Raising the Bar: The School of Advanced Military Studies and the Introduction of Operational Art into the U.S. Army Doctrine 1983-1994

This is the story of the first ten years of SAMS and the remarkable reputation quickly acquired by its graduates, educated in a pre-World War II horse cavalry stable at Fort Leavenworth.It is also the story of the doctrinal revolution in which SAMS played an important role-a doctrinal shift that energized how the U.S.Army thought about and fought its wars. It may be claimed that the combination of a new, offensively oriented doctrine and educated practitioners significantly raised the level of tactical and operational understanding in the U.S.Army from 1983 to 1994. The book explores the interrelationship between the School of Advanced Military Studies, the introduction of operational art into U.S.Army doctrine, and how graduates of the school sought to translate education and doctrine into action.It begins with the decisions that led to the founding of SAMS and reviews the conditions at the end of the Vietnam War and the challenges the Army faced at that time.It then examines the deve