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THE CULTURE of WAR : MARTIN VAN CREVELD Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page v THE CULTURE of WAR : MARTIN VAN CREVELD P BALLANTINE BOOKS NEW YORK Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page vi Copyright © 2008 by Martin van Creveld All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Presidio Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. PRESIDIO PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Barbara Levy Literary Agency on behalf of the Estate of George Sassoon: “To the Warmongers” by Siegfried Sassoon. Reprinted by permission of Barbara Levy Literary Agency on behalf of the Estate of George Sassoon. The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group: Title page from The Goose Step Is Verboten: The New German Army by Eric Waldman, copyright © 1964 by The Free Press and copyright © renewed 1992 by Eric Waldman. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Barbara Levy Literary Agency on behalf of the Estate of George Sassoon: “In Barracks” from The Collected Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon, copyright © 1918, 1920 by E. P. Dutton, copyright © 1936, 1946, 1947, 1948 by Siegfried Sassoon. Rights in Canada and the United Kingdom are controlled by Barbara Levy Literary Agency. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Barbara Levy Literary Agency on behalf of the Estate of George Sassoon. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Van Creveld, Martin The culture of war / Martin van Creveld. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. eISBN: 978-0-345-50983-3 1. Sociology, Military. 2. War. 3. Military art and science—History. I. Title. U21.5.C74 2008 306.2'7—dc22 2008025740 www.presidiopress.com v1.0 Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page vii To you, bold venturers, adventurers, and whoever has embarked With cunning sails upon dreadful seas— To you, who are intoxicated with riddles, who delight in twilight, and whose souls Are drawn by flutes to every dizzying abyss; For you do not want, with cowardly hand, to grope for a rope And where you can guess, there you disdain to decipher. —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Also Sprach Zarathustra Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page ix Contents INTRODUCTION xi I. Preparing for War 1 1. FROM WAR PAINT TO TIGER SUITS 3 2. FROM BOOMERANGS TO BASTIONS 27 3. EDUCATING WARRIORS 46 4. GAMES OF WAR 64 II. In War and Battle 85 5. OPENING GAMBITS 87 6. THE JOY OF COMBAT 106 7. THE RULES OF WAR 129 8. ENDING WAR 149 III. Commemorating War 169 9. HISTORY AND WAR 171 10. LITERATURE AND WAR 188 11. ART AND WAR 209 12. MONUMENTS TO WAR 229 IV. A World Without War? 249 13. A SHORT HISTORY OF PEACE 253 14. THE WANING OF MAJOR WAR 270 15. BEYOND THE PALE 290 16. QUO VADIS, HOMO? 310 Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page x x CONTENTS V. Contrasts 333 17. THE WILD HORDE 335 18. THE SOULLESS MACHINE 353 19. MEN WITHOUT CHESTS 375 20. FEMINISM 395 CONCLUSIONS: THE GREAT PARADOX 411 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 417 NOTES 419 INDEX 467 Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page xi Introduction I n theory, war is simply a means to an end, a rational, if very brutal, activity intended to serve the interests of one group of people by killing, wounding, or otherwise incapacitating those who oppose that group.1 In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Even econo- mists now agree that human beings, warriors and soldiers included, are not just machines out for gain. Facts beyond number prove that war ex- ercises a powerful fascination in its own right—one that has its greatest impact on participants but is by no means limited to them. Fighting itself can be a source of joy, perhaps even the greatest joy of all. Out of this fascination grew an entire culture that surrounds it and in which, in fact, it is immersed. Like any other culture, the one associated with war con- sists largely of “useless” play, decoration, and affectations of every sort; on occasion, affectations, decoration, and play are even carried to coun- terproductive lengths.2 So it has always been, and so, presumably, it will always be. A full discussion of the culture of war would require not a single vol- ume but an entire library. The culture in question ranges from the often far from utilitarian shapes and decoration of armor (or, before there was armor, war paint) to today’s “camouflage” uniforms and “tiger suits”; from war games played by the ancient Egyptians with the aid of tokens on spe- cially made boards all the way to the enormous variety of present-day