Sun Tzu's Strategies Used by Military Leaders

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Sun Tzu’s Strategies used by Military Leaders Excelsior College Sun Tzu’s Strategies used by Military Leaders Great military leaders have studied Sun Tzu for centuries. His principles have been used if even by coincidence, by these leaders to shape and win their battles and wars. His strategies, documented nearly 2500 years ago, are sound and stand the test of time. They are very common sense-like and now taught at virtually every military leadership school across the world. No matter the battlefield, terrain, type of maneuver, or time of day Sun Tzu has a guiding strategy to influence victory and the truly great military leaders, the mavericks, exercise them considerably. The following analysis only describes a few of his principles, namely laying plans, maneuvering, and variation in tactics. The Surprise Left-Hook Under Sun Tzu’s chapter Laying Plans, he says, “attack where your enemy is unprepared, appear where he does not expect you” (Cantrell, 2008). General Schwarzkopf epitomized this strategy during Operation Desert Strom in 1990. Iraqi forces, still in Kuwait post invasion, prepared their defenses inside Kuwait awaiting an attack coming from Americans. General Schwarzkopf ordered a maneuver that was later dubbed the “left hook”. With allied forces attacking straight up through Kuwait and an amphibious attack in the Persian Gulf threatening Iraqi forces, elements from the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps conducted a sweeping attack from the west, where Iraqi forces were not expecting them. The Iraqi troops were completely surprised and unprepared for this “left-hook” that sent them fleeing back to the capital, Baghdad. Operations Security at Normandy Sun Tzu says, “let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall upon your enemy like a thunderbolt” (Cantrell, 2003). This principle found in Sun Tzu’s chapter on

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