The years 1973-1982 encompassed two major revisions of Army tactical doctrine. This monograph is an attempt to record and examine the causes and effects of the doctrinal ferment that led to the NATO-focused doctrine popularly known as the active defense in 1976, followed six years later by the comprehensive doctrine, worldwide in scope, termed the AirLand Battle. Controversy attends the development of military doctrine at all times. Within and outside the Army, the critique of the active defense was vigorous and led the doctrine planners and writers of the Army Training and Doctrine Command to a forthright reassessment, not only of the ideas, but of the assumptions, of that firepower-weighted doctrine. Changing national policy, reflecting the restoration of American strategic perspective occurring at the turn of the decade influenced the reassessment in the direction of wider attack resources and worldwide contingency operations. Successive concepts formulated between 1977 and 1980 extended and deepened earlier views of the modern battlefield and pointed toward the revised doctrine of AirLand Battle formulated by the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth during 1980-1981. Leaving behind earlier emphasis on firepower and force ratios, the doctrine of AirLand Battle published in 1982 was an initiative-oriented military doctrine that restored the maneuver-firepower balance, turned attention anew to the moral factors and human dimension of combat, and signaled a return to the fundamental principles governing victory in battle.

"June 1984"--T.p.

Introduction -- The active defense and the refocus on NATO Europe, 1973-1976 -- The debate of the active defense -- Extending the battlefield: doctrinal currents, 1977-1980 -- Airland battle doctrine -- Appendix A: AirLand Battle and AirLand Battle 2000/Army 21 -- Appendix B: TRADOC Pamphlet 525-Series operational concepts -- Appendix C: Selected documents.