war games, exercises, and maneuvers; and from Yahweh’s commandments in the book of Deuteronomy,3 which laid down some elementary rules for the treatment of various kinds of enemies confronted in certain kinds of Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page xii xii INTRODUCTION war, to the numbered paragraphs of today’s international law. It includes the values and traditions of warriors as manifested in their deportment, customs, literature, parades, reviews, and other assorted ceremonies, as well as the endlessly varied ways in which wars have been declared, brought to a formal end, and commemorated. In many societies, especially tribal ones as described by Tacitus and feudal ones such as Homeric Greece, medieval Europe, Mamluk Egypt, and samurai Japan, the culture of war enjoyed extremely high status. For example, Chrétien de Troyes in Perceval says it was “the highest that God has created and commanded”; a sixteenth-century French knight, Brantôme, called chevallerie “the religion of honor” and claimed that it ought to be given priority over all other forms of culture.4 By contrast, in today’s self-styled “advanced” countries, for the culture of war to be held in such high esteem is rare. Soldiers, war gamers, collectors of militaria, and even military historians know the score. At best, their culture is seen as a quaint leftover from a previous, presumably less rational, less utili- tarian, and less humane, past. At worst, it is denied, put aside, ignored, ridiculed, or denounced as childish “warmongering.” As countless jokes about the (supposed) quality of military intelligence, military law, mili- tary music, and even military cooking imply, too often it is despised as loud, vulgar, and crude. Some people go so far as to claim that war and culture are absolute opposites. Like Lord Byron, all they see is “the windpipe-slicing, brain- splattering art”; as a result, each time a flag is raised or a bugle calls, they look away or stop their ears. Others, while prepared to admit that a cul- ture of war does exist, look at it as an expression of that worst of all bad things, “militarism.” Academics, many of whom are politically on the left, are especially likely to consider things in this light. This may explain why, in spite of the undoubted popular appeal of works with titles such as Medieval Arms and Armor, Uniforms of the Wehrmacht, and Military Aircraft of the World, a scholarly, comprehensive study of the subject has yet to be written. Perhaps it also explains why one volume whose de- clared subject is “the symbols of war” in the ancient world is completely dominated by discussions of weapons, armor, and tactics.5 Even if the charges were true, it does not follow that the culture in question does not deserve close attention. War has always played a criti- cally important role in human affairs. No empire, civilization, people, or religion has ever risen to greatness without, as one British officer once put it to me, excelling at “the smacking business.” Very often, the most Vanc_9780345505408_5p_fm_r1.k.qxp 7/28/08 10:36 AM Page xiii INTRODUCTION xiii successful ideas, religions, peoples, civilizations, and empires are simply those that acquired the most cannon and, having done so, used them to crush the rest. Conversely, few if any great ideas, religions, peoples, civi- lizations, or empires have fallen without trying to reverse their fortune by force of arms first. Much as bleeding hearts may dislike the fact, war and its culture form an integral element of human history and human life and are likely to do so for all future to come. As part of human life, they need to be understood. To be understood, they deserve to be studied no less carefully, and no less sympathetically, than any other parts. As this volume will try to show, very often the charges are not true. Even today, when most developed countries no longer have conscription and professional forces have made a comeback, no sharp line divides most people from soldiers.6 True, soldiers are not a homogeneous lot. Some may even be insensitive, callous, and vulgar. Yet there is absolutely no reason to think that such men are more numerous in the military than anywhere else; conversely, it could be argued that one reason why so many “civilized” people can engage in refined feelings is because there are soldiers who do their dirty work for them. Thus only prejudice can ex- plain why the culture they create, and in which they are immersed, is so often considered inferior to that of other groups, be they priests, mer- chants, professionals, workers, whites, blacks, women, or people who have recovered from cancer.
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