The Schlieffen plan of attack used by the German armies at the outbreak of World War I. It was named after its developer, Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833–1913), former chief of the German general staff.
To meet the possibility of Germany’s facing a war against France in the west and Russia in the east, Schlieffen proposed that, instead of aiming the first strike against Russia, Germany should aim a rapid, decisive blow with a large force at France’s flank through Belgium, then sweep around and crush the French armies against a smaller German force in the south.
“I’m 76 & all four of my uncles plus my father were WWII veterans! I went through Army Basic training, 20 years later, in 1964 & boy, was it different from this video! For example, the sergeants were screaming at you from ‘minute one’, not being helpful! Also, we had to get “skinhead” haircuts, not reasonable ones! Lastly, unless things changed drastically from the WWII era, this video was “soft soaping” entering the Army!”
“I served 6 years, USN as an MT (Missile Technician, C3 Poseidon missile system) aboard boomers in the mid 80’s. We were responsible for every system (from flight control equipment, hydraulics, heating/cooling systems, every aspect from loading to close out) and I remember every time we drilled for launch how much weight everyone carried knowing what it meant if it were an actual launch.
Knowing exactly what would come after, and knowing what the world would be like if we were to actually make it home. We all knew from extensive training exactly what these weapons would do, exactly how it performed when deployed from launch to detonation and the result, and I promise you it’s scarier than what you could possibly imagine.
I also know that it’s a necessary weapon and I pray deterrence will still be enough to prevent an attack on US soil. You cannot put this genie back in the bottle. Contrary to movies and what most believe, there is no detonation button to blow it up in space. When it launches it will reach its targets with precision, and it will destroy everything in it path and would only take our sailors minutes to launch every one of them. Let’s pray we never have to. There’s no do overs.”
Sound recording of a telephone conversation held on October 28, 1962, between President John F. Kennedy and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. They discuss contingencies for dealing with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev in order to end the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2013. Al Jazeera’s James Bays with the latest details on the world’s contingency plans for a post-Assad Syria. The UN is not alone in planning, Bays has spoken with at least 20 high-ranking officials from NATO and non-NATO countries about possible interventions should Assad fall.
2008. Russia did not accept the U.S. military’s offer of help in providing security during the winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. However, the U.S. says it was going ahead with plans to send two Navy ships to the Black Sea in the coming days.
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase “research and development”) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations, universities and private individuals.
The company assists other governments, international organizations, private companies and foundations with a host of defense and non-defense issues, including healthcare. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving by translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, using applied science and operations research. (Source: Wikipedia)
As the supreme allied commander of allied forces in Europe during the Normandy invasion in World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower explained the importance of military planning when he said, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”
Contingency plans are developed by Combatant Commanders (CCDR) and Joint Force Commanders in anticipation of a potential crisis outside of crisis conditions. These plans are either directed by the classified Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP) or Guidance for Employment of the Force (GEF), or may address scenarios internal to the CCDR’s theater.
Level 1 Planning Detail – Commander’s Estimate. This level of planning involves the least amount of detail and focuses on producing multiple courses of action (COA) to address a contingency. The product for this level can be a COA briefing, command directive, commander’s estimate, or a memorandum.
Level 2 Planning Detail – Base Plan (BPLAN). A BPLAN describes the concept of operations (CONOPS), major forces, concepts of support, and anticipated timelines for completing the mission. It normally does not include annexes or time-phased force and deployment data (TPFDD).
Level 3 Planning Detail – Concept Plan (CONPLAN). A CONPLAN is an operational plan in an abbreviated format that may require considerable expansion or alteration to convert it into an OPLAN or operations order. It may also produce a TPFDD if applicable.
Level 4 Planning Detail – Operations Plan (OPLAN). An OPLAN is a complete and detailed joint plan containing a full description of the CONOPS, all annexes applicable to the plan, and a TPFDD. It identifies the specific forces, functional support, and resources required to execute the plan and provide closure estimates for their flow into the theater.
In his book A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon (2010) author Neil Sheehan describes the life and work of Bernard Schriever, who is considered to be the father of the American nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Schriever and his military and civilian colleagues believed firmly that if both the United States and the Soviet Union possessed these weapons of mass destruction the probability of them being used actually would be decreased.
Schriever had to overcome strong institutional resistance within the U.S. Air Force whose leadership was convinced that manned aircraft﹣strategic long-range bombers﹣was the only way to maintain a credible deterrent against the Soviet Union.
Through telling the story of Bernard Schriever and the development of the American ballistic missile program from the end of Second World War up to the mid-1960s Sheehan tells the history of the Cold War, which would last up until the 1990s with the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of West and East Germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, and the freedom of Eastern Europe from Russian domination.
In a 2010 television interview (Booknotes on C-SPAN) Sheehan contrasted Schriever with his American-born military colleagues, Generals Paul Harkins and William Westmoreland, both who had overall command of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.
Schriever would tell his subordinates that he would never fire anyone for failing, but instead for failing to inform him immediately of problems. For Schriever, as stated by Sheehan, success would take care of itself if one focused on solving the problems at hand. Go to minutes 25:10 to 26:50.
Sheehan had been a young war correspondent in Vietnam for United Press International (UPI), later with the New York Times. As told in his book A Bright Shining Lie (1989), which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the American generalship during the Vietnam War was unwilling to accept that America was losing that war.
General Schriever, according to Sheehan‘s research, made clear time and again to the members of this organization, whether military or civilian, that he wanted timely and accurate reports on the problems the program was experiencing, and was far less interested in the progress made.
So-called progress reports had become common within the U.S. military after the Second World War, and according to Sheehan, symptomatic for an institution unwilling to face what was not working.
Bernard Adolph Schriever was born in 1910 in the German port city of Bremen. His father was an engineer. They immigrated to the U.S. only months before the U.S. entered the First World War in 1917.
Schriever grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, an area mostly populated by German immigrants. Read about his fascinating life in Wikipedia
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