Turning Victory Into Success: Military Operations After the Campaign

The second annual military symposium took place at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
from 14 to 16 September 2004. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command
(TRADOC) sponsored the event and the US Army Combined Arms Center’s Combat
Studies Institute (CSI) served as its host. The symposium brought together civilian historians and military officers for the purpose of discussing a variety of historical
case studies and the ways in which they can illuminate current military issues and
operations.
As the title and subtitle of the symposium indicate, the topics addressed the
purpose behind military operations—winning the peace. The US military and its
coalition allies have proven themselves adept at achieving military victory in short,
decisive, major combat operations. The critical nexus, then, is how battlefield victory
translates into political success. The panelists and audience discussed the nature
of war, cultural awareness, terrorism, stability operations in the Philippines, Latin
America, Lebanon, and Vietnam, as well as operations in Iraq. Without exception,
the presenters were thought-provoking and their presentations elicited lively discussion
among the attendees.
This volume contains most of the presentations given at the symposium. The
presentations can also be found at
Conference-04/ConfAnnouncement.asp, the CSI website for the conference. The
entire symposium program can be found in Appendix A of this collection. In addition,
we have included some of the material from the question and answer periods
following selected presentations.
The second annual military symposium was of great benefit to those who attended,
and we hope the readers of this volume will find the experience equally advantageous.
We at Fort Leavenworth would like to thank TRADOC’s Futures Center, specifically Major General David Fastabend and Colonel Michael Starry, US Army
(Retired) for providing the support that made this conference possible.