erally
depends upon the results gained by tactics, strategy is initially
responsible for the success of tactics. It is therefore in the
province of strategy to ensure that the attainment of tactical
objectives furthers, exclusively, the aims of strategy, and also that
the tactical struggle be initiated under conditions favorable for the
attainment of the designated objectives.

Command of the Armed Forces. The initial requisite to the effective
use of the armed forces is an agency authorized to direct them.

Command directs the armed forces. It is vitalized and personified in
the commander, the human directing head, both of the whole and of
organized groupings in descending scale of importance. Its
responsibility, during peace, is the perfection of the armed forces to
the point of readiness for war and, during the conflict, their
effective employment.

Training for command, to be effective, is necessarily dependent upon
an understanding of the position occupied by the commander, and of the
role which he plays. Accordingly, this understanding is an essential
in the study of that aspect of command training which has as its
purpose the development of ability to reach sound decision.

The ideal of military command combines the best of human qualities
with sound knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the armed
forces. It recognizes in war a form of human activity whose conduct,
like that of all other human activities, is subject to natural law. It
applies to the mastery of the problems of war, therefore, the natural
mental processes of human thought (see Chapter II); it adapts these
natural processes to a specific purpose, and consciously develops
their use to the maximum degree for the attainment of this end. As
command ascends the scale, its viewpoint broadens. Experience and
added knowledge, with increasing authority and responsibility, lead to
a concept of war more and more comprehensive, with the resultant
growth in ability to evolve and put into effect a general plan for
the effective control of collective effort.

Unity of Effort. An objective is best attained by effective
application of properly directed effort, exerted by a single
individual or by groups of individuals. Where individuals are
collectively concerned, unity of effort is the most important single
factor contributory to the common success. The basic condition to be
sought by the armed forces is an harmonious whole, capable of putting
for