Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
And so this little note here, this message under this insight here, is a way of thinking about it. I’ll let you read it in a formal sense, and I’ll deal with it even more simply after you read it.
I’ll let you read it first.
[Long pause as audience reads slide]
Boyd: What am I really saying here? Anybody? What am I really saying? What I’m saying is very simple. That if you go in there, and not only get a quick victory, but behave afterward, the people are going to tend to be on your side. Why? Because here, if they spent money over a number of years, building up their defense establishment, and the whole thing collapses away in no time, they’re going to think they’re a bunch of corrupt bastards. So you got that working for you.
But if you go in there and come down heavy-handed, you lose it all. You lose it all. Think about it. Remember, let’s say our country got invaded and here we spent years, billions of dollars for defense, and somebody came in here and took us over very fast. You’d say, “Those dirty bastards. They didn’t even know how to do it.” But then if a guy comes down hard, then you reunify them. In a sense, that’s what happened with Hitler against Russia. Remember, they were welcomed in, but then, Hitler came down harder than they—Stalin, they said, “Well, we’re going to have a dictator, we’re going to have our own.” [35:00] So it’s very delicate. You’ve got to be very careful. Okay.