ABSTRACT
In any modern army's hierarchy of professional concerns, military doctrine stands at a second or third order of importance. Military doctrines, fighting doctrines, always have been expressions of their time and place, an artifact in the mental life of a fighting organisation. Strategically and operationally, this plan exercised a much greater influence upon pre-Vietnam European formations than doctrine Under the terms of the new 'Nixon Doctrine,' disengagement from Southeast Asia was but a prelude to a general disengagement from all regional conflicts. The shadow of the Vietnam dragon was long, and it was very dark. The implicit designation of Starry as the executive agent for the new doctrine of course reverberated through the corps of general officers under DePuy's command. At the United States Army's staff college, students are badgered into memorising a militarised version of the great chain of being which in turn dictates the character of its military doctrines.
