Fighting Outnumbered: The Impact of the Yom Kippur War on the U.S. Army

Recent historiography tends to overstate the impact of the Yom Kippur War (1973) on the tactical reforms initiated by General William E. DePuy, the first commander of the U.S. Army's TRADOC (1973–77), while paying insufficient attention to the ways that DePuy used the war's lessons to leverage his legendary effort to rehabilitate the Army. The war's influence on General Donn A. Starry's operational reforms was equally profound, but came by a different route: the reconstructions of the Golan Heights defense and the discussions with his close friends Major General Israel ("Talik") Tal and Major General Moshe ("Musa") Peled provided vital inspiration for the AirLand Battle doctrine.