| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
War is about wreckage. Consequently, postwar periods tend to be about reconstruction, and that phenomenon is what this article is about. It sets
the scene for a larger exploration (the subject of projected sequels to the recent
book from which this article is adapted) of how a military-academic institution
-the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island-attempted to readjust to a
peacetime period that entailed simultaneously the
start of a new type of conflict for the United States
(the Cold War) and with a revolutionary new weapon
(the atomic bomb). While the Cold War and the
Atomic Age were revolutionary in many respects, at
their outset the staff, instructors, guest lecturers, and
students at the Naval War College did not automatically or necessarily think so. To a great degree, American military officers in the immediate postwar period,
while acknowledging that atomic energy weapons and
"war during peace" were earth-shattering in one
sense, fell back on fairly traditional strategic, operational, and tactical concepts for meeting these new
challenges.
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