2019 marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the day the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to invade northern France. The invasion resulted in an Allied victory and ultimately led to the end of World War II in Western Europe. This spring, Kevin J. Weddle, the Garwood Visiting Professor of Politics, is teaching an apropos course on “The General as a Statesman: Allied Leadership and Operation Overlord.”

Weddle, a professor of military theory and strategy at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and has served over 28 years as a combat engineer officer, working in a variety of command and staff positions both in the U.S. and overseas. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Enduring Freedom, and holds master’s degrees in history and civil engineering from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in history from Princeton University. 

Weddle’s extensive experience makes him uniquely qualified to teach a course in the James Madison Program’s “Topics in American Statesmanship” series.

“‘Statesman’ is a word seldom, if ever, applied to