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President Dwight Elsenhower outlined his proposal for defense reorganization in 1958. Concerned about unity of command at the highest levels, he focused on unified commands, multi-service combatant structures which divide responsibilities among theaters around the world. Based on his experience in directing complex military operations, Elsenhower thought it unrealistic that the United States could institute a perfect system to address all its security requirements. However he insisted on a command plan that remained true to the doctrine of unity, clarifying the authority of commanders in chief (CINCs) of unified commands over component commanders and by the President and Secretary of Defense over CINCs.
For over two decades, from his initial assignment in the War Department to his election as President, and as CINC of unified and combined commands, Chief of Staff of the Army, acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Elsenhower sustained a consistent approach. "Separate ground, sea, and air warfare is gone forever," he recorded in his 1958 proposal. "If ever again we should be involved in war, we will fight it . . . with all services, as one single concentrated effort."1 Jointness, he argued, was the key to achieving unity.
The Eisenhower Experience
The issue of unity of command over theater operations had its origins in the interwar years when the Joint Board of the Army and Navy prescribed that the fundamental method of interservice coordination was mutual cooperation, the one in effect when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After that disaster, the investigating committee noted, "The inherent and intolerable weaknesses of command by mutual cooperation were exposed."2 As a result, shortly after Colonel Eisenhower arrived in the War Plans Division at the War Department in 1941, a general consensus existed on the need for unity in the field. Thus Eisenhower soon found himself involved in all aspects of the operations of unified commands.
By the end of World War II no senior officer on either side had more unified and combined command experience than Elsenhower. It is easy to forget today how unique his background was. Before that conflict no American had ever led a vast unified body consisting of armies, navies, and air forces; and none had ever directed an allied...