Book Description

This second of three volumes on the history of operations research identifies, describes, and evaluates the ideas, people, organizations, and events that influenced the development of ORSA in the Army from the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961 to the withdrawal of U.S.T The last official campaign of the United States Army in Vietnam ended on 28 January 1973. By that date most Army combat units and advisers had been withdrawn from South Vietnam, leaving only a small contingent of combat support and combat service support troops who were soon redeployed to the United States. Thus ended one of the most eventful eras in U.S. military history. Indeed, the period from 1961 to 1973 was a tumultuous era in world history, an era marked by worldwide political upheaval, growing distrust of government, and alienation of the young from the hitherto accepted standards and values of political, economic, social, and cultural behavior. The 1960s and early 1970s were also a time of great growth and change in the Army analytical community, a time in which Army operations research and systems analysis (ORSA) managers and analysts faced a number of difficult challenges. The McNamara revolution in defense management emphasized quantitative methods and systematic analysis, and the evergrowing complexities of structuring military forces for the future as well as the problems of fighting a long war in Southeast Asia summoned a maximum effort from Army analysts. The use of ORSA techniques expanded into new areas, such as management and force planning. The reliance on one or two primary Army ORSA contractors was abandoned in favor of a wider range of private contractors and greater reliance on in-house Army ORSA organizations that grew substantially. The increased demand for trained ORSA managers and analysts prompted a number of studies that focused on the Army's need for systematic analysis and ORSA personnel. As a result, a professional program for the selection, training, and utilization of Army officer ORSA specialists was introduced, and measures were taken to improve the preparation and utilization of the Army's civilian analysts as well. The use of ORSA methods became a generally accepted part of the research and development and combat development processes, and Army ORSA analysts participated in the major studies of the day, particularly those dealing with the two most prominent military issues of the 1960s, counterinsurgency and airmobility, and applied their skills to solve the practical problems encountered in the war against the Communists in Southeast Asia.forces from Vietnam in 1973.