The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

F U N D A M E N T A L B A S E S O F S T R A T E G Y
theater or continental commander. Yet to an important degree the
broad direction of the war strategy was the work of the Combined
Chiefs themselves. This meant, save for the final decision by the civil-
ian government chiefs, that the war effort was controlled by a com-
mittee. T h e faults inherent in committee rule were not always absent.
It is difficult to achieve perfect unanimity of opinion among eight
strong-minded men, each accustomed to command and each moti-
vated by a different combination of national, service, and personal
factors. Yet on each issue, agreement-or consent-was desirable;
there was no formal voting or majority rule. In view of the paralyzing
possibilities of what amounted to the liberum veto, it was fortunate
that, whatever clashes of opinion may have occurred, the members
of the CCS were able in most issues to compromise their several sug-
gestions in a decision that could be accepted by all. One fact of ex-
treme importance for the United States was that the membership of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff remained unchanged, after the appointment
of Admiral Leahy, until after the war ended; this continuity in per-
sonnel, so unusual in a military body, contributed much to smoothness
of operation of the JCS.
In the interests of efficiency it was desirable that the Combined
Chiefs of Staff be provided with permanent staff sections. T h e British
paper on post-ARCADIA collaboration had designated several of
the required agencies, again based on British models, and these were
set up by CCS directives at the time that body achieved its formal
organization. For the most part the new offices merely continued, in
a more formal guise and under new designations, the machinery
which had grown up at ARCADIA. T h e form the new sections
assumed then was that of Anglo-American committees rather than
of the conventional “G’s” of the U.S. Army General Staff.
Although there was no hierarchical arrangement of the several sec-
tions, those being coequal in status and on terms of mutual inter-
change of communication, the Combined Planning Staff occupied a
central position v i s - h i s the Combined Chiefs of Staff .78 That section,
which had operated at ARCADIA as the Joint Planning Committee,
was charged with preparing such studies and plans as the CCS should
direct. Its membership included the chief planning officers of the U.S.
Army, Navy, and AAF, and similar representatives of the British
services. T h e American members, when sitting separately, constituted
also the US.Joint Planning Staff.
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