Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
One, it should support the national goal. Two, we should pump up—we should set it up so it pumps up our resolve, drains away adversary resolve and attracts the uncommitted.
That’s where we lost in Vietnam. We lost at the grand strategic level. We pumped up their resolve, drained away ours, and they attracted the uncommitted. We had to come home. We lost at the grand strategic level. So did Hitler. He had some good tactics. He’d pumped up the other adversary’s resolve, drained away—he didn’t really drain away his, they held together pretty well. But he did cause—because their operations caused the enemies to attract the uncommitted. He also lost at the grand strategic level.
And you want to end conflict on favorable terms. Obviously, ensure that peace terms do not provide seeds for future conflict, or in the event they do, at least not unfavorably towards you.