Clad in uniform, about 200 cadets and midshipmen from the four military branches gathered at Boston University’s School of Management auditorium yesterday to listen to a war historian give her take on America’s combatant past.
Eugenia Kiesling, author and professor at the University of Alabama, discussed American history of war before the near capacity crowd that also included BU Chancellor John Silber, a slew of generals and high-ranking military officials.
“Technology and ‘The American Way of War,’” was the third Colonel John W. Pershing Annual Military Lecture to be delivered at the University since it was made possible by a donation with the condition the grant go toward a lecture about military history. The series, which beginning in the fall will become semi-annual, was started by Pershing’s estate.
Kiesling’s experience comes from an intense military background. She earned degrees from Yale University and Oxford University, as well as her doctorate in military history at Stanford University.
“[Kiesling’s] specialty is American history,” said Director of the Center for Defense Journalism Joachim Maitre. “Technology and the way of war is very current. [After seeing her book] she was our only candidate.”
The lecture ranged from historiography to comic books, with Kiesling providing insight into the inner aspects of war. She talked about a wide scope of topics — from the origins of the musket and tank to America’s wartime mindset.
Though many countries have adopted the ideal of “victory through superior technology,” America has yet to do so, Kiesling said, adding America’s reluctance to accept new technology has often left them at a disadvantage in combat. In the early days, she continued, “Guerilla tactics gave way to muskets, [but] the main theme of the American Revolution is anything but technological.”
“The exploitation of technology is in a nutshell high tech,” Kiesling added. “Americans never fight on a level playing field.” The weapons used by Americans in the Mexican War were based on an 80-year-old design, and “America’s policy of simplicity over mass production stunned many Europeans,” she said.
Comparing the U.S. Army to Russian and Japanese military units, Kiesling termed U.S. strategy “cautious in nature” regarding technology.
“In the Spanish-American War, U.S. troops used the Trap-door Springfield apparatus that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Civil War,” according to Kiesling.
“Americans believed military excellence was more moral than material, and America had a disinterest in military technology,” according to Kiesling. “The American way of war is more ideological than technological.”
World War II showed America’s change toward technology, she added. Advances in nerve gasses and, eventually, the atomic bomb brought America up to speed with the world, but there was still “no fundamental change in the American way of war.” For instance, the country’s inventions were non-lethal against humans, but did invent DDT to exterminate bugs.
“Rather than seeking to build the best tanks, we put our energy to building lots of good tanks,” said Kiesling said. “Our men fought with inferior weapons and knew it.”
Damien Harder, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said the military needs to learn from its mistakes.
“The focus of the military on technology will come into play in the future,” Harder said. “It is important to understand past trends so we can change the bad ones.”
“Technology has to do with up and coming careers in the world today,” said Boston College sophomore Tegan Pollach. “It was interesting to see the progression of weapons in the lecture. Instead of getting better technology, we were militarily cost efficient.”
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