Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military (Role Of American Military) [Hardcover]

Major General Robert H., Jr. Scales (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 24, 2002 | ISBN-10: 074251773X | ISBN-13: 978-0742517738 | Edition: First Edition

In view of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the ongoing war against terrorism, the importance of land warfare seems certain to grow. This timely book, by Major General Robert H. Scales Jr., draws upon a long and distinguished military career and wars dating back to Korea for lessons for America's future land wars. He looks at Afghanistan and Iraq, and ahead to a wargame scenario of 'Kosovo 2020,' to develop a picture of the American style of war. High-tech, firepower-driven, and risk-averse, the American precision land war machine must ever guard against complacency and adaptive enemies. Despite superiority on almost every front, the U.S. armed forces have been effectively challenged on battlefields near and far. War remains as much art as science, and General Scales shows us what to expect if we substitute science and technology wholesale for the understanding of history and humanity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Scales has played an important part in developing U.S. Army concepts. His new significant contribution to current doctrinal debates argues that the vision of future war offered by the 1991 Persian Gulf War was largely misleading. The issues are explored in short, sharp examinations of recent experiences of limited war. (Foreign Affairs )

Scales' book is timely and should be read by every member of the U.S. armed forces. (Great Lakes Bulletin )

With confidence, clarity, and a welcome disdain for professional jargon, General Scales lays out his vision of small future wars and how the U.S. Army should prepare to fight them. His prescription is not the airy dream of a defense intellectual, or the ambitions of a political appointee with little more than mere military efficiency to worry about. He speaks from firsthand experience. (Proceedings )

To win, landpower is the ultimate decider. As we approach a possible campaign against Iraq, every planner and every commander should read General Scales' book, and every citizen who wants to know what is possible in 21st century warfare should take this book to heart. (Newt Gingrich, )

Bob Scales' book is an enjoyable read. The historical and analytic sections are wonderful. The writing is fluid and in-depth. In addition, the interpretation on Kosovo is just right. This book is the best in terms of making the case for landpower. (General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark )

As usual, Robert Scales has produced a work on the future that is informed by the past and his extensive experience in the army. This is a book that needs to be read by all who are interested in where war is going in the twenty-first century. (Williamson Murray )

General Scales argues that U.S. tactics, which have increasingly substituted firepower for manpower, are now able to defeat most prospective enemies very quickly, while at the same time minimizing civilian casualties. He also emphasizes that 'our enemies don't need to win in order to win. They merely need to avoid losing, which makes our challenge hugely disproportionate to theirs. They merely need to hang on.' (The Chronicle.Com )

He identifies lessons and insights from our recent experiences with limited wars to demonstrate how the past can tell us a great deal about the future. (Moaa Bookshelf )

Whether or not the Iraqi war is going to reinforce old truths or fortify new ones is still open to question, but thoughtful soldiers will find Maj. Gen. Bob Scales' new book, Yellow Smoke, to be a worthwhile precursor to any postwar inquiries. Soldiers and military theorists will be drawn into this dense fabric of ideas and speculation about firepower, maneuver and the future. This little book is well worth reading and digesting. Its chief value is as a springboard for intellectual and theoretical debate. As the Army fights through its latest campaign, and continues along a path to 21st-century transformation, it needs the kind of honest, probing, questioning thought undertaken here. (Army )

Major General Scales has written an important book. Scales does a first-rate job of showing the complexities and challenges the U.S. Army faces in an environment of political and technological change. The book will be invaluable for university courses in national security policy making as well as for congressional staffers and journalists. (Political Science Quarterly )

The best articulation of how America will fight future wars. Scales' book is timely and should be read by every member of the U.S. armed forces. (Great Lakes Bulletin )

A timely review of the current condition of warfare and a projection of a possible future condition associated with the conduct of war. General Scales delivers where it matters. He illuminates the actual trends in combat and doctrinal development implicit in the Department of Defense transformation presently under way. (Parameters )

About the Author

Robert H. Scales Jr. was appointed president and CEO of Walden University in 2000. In December 2002 he was promoted to senior vice president of Sylvan Learning Systems, the parent company of Walden University. Prior to joining the private sector Dr. Scales served over thirty years in the army, retiring as a major general. He commanded two units in Vietnam, winning the Silver Star for action during the battles around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) during the summer of 1969. Subsequently, he served in command and staff positions in the United States, Germany, and Korea and ended his military career as Commandant of the United States Army War College. He has written and lectured on warfare to academic, government, military, and business groups in the United States, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. He is the author of two books on military history: Certain Victory, the official account of the army in the Gulf War and Firepower in Limited War, a history of the evolution of firepower doctrine since the end of the Korean War. He was the only serving officer to have written books subsequently selected for inclusion in the official reading lists of two services, Certain Victory for the Army and Firepower for the Marine Corps. In addition, he is an authority on contemporary and future warfare. Concepts and ideas contained in his writings and studies have significantly influenced the course of contemporary modernization and reform within the military. He has written two books on the theory of warfare: Future Warfare, a strategic anthology on America's wars to come, and Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military. Yellow Smoke offers a unique and readable perspective on both the derivation and the probable course of reform within the American Army. The book is currently available from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. He is a frequent commentator and consultant for major media networks on issues relating to military history

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; First Edition edition (December 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074251773X
• ISBN-13: 978-0742517738
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,109,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant through Afghanistan, doesn't take into account Iraq, March 4, 2006

By 

Michael Short (Owings, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military (Role Of American Military) (Hardcover)

MG Scales is one of the great military thinkers of the modern age, and this book reflects the vast effort of thought he has put into military problems during his career. His thesis, that in limited-objectives warfare, technology enabled firepower is the key way to destroy the enemy, and that close-combat maneuver forces are for 'findin' em and fixin' em.' To some degree, I agree with his thesis, but note that my personal experiences in Iraq taught me that A) clese combat with the insurgents is the most efficient way to inflict mass casualties on the insurgents; B) the insurgent's capability of hiding themselves in the populace prevents the use of massed fires and target detection, not to mention the politically unpalatable possibility of collateral casualties. As usual, MG Scales writes well, and thoroughly understands his subject.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Major General Looks at the Army After Next, June 12, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military (Role Of American Military) (Paperback)

Major General Scales is now retired. His last assignment in the Army was to work on the definition of the so called Army After Next. This required a detailed analysis of the American way of war, both from the military standpoint and the social. The American public has become very reluctant to fight in a war, or more precisely to accept casualties. This has been growing down through the past century. Only the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor turned the isolationist tide that was keeping American out of World War II.

The tradition, began in Viet Nam, of reporting battlefield deaths on a daily basis have created a strange (to me) philosophy where the 2,000 deaths in Iraq are major news, and the fact that about that many people are killed every three weeks on our highways is ignored. But the Army has gotten the message clearly that we can go to war, but don't kill any Americans.

MG Scales has worked on the development of technology and techniques that will enable the Army After Next to fight with an absolute minimum of casualties. He has done an excellent job in describing how these developments may play out. It's a very interesting projection, well written, and clearly expressed.

Of course the enemies are thinking about these subjects as well. And the situation in Iraq shows some of their analysis. Don't fight directly, but use ambushes, even start a civil war. This is unfortunately not what MG Scales is confronting.