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Air Force Strategic Planning: Past, Present, and Future

“…Foreshadowing a later trend, the February 1979 Basic Doctrine featured "large type, numerous headlines, catchphrases, line drawings, diagrams, portrait drawings, and numbers of quotations." 71 Indeed, the format was so flashy that "there was an ongoing rumor that the 1979 edition of AFM 1-1 was written to "tell the Air Force Story" rather than as a doctrinal manual to prepare a military force and its commanders for war." 72 Notably, the 1984 variant of the manual dropped the "drawings and flamboyant typography" and reverted back to more-traditional discussions of the principles of wars, the need for air superiority, and the growing importance of space.…”

“…As Murdock notes, Fogleman, who came into office wanting to set a less confrontational tone than McPeak, "must have been chagrined by the Navy's reaction to 'Global Presence.'" 71 Global Presence's bureaucratic victory teaches a broader point: In general, service strategies prove effective if they are nested inside the broader DoD perspective and national security environment at the time. Global Presence came out at a time when DoD looked to increase its worldwide military engagement, but without the implicit price tag.…”