Plotting a True Course: Reflections on USAF Strategic Attack Theory and Doctrine The Post World War II Experience

(Hardback)

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Examining wars from the allied victory in World War II to the conflict in Viet Nam, and finally to the operations in the Gulf and Kosovo, this book presents a comprehensive look at the evolution of strategic air attack theory and doctrine over the years.

Reviews

[s]uggests that the fundamental debates about the role, impact, and ultimate influence of airpower in modern war may never be finally resolved. In short, when the subject is airpower, it seems clear that we can not arrive at any consensus. Rather, it is by way of our continuing struggle to understand the issue that progress is made. This book clearly adds to the body of argument and is fun to read....[s]hould appeal to the growing coterie of scholars interested in the debate. Can airpower, however transformed by technology and applied by up-to-date doctrine, truly be decisive Mets and Head's book suggests that the answer to this contentious question is less important than the intellectual investigation itself.-Military History
"suggests that the fundamental debates about the role, impact, and ultimate influence of airpower in modern war may never be finally resolved. In short, when the subject is airpower, it seems clear that we can not arrive at any consensus. Rather, it is by way of our continuing struggle to understand the issue that progress is made. This book clearly adds to the body of argument and is fun to read....should appeal to the growing coterie of scholars interested in the debate. Can airpower, however transformed by technology and applied by up-to-date doctrine, truly be decisive Mets and Head's book suggests that the answer to this contentious question is less important than the intellectual investigation itself."-Military History
"[s]uggests that the fundamental debates about the role, impact, and ultimate influence of airpower in modern war may never be finally resolved. In short, when the subject is airpower, it seems clear that we can not arrive at any consensus. Rather, it is by way of our continuing struggle to understand the issue that progress is made. This book clearly adds to the body of argument and is fun to read....[s]hould appeal to the growing coterie of scholars interested in the debate. Can airpower, however transformed by technology and applied by up-to-date doctrine, truly be decisive Mets and Head's book suggests that the answer to this contentious question is less important than the intellectual investigation itself."-Military History

Author Bio

DAVID R. METS is Professor at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies. WILLIAM P. HEAD is Chief, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Office of History, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.