1. Hunter Rose
HIST 3331
1/31/16
Introductory Assignment
According to Weigley the “Indian wars” nurtured the American perception of war as that it is
always a contest for total victory. He also talks about how the American people could not coexist
as neighbors with the Indian society and personally I took that even farther then the Second
World War and saw some similarity of that mindset during the Cold War years. Weigley points
out the use of light, mobile troops during the “Indian wars” and draws similarities to the type of
warfare we wage today and also that of Washington during the Revolution. The strategy of total
annihilation of one’s enemy and his unconditional surrender was a factor in many of the major
U.S. wars up until the end of WWII. During the American Civil war the Union had a large
advantage in resources especially in the form of manpower and this skewed balance led to the
eventual Northern victory. It was during this war that two of the main Union generals, Grant and
Sherman, laid out the framework for many of the U.S strategies that would be utilized in WWII.
Grants strategy of the use of overwhelming force is seen at the invasion of Normandy and the
push through Europe as well as the destruction of the Japanese Navy, while Sherman’s strategy
of the total destruction of the enemy’s resources and will to fight are seen in the various bombing
campaigns carried out by the U.S. notably against Japan.
According to Kohn our soldiers are seen through certain “old stereotypes” and that these
ideas drastically influence how we see the American soldier. Kohn describes how throughout our
history our soldiers have been portrayed as the white male enlisting out of patriotism and a love

2. of liberty but then in turn due to his individualism the goals of a war would have to be explained
to him. Kohn shows how the men and women were seen as “happy-go-lucky” types but if led
correctly were great soldiers. He goes on to point out the ethnic statistics for our armies thus
disproving the “white male” notion while at the same time providing evidence against the other
past stereotypes ultimately putting forth the notion that the “American Soldier” never existed and
it is time to take a fresh look at it.