http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/milrvweb/july/edit.html From the Editor The more the world changes, the more it remains the same. Yes, today's smaller, predominately US-based Army, deploys on more real-world missions and keeps soldiers away from their families more than at any time in the recent past. However, the need for a well-equipped, well-trained force manned by quality people and led by skilled leaders remains constant. This expanded edition o f Military Review looks at how soldiers have responded to two of these missions-Haiti and Bosnia-and explores their possible impact on doctrine and the conduct of future operations. Lieutenant General L.D. Holder, the former US Army Combined Arms Center commander, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, culminates these operational retrospectives with a review of the Center for Army Lessons Learned mission and its value to our Army. Even as the Army executes 1990s-style humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, its senior leaders are planning for the Army of tomorrow throug hForce XXI and th e Army After Next. Force XXI's technological aspects have been much discussed, and the Army is studying its implications for force structure, doctrine and training via the Advanced Warfighting Experiments at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. But what wil Forcel XXI mean for future leaders? Will it change the way units build cohesion and teamwork? What will it mean for soldiers? How will it change their lives? Will it fundamentally alter combat's human element? Army Chief of Staff General Dennis J. Reimer offers his perspective on the challenges ahead. Likewise, Congressman Ike Skelton, ranking member of the House National Security Committee, chronicles a congressional view of providing for the country's defense. As Military Review's 42d editor in chief, I look forward to maintaining the magazine's 75-year tradition of serving as an open forum for analysis and debate; to not only inform, but challenge; and to stimulate Army officers to read, think critically and communicate their ideas. Th Militarye Review editorial staff will strive to give an idea a chance, to keep institutional biases in check and to deal with controversy without being controversial. LJH 1 of 1 3/11/98 12:18 PM http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/milrvweb/july/lets.html Cambodia Ousted From ASEAN It is often difficult to predict sudden political changes in the Third World-surprises occur frequently. This certainly is the case in Cambodia, and affects the accuracy of my article "ASEAN: Coming of Age," which appeared in the May-June 1997 Military Review. When I completed my final manuscript review, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) officials were on record for more than a year that they would, at ASEAN's July 1997 30th anniversary meetings, admit to full membership the observer countries of Burma, Cambodia and Laos. This would bring about a cherished goal of having all 10 Southeast Asia countries as full members. However, on 4 July 1997, Hun Sen, the Second Co-Prime Minister of Cambodia, ousted First Co-Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranarridh from power. In three days of violence in Phnom Penh, Sen succeeded in routing Ranarridh's military and political supporters. ASEAN announced shortly thereafter that Cambodia's admission would be indefinitely postponed. In fact, ASEAN has approached Sen to restore the two-party leadership system in-stalled in 1993 after elections won by Ranarridh's FUNCINPEC (National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia) party over Sen's Cambodia People's Party. Sen has insisted on a strong role in Cambodia's government and compromise arrangements were made to include him and his party. ASEAN will surely move behind the scenes to persuade Sen to make concessions. Perhaps more realistically, the pressure from foreign aid contributors, such as the United States, Japan and the European Community, will also bring some form of compromise between the present situation and the May 1998 national elections. ASEAN will eventually admit Cambodia to full membership once an acceptable solution to the present crisis presents itself. In the meantime, the swiftness of change in Cambodia and the ASEAN region is a lesson to even the best-informed Third World analysts-things are never exactly as they seem. Colonel John B. Haseman, USA, Retired, Grand Junction, Colorado Treaty Responsibilities Colonel John B. Haseman's article (May-June 1997) on the emerging and potential political, economic and military role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provides an excellent overview of the current situation in one of the most dynamic regions of the world. US military officers, who often focus on and understand the European security environment (such as NATO expansion, the Bosnian conflict and the Partnership for Peace with the states of the Former Soviet Union), very much need to be exposed to the increasingly important geopolitical environment in Asia. The fact that two members of ASEAN-Thailand and the Philippines-are treaty allies of the United States highlights our ties with the region. Understanding our treaty responsibilites and security concerns in Asia must go beyond our key Pacific allies-Northeast Asia, Japan and the Republic of Korea. 1 of 6 3/11/98 12:19 PM http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/milrvweb/july/lets.html There are both lessons to be learned and pitfalls to be avoided in analyzing ASEAN's inclusion of and constructive engagement with states that have repressive regimes and nondemocratic governments. Both the United States and ASEAN share concerns over the People's Republic of China and its rising nationalism, ongoing economic boom, internal political dynamics and relations with Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, the inclusion of Burma, Cambodia and Laos set ASEAN and the United States on a difficult diplomatic course. ASEAN's refusal to seat Cambodia in July of 1997 as promised in the aftermath of Hun Sen's strong-armed takeover and consolidation of the government of that troubled state may be a step in the right direction. The United States has a key role to play in Southeast Asia. The United States must also recognize the nationalism and jealously guarded diplomatic independence of these nations that have gained their full sovereignty from foreign colonial and occupying powers over the last 50 years. Haseman's article provides an excellent overview of the key elements that must be understood to begin to appreciate the uniqueness, dynamism and potential of this important Asia region. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph G.D. Babb, USA, Retired, Department of Joint and Combined Operations, USACGSC, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas The Forgotten Soldier -Authentic Fiction by a Real `Guy' In response to Lieutenant Colonel Doug Nash's letter in the March-April 1997 Military Review, I wish to offer a few short observations, then let the matter rest. By seeking primary-source information, this time, instead of relying solely on secondary-source library materials, I believe Nash has presented a more effective defense of "Guy Sajer," but not for the authenticity of The Forgotten Soldier. I am still skeptical. Dr. Richard Swain, author of Lucky War: Third Army in Desert Storm, states, "It is authentic bad history? But it's O.K. because Sajer . was a real guy?" (No pun intended.) The real issue Nash obscures by his continual fixation on whether or not The Forgotten Soldier is a factual account of a German soldier's experiences on the Eastern Front is the one that motivated my earlier critique-the publisher's dust-jacket claims that The Forgotten Soldier is an authentic autobiography. My main point continues to be that it is not. Regardless of how autobiographical the experiences the author relates, he did not create a true autobiography. World War II historians cannot (or should not) cite passages from the book as an official record of the author's unit as they might from General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe or Field Marshal William J. Slim's Defeat Into Victory to document the combat actions of each of these commander's respective units while researching and writing histories of the European Theater or Burma. Sajer wrote, as many soldiers have done, what in literary terms is known as a roman a clef-a novel based on real persons and events. The roman a clef is a powerful literary form that permits the author the literary license to create characters for dramatic effect, move events forward or backward in time, assign the experiences of several individuals to one central character, or disguise the identify of the novel's principal character by using an assumed name. All of these devices are used in The Forgotten Soldier. Thus, the book is similar to Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Although these deal with World War I, both novels are powerful evocations of their respective authors' experiences in the cauldron of combat. Both novels contain incidents and events, written in prose narrative, that trace their central characters' experiences, many of which are based on fact. For example, Sassoon actually participated in the Battle of the Somme 2 of 6 3/11/98 12:19 PM http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/milrvweb/july/lets.html as a British subaltern. Therefore, these novels are authentic. However, what they are not are autobiographies, regardless of how authentic they may seem and despite their authors' participation in historical events that provided them with inspiration. Nash's correspondence with Gross-deutschland veteran Hans-Joachim Schafmeister-Berckholtz is a classic case of not seeing the forest for the trees. Interestingly, Schafmeister-Berckholtz has a phenomenal memory.