3

(2)

highly charged with emotion that they must be handled with skill,
objectivity, and careful attention to semantic reactions.

Looking at this somewhat differently, I think that
military ethics are fundamentally based on two elements; personal
responsibility and professional competence - (of course personal
responsibility is the heart of all concepts of ethics!)

But these two are especially important for the military
commander, for he has no right to exercise nilitary authority unless
he is competent to do so.

This in turn requires consideration of what we mean by
professional competence. And again, this brings us to the
question of the place of military theory in military education.

All of which brings me full circle to what I have been
trying to express in my books and manuscript on "MILITARY POWER IN
A FREE SOCIETY."

Furthermore, since not all our officers are trained to
deal in abstractions or to relate them to day-to-day work,
I recommend that insofar as is possible, the discussions on ethics
be illustrated by practical examples from both old and recent
military history. In many of these, it should be clear how often
the tough decisions of command must be made almost instantaneously.
This shows the vital difference between the decisions of command and the decisions of management!

Finally, the subject of morals and ethics cuts across all
elements and areas of mili~ary knowledge and technology, but
culminates in the study of COMMAND rather than in any single War
College Department .