The Resurrection of Carl von Clausewitz: Part 2

The Resurrection of Carl von Clausewitz: Part 2
How America built and then destroyed Clausewitz's kingdom

EVAN
JUN 20, 2024

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.- Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address 1961

In 2024, the words from Eisenhower’s farewell address seem particularly relevant. Few on either side of the political divide would disagree that the military-industrial complex (a term Eisenhower created) does not hold unwarranted influence on politics.

Source: Rawstory/Open Secrets

Indeed, it seems that the arms dealers increasingly dictate terms to the government, rather than the other way around. Beyond the outright bribery which has been legitimized under the name lobbying and the so-called revolving door of defense contractors, politicians and military officers which exists to reward policymakers with lucrative jobs as “consultants” in exchange for loyal service to the MIC, the arms dealers have a near lock on our politics at every level.

There was once a time when the American military was not in the thrall of arms contractors, during the Second World War, circumstances allowed the government to build the sort of integrated system which Clausewitz imagined in vom Kriege. Military, economic and political command unified towards one goal.

Eventually, the economic power of the military industrial complex subordinated the entire government to it’s will. Now it seems that our government serves little purpose but to feed this great killing machine with more of the world’s sons and daughters

Ironically, the same President Eisenhower who warned us against this new machine threatening to crush the world in it’s iron jaws was once it’s expert pilot. As a general, Eisenhower showed just what economic might can do when put to a rational use instead of subordinated to the profit motive. In the 40s, Eisenhower was the point-man of a unified political, economic and military machine that crushed the Axis with a river of steel and fire.


I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.-Carl von Clausewitz, “On War”

During the Second World War, the US faced an unprecedented challenge. The vast oceans which have for so long protected the USA from invasion were just as formidable when going the opposite direction. All of America’s men, material and equipment had to be shipped across the ocean to fight enemies who did not have such restrictions. This forced American planners to put a premium on efficiency at all levels, from weapons design and acquisition to strategy and tactics.

To give an example of this, we can examine one of the most famous weapons of the war, the M4 “Sherman1” tank. Although the Sherman was unfairly maligned after the war, looking at it’s actual combat record tells us the truth. American forces, equipped with Shermans, were able to consistently defeat German and Japanese forces. The reason for this is not because of the Sherman itself, per se, but rather the design ethos which created it.

M4A1 variant Sherman tank. Source: American GI Museum

The Sherman was incredibly reliable, endlessly customizable, easy to repair, fuel efficient, had heavily standardized parts, and was designed from the start to be weight and space efficient, meaning they could be sent overseas on fewer ships. Reliability was particularly important, as the Americans were fighting an offensive war, they needed to overwhelm the Germans with numbers to have any chance of winning. With replacements thousands of miles away, the US Army could not afford to lose armor to mechanical attrition.

Despite the huge variety of modifications made to the Sherman tank, even repurposing the chassis into an entire family of vehicles, all of these characteristics remained. This flexibility was a great benefit of the design, it allowed planners to make small changes which could yield major benefits and thousands of modifications both great and small were made during the war.

The system was so efficient that it could respond to challenges in a matter of days. A Red Army Sherman commander named Dmitry Loza wrote in his book “Commanding the Red Army’s Sherman Tanks” that early model tanks fared poorly on ice owing to their rubber track pads. In typical Soviet fashion, Loza said that the first Soviet Shermans slid around the ice “like a fat cow.”

This was such a serious problem for the Red Army that it stopped an entire armored division in it’s tracks. Three days after American attaches rushed to the scene to diagnose the problem, they brought in a shipment of metal track blocks and removable grousers for additional traction. The Soviet “Emchas” were moving again, and all future Sherman tanks were equipped with these grousers, permanently fixing the ice and snow traction problem. In Loza’s book mentions this sort of efficiency was normal for the Americans.

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