Stephen Hadley Quotes
In a military operation, the command and control elements are a legitimate target.
Hadley, Stephen. Interview by Wolf Blitzer. Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, CNN, 16 Jul. 2006.
This seemingly prosaic quotation is one of the most significant quotations in history. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the telegraph was rapidly developing as a communications technology. One of Lincoln’s greatest achievements was the appreciation of the new technology and the deployment of it to gain an immense strategic advantage which was a major factor in all warfare thereafter. Lincoln placed ALL telegraphy of the North under the control of the military. He then had a telegraph terminal installed in the War Department right next to the White House. He would spend many hours in the Telegraph Room reading dispatches as they were coming in. To the distress of some of his military commanders, the Commander in Chief actually, for the first time in history, received virtually real time intelligence about a battle, and issued orders to the commanders in the field in real time. The quotation is one of the early examples. Ironically, Lincoln had more real time battlefields information in the Civil War than most of our Presidents did until the Vietnam War when digital, radio communications were exploited for the purpose.
Connecticut’s militia had the large contingent of British Troops outside of Boston to their North and the extensive British military to their South in New York City. So there was no where they could maneuver without running into overwhelmingly superior British Forces.
Ivan Khrfistoforovich Bagramyan. Most militaries including ours have generally been trained and equipped for the last war and not the next war.
Stephen John Hadley is an American attorney and government employee who served as the 21st United States National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009. He served under President George W. Bush during the second term of his administration. Hadley was Deputy National Security Advisor during Bush's first term. Before that Hadley served in a variety of capacities in the defense and national security fields. He has also worked as a lawyer and consultant in private practice.
