Missed Opportunity, the Failed Legacy of John Boyd

by Antonio Dias

I’ve recently had reason to look back at John Boyd‘s work. This has led me to review his “legacy.” Even today his writings are only available through a network of self-styled acolytes and has been enshrined as the rationale behind a lot of very dangerous and very silly thinking that’s “informed” U. S. military adventures over the last few decades. While the Manifest Destiny boys at the turn of the Twentieth Century found their theoretical framework in the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, the Cheney gang has looked for legitimacy for their schemes in Boyd’s thinking. I’m afraid they are confused. They have fallen into the same errors that befall so much of what passes for Systems Thinking of all stripes. They want to grab at the tricks without absorbing the underlying lessons.

Mahan was a rather astute strategic analyst of his day. John Boyd was a towering figure who’s work has yet to be fully digested by anyone. This makes it doubly tragic that we end up seeing him solely as “the man behind” the Rumsfeld/Cheney putsch.