Title: COMMAND CULTURE: OFFICER EDUCATION IN THE U.S. ARMY AND THE GERMAN ARMED FORCES, 1901-1940, & THE CONSEQUENCES FOR WORLD WAR II

Author: Jorg Muth

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Publication Date: 06/08/2013

ASIN: 1574413031

Book Description:

The United States Army and the German Armed Forces traveled different paths to select, educate, and promote their officers in the crucial time before WWII. The author explores the paradox that in Germany officers came from a closed authoritarian society but received an extremely open minded military education, whereas their counterparts in the United States came from one of the most democratic societies but received an outdated military education that harnessed their minds and limited their initiative. While German officer candidates learned that in war everything is possible and a war of extermination acceptable, American officers, raised in a democracy, learned that certain boundaries could never be crossed.