, although, like the oral historian, this generally remained an elite within a society: the literate. Written works were rare and precious, available only to a fraction of any society. Such gatekeepers of knowledge tended to be the nobility and the clergy. These power structures created the intellectuals and military leaders, (usually) men from positions of wealth and influence that gave them the time for detailed study of the classics—the literary and historical canon. Informed by the close study of literature, history and art, leavened with wide travel in and experience of the world, including politics, war and diplomacy, this community is embodied in figures such as Alexander, Caesar and Saladin. They gained an education; the skills to analyse and synthesise information into knowledge. The written word formed the backbone of the educative process, but books themselves remained restricted to the few.

As the Western world experienced the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment, a democratisation of knowledge began. The widespread use of moveable type, first with the Gutenberg Bible in 1455, witnessed a flourishing in publishing, along with a commensurate increase in literacy among the growing middle classes. More books and more people reading contributed to a flourishing of ideas. The traditional social, political and economic structures were increasingly questioned and ideas from the ancient world were re-invigorated—leading over time to the American and French Revolutions and the current forms of Western culture. The writings of Plato and Aristotle informed political philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Reading and education are obviously powerful activities, and they have direct importance for increasing military effectiveness.

The classics informed the education of Gustav II Adolphus (1594-1632), King of Sweden, who is known as ‘the father of modern warfare’. Similarly, Niccolò Machiavelli studied classical works under close tutelage. Studying at the École Militaire in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte would become familiar with the works and underlying principles of Thucydides, Caesar and de Saxe. Over time, more works of strategy and military history appeared in print. The wartime experiences and lessons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries provided rich fields of study for the military professional. Through the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries, the range of such works has multiplied. Reading Carl von Clausewitz’s On War is today de rigueur for those in positions of higher command. Yet not all important works are intended for career officers aspiring to star ranks. Ardant du Picq, a French colonel on the losing side of the Franco-Prussian War, wrote the short and accessible Battle Studies. This book, more than 100 years old, provides important and enduring lessons on combat morale for the private soldier and section leader. So the Chief of Army’s Reading List distils the best of these books and groups them along rank lines. This will help soldiers and officers develop their professional reading in line with their operational and barracks experiences, guiding them forward.

Reading Broadly

Beyond the military history or works of grand strategy, other writers and books, including general history, biography and fiction, are important sources to understand humans, their reactions and societies. The skilled writer brings alive a new world, and the skilled reader finds many new tools for their kitbag. It is axiomatic to declare war a human activity, conducted by people for a wide variety of reasons. Airport thrillers and works of great fiction offer insights into the human condition. Shakespeare’s Henry V and Romeo and Juliet, one about the burdens of leadership and the other about the passions of the human heart, both provide clues to why people behave as they do. The latter would not be an immediate entry onto a professional military’s list of recommended texts, and yet the intelligent reader should not dismiss its value.

When coupled with practical training and real-life experience, a well-read and thus fully rounded soldier can impose context on the uncertain present. Most importantly, they can put themselves into the enemy’s mind and see weaknesses and strengths on both sides. Reading the works of Soviet strategists enabled US military thinkers to develop their Air-Land Battle concept in the 1980s. Reading the ideological works underlying al-Qaeda, such as the writings of Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, gives insights into the enemy’s world-view; from there, ways to combat their objectives come into sight. The educated army is best able to employ the flexibility required to dominate across the range of adversaries and environments in which they operate.

The Importance of Education

Rote learning of facts and figures, of procedures and processes, is training; most people can recall the dreary horror of the schoolroom where this formed the basis of their exams. An army uses training to build a common understanding and set of skills in its members; this is called doctrine. For many, however, doctrine is ‘what to think’. The most effective way to maintain the F88 Steyr or conduct the business of platoon tactics is rightly published as doctrine. Commanders need to know and to trust that their subordinates are competent at assigned tasks. The mastery of doctrine is the beginning of soldierly professionalism. To call someone ‘doctrinaire’, however, is to assert that their thinking is constrained, linear and programmed. Free, critical and creative thinking requires more scope for choice, greater risk of error, but with the significant opportunity of innovation, improvement and adaptation. Reading beyond doctrine is the hallmark of a military professional and a sign of the educational process.

Once a soldier’s reading becomes broad and deep, a critical mass occurs. Creative thinking is enhanced, and students draw conclusions beyond the raw facts they’ve learnt. They question and challenge the material under examination, drawing in examples and conclusions from other material they have read and the experiences they’ve lived. Education—based around the study of books through small-group tutorials guided by masters—was the model behind the emergence of universities, a model still employed in higher education today. This educative paradigm underwrote the Prussian General Staff system, the inheritance of contemporary military officer education throughout the world. Reading books and reflecting on them in light of your experiences, often by discussing them with contemporaries, is the surest method to building a solid military education.

A Living Reading List

Commanders at all levels can use the Reading List to enhance the effectiveness of their subordinates. By leading discussions of the books on the List, they encourage free thinking. Each reader takes different meanings from each work, and, unlike doctrine, such discussions have no ‘right’ answer. The debate of emphasis and evidence is the goal and the payoff. Superiors need to step back from their rank and accept the challenge of having subordinates disagree, sometimes passionately. This requires trust and challenges the chain of command. A poor leader would impose their interpretation as ‘the right answer’, whereas the good leader could agree to disagree.

As an example of leadership in reading at the unit level, this article presents a book review from Lieutenant JP Wallace at the School of Armour. Lieutenant Colonel Jason Thomas, the CO, encouraged his subordinates in their professional reading by asking them to read books and then write reviews. While this review is longer than its Reading List entry, it does provide an example of how commanders can enhance the education of their subordinates. Assign books on the Reading List, and have readers report to the unit on the themes, importance and utility of the work in question. Make it a weekly activity. Encourage debate. Listen carefully to arguments against your opinion—changing your mind is not weakness but common sense. This is more than an exercise in going to the Defence Library Service and borrowing a dusty old history book. The past teaches us, when we bother to learn, about today and tomorrow; by coming to grips with ‘how things came to be’, we can begin to scope ‘where might they go next?’ Analysis of the past creates options for tomorrow; with a wider perspective, leaders make better choices under pressure.

Bernard Fall - Street Without Joy: Insurgency in Indochina, 1936-63

Reviewed by: Lieutenant JP Wallace

Revolutionary Warfare cannot be left to happy improvisation any more than can nuclear warfare.

- Bernard Fall

Introduction

1. Long before Long Tan, the Vietnamese were fighting Western armies. Street Without Joy: Insurgency in Indochina, 1946-63, provides a detailed and unique account of the French Expeditionary Corps’ operations, strategies and tactics that were used throughout the course of the conflict, as well as an account for why they failed to defeat the Viet Minh. The title is derived from the French soldier’s nickname for Highway One on the Vietnamese coast. The Highway was the scene of almost constant ambushes against French civilian and military targets. It was on this road that Bernard Fall himself was killed in a Viet Cong ambush while accompanying a patrol of US Marines in 1967. The book discusses a number of issues in regards to Revolutionary Warfare, and the conventional and not-so-conventional attempts that where made by the French military to counter it.

2. The aim of this book review is to discuss the content of the book and how the central argument is still applicable today. The book review will discuss the author’s frame of reference, and provide a brief synopsis of the content of the book, followed by the readers’ recommendations.

The Author

3. Bernard B. Fall (1926-1967) was born in Austria and moved to France after it united with Nazi Germany. He became a member of the French resistance and gained a commission in a Moroccan division during the liberation of France. He conducted formal studies in Europe and then the United States, and spent many years in South-East Asia researching for his doctoral thesis. The book is thoroughly researched with Bernard Fall having spent a number of years in Indochina throughout the conflict, embedded within military units. Fall’s military connections also allowed him access to the vast amount of official papers of the French Ministry of Defence. Fall draws his frame of reference from his personal experience as a member of the French resistance, as well as a regular military officer, and his own extensive research in counterinsurgency theory.

Content

4. The book uses traditional historical text as well as diary-style entries in order to convey some of the more personal and sociological aspects of the history of the conflict. These diary entries broach topics such as the pilots, both military and civil, that were used throughout the conflict to fly combat missions all over Indochina. The diary entries also detail some of the roles played by men and women, civilian and military, on both sides of the conflict; and the subsequent effect these roles had on them. This style of writing allows the reader to gain an enhanced understanding of the social history of the conflict from a very personal perspective. The other chapters, written in historical prose, describe broad divisional movements as well as detailed descriptions of individual battalions, companies, and platoons. Fall gives a very detailed account of some of the major operations and units, as well as some of the lesser-known, but still important actions that occurred in Indochina. Throughout the book Fall discusses the idea of using naval craft in the river systems of Indochina, in particular the Dinassaut, Naval Assault Divisions. Fall also examines other non-conventional methods the French used in order to solve the problem of Revolutionary Warfare.

5. A theme running throughout the book points to the conclusion of the inevitable failure at Dien Bien Phu. However, it later becomes clear that Fall is not condemning the defence of Dien Bien Phu as a purely military failure, but a result of the failure to understand and study Revolutionary Warfare and counterinsurgency tactics. The failure to make political concessions had an impact on the consciousness of the populace and did not provide an alternative to Communism that was a solution specifically for Indochina.

6. Fall has used a strong narrative style throughout the book in order to present the historical facts and develop his argument on how to confront Revolutionary Warfare. This narrative style makes the book very easy and interesting to read, as Fall links together the historical facts throughout the narrative in order to convey his argument. The argument, however, does not become an overwhelming dirge of rhetoric or opinion, as it is only towards the end of the book that Fall fully enunciates his argument and outlines its implications—his second last page is entitled The Lesson. The main focus throughout the book is to accurately tell the story of the soldiers who fought in the conflict and the civilians that suffered because of it. It is only after the historical, military, social, and political condition of Indochina has been presented that Fall’s argument and implications can be fully understood and appreciated.

Readers' Recommendations

7. Street Without Joy is a seminal work and an essential book as a starting point for understanding counterinsurgency theory. Fall’s argument that Revolutionary Warfare is not something to be entered into on a whim, but requires study and a thorough understanding of the concepts and principles of the theory behind it, and the combatants involved in Revolutionary Warfare, is certainly valid given today’s military operations.

8. This book will prove enjoyable for most military history readers. It is a good book for those wanting to learn about the French in Indochina. It is also a solid starting point in the study of Revolutionary Warfare. Fall’s main criticism of US involvement in Indochina is that they did not devote themselves to learning the principles of counterinsurgency; instead they tried to solve Vietnam in a similar fashion to the French. A disappointing aspect of the book, however, is that most of the maps and illustrations are of little use, due to their clutter and lack of clarity. This book is recommended for military history enthusiasts and military officers, although a wider audience would still be able to appreciate the book due to its strong narrative element.

Conclusion

9. After all the in-depth narrative and accurate historical account, Bernard Fall is trying to encourage military officers and thinkers to study and apply themselves to understanding Revolutionary Warfare, instead of relying on ‘happy improvisation’. This is another of his books that continues the discussion on counterinsurgency theory. Given Australia’s current deployment commitments, the study and understanding of counterinsurgency theory—as well as a thorough knowledge of indigenous environmental factors—is of vital importance for all military officers. Fall’s argument that it is not technology or special forces alone that are going to win a Revolutionary War, but knowledge and its applications, has been consistently validated.

Lieutenant Jim Wallace graduated ADFA in 2005 with a BA majoring in Politics and History. He graduated RMC in 2006 and is currently posted to Tank Troop, School of Armour.

Lieutenant Wallace’s assessment of a forty-year-old book and the way he relates its continuing importance demonstrates his awareness of a broadening context:

Given Australia’s current deployment commitments, the study and understanding of counterinsurgency theory—as well as a thorough knowledge of indigenous environmental factors—is of vital importance for all military officers. Fall’s argument that it is not technology or special forces alone that are going to win a Revolutionary War, but knowledge and its applications, has been consistently validated. [emphasis added]

Wallace’s insight into the importance of a thorough and accurate intelligence preparation of the battlespace demonstrates that he has converted the trainingregime thinking tool into an educational process that seeks new questions and challenges. Understand the theory of counterinsurgency as well as the area in which you will operate. Local customs, local conditions and local sentiment are the sea in which the insurgent swims. 

The Chief of Army’s Reading List is a guide to what is best and most pertinent to military, strategic and human affairs in the Western canon. But the Reading List is not exclusive; it is a start-point. Always make time for exercises to keep the Army intellectually limber. Feel free to disagree and discuss what should be included and why with the AAJ, with your CO, or with the Chief of Army on his web forum. The Reading List is a waypoint on a lifelong journey of reading and learning, of educating ourselves for the fractious future. It is about making the Australian Army intellectually fit and mentally ready. The goal is education, the broadening of experience for its own sake to create more adaptable, aware and informed military professionals. Henry James, noted novelist, critic and observer of the human condition, was certainly correct with his entreaty of ‘read in order to live’.

Endnote

1  Download the Chief of Army’s Reading List from the Chief of Army’s website or the LWSC Internet site: <http://www.defence.gov.au/army/lwsc/Publications/SP/SP_313.pdf&gt;.