Tag U.S. Army Center for Military History (CMH)

U.S. Army Releases New Iraq War History

On Thursday, the U.S. Army released a long-awaited history of its operational combat experience in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. The study, titled The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1: Invasion – Insurgency – Civil War, 2003-2006 and The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal, 2007-2011, was published under the auspices of the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute.

This reflects its unconventional origins. Under normal circumstances, such work would be undertaken by either the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute (CSI), which is charged with writing quick-turnaround “instant histories,” or the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH), which writes more deeply researched “official history,” years or decades after the fact.[1] Instead, these volumes were directly commissioned by then-Chief of the Staff of the Army, General Raymond Odierno, who created an Iraq Study Group in 2013 to research and write them. According to Odierno, his intent was “to capture key lessons, insights, and innovations from our more than 8 years of conflict in that country.[I]t was time to conduct an initial examination of the Army’s experiences in the post-9/11 wars, to determine their implications for our future operations, strategy, doctrine, force structure, and institutions.”

CSI had already started writing contemporary histories of the conflict, publishing On Point: The United States Army in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (2004) and On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign (2008), which covered the period from 2003 to January 2005. A projected third volume was advertised, but never published.

Although the Iraq Study Group completed its work in June 2016 and the first volume of the history was scheduled for publication that October, its release was delayed due to concerns within the Army historical community regarding the its perspective and controversial conclusions. After external reviewers deemed the study fair and recommended its publication, claims were lodged after its existence was made public last autumn that the Army was suppressing it to avoid embarrassment. Making clear that the study was not an official history publication, current Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley added his own forward to Odierno’s, and publicly released the two volumes yesterday.

NOTES

[1] For a discussion of the roles and mission of CSI and CMH with regard to history, see W. Shane Story, “Transformation or Troop Strength? Early Accounts of the Invasion of IraqArmy History, Winter 2006; Richard W. Stewart, “‘Instant’ History and History: A Hierarchy of NeedsArmy History, Winter 2006; Jeffrey J. Clarke, “The Care and Feeding of Contemporary History,” Army History, Winter 2006; and Gregory Fontenot, “The U.S. Army and Contemporary Military History,” Army History, Spring 2008.

 

Structure Of The U.S. Defense Department History Programs

With the recent discussions of the challenges facing U.S. government historians in writing the official military histories of recent conflicts, it might be helpful to provide a brief outline of the structure of the Department of Defense (DOD) offices and programs involved. There are separate DOD agency, joint, and service programs, which while having distinct missions, sometime have overlapping focuses and topics. They are also distinct from other Executive Branch agency history offices, such as the Office of the Historian at the State Department.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense has its own Historical Office, which focuses on collecting, preserving, and presenting the history of the defense secretaries. Its primary publications are the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series. Although the office coordinates joint historical efforts among the military services and DOD agency history offices, it does not direct their activities.

The Joint History Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) provides historical support to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to the Joint Staff. Its primary publications are the JCS and National Policy series, as well as various institutional studies and topical monographs.

The Joint History Office also administers the Joint History Program, which includes the history offices of the joint combatant commands. Its primary role is to maintain the history programs of the commanders of the combatant commands. Current guidance for the Joint History Program is provided by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Instruction 5320.1B, “Guidance for the Joint History Program,” dated 13 January 2009.

Each of the military services also has its own history program. Perhaps the largest and best known is the Army Historical Program. Its activities are defined in Army Regulation 870-5, “Military History: Responsibilities, Policies, and Procedures,” dated 21 September 2007. The program is administered by the Chief of Military History, who is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff for all historical matters, and is dual-hatted as the director of the U.S. Army Center for Military History.

The Air Force History and Museum Program is outlined in Air Force Policy Directive 84-1, “Historical Information, Property, and Art,” dated 16 September 2005. The Director of Air Force History and Museums, Policies, and Programs oversees the Air Force Historical Studies Office, and its field operating agency, the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

The Navy History Program is managed by the Director of Navy History. Its activities are described in OPNAV Instruction 5750.4E, “Navy History Programs,” dated 18 June 2012. The Navy’s central historical office is the Naval History and Heritage Command, which includes the Navy Department Library and the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Marine Corps History Division, a branch of Marine Corps University, runs and administers the Marine history program. Its policies, procedures, standards, and responsibilities are outlined in Marine Corps Order 5750.1H, dated 13 February 2009.

In future posts, I will take a closer look at the activities and publications of these programs.

Military History In The Digital Era

Volumes of the U.S. Army in World War II official history series published by the U.S. Army Center for Military History [Hewes Library photo]

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has released a draft strategic plan announcing that it will “no longer accept transfers of permanent or temporary records in analog formats and will accept records only in electronic format and with appropriate metadata” by the end of 2022. Given the widespread shift to so-called “paperless” offices across society, this change may not be as drastic as it may seem. Whether this will produce an improvement in record keeping is another question.

Military historians are starting to encounter the impact of electronic records on the preservation and availability of historical documentation of America’s recent conflicts. Adin Dobkin wrote an excellent overview earlier this year on the challenges the U.S Army Center for Military History faces in writing the official histories of the U.S Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. Army field historians on tight deployment timelines “hoovered up” huge amounts of electronic historical documentation during the conflicts. Now official historians have to sort through enormous amounts of material that is often poorly organized and removed from the context from which it was originally created. Despite the volume of material collected, much of it has little historical value and there are gaps in crucial documentation. Separating the useful wheat from the digital chaff can tedious and time-consuming.

Record keeping the paper age was often much better. As Chris wrote earlier this year, TDI conducted three separate studies on Army records management in the late-1990s and early 2000s. Each of these studies warned that U.S. Army documentation retention standards and practices had degraded significantly. Significant gaps existed in operational records vital to future historians. TDI found that the Army had better records for Red Cloud’s War of 1866-1868 than it did a hundred years later for Vietnam.

TDI is often asked why it tends to focus on the World War II era and earlier for its analytical studies. The answer is pretty simple: those are the most recent conflicts for which relatively complete, primary source historical data is available for the opposing combatants. Unfortunately, the Digital Age is unlikely to change that basic fact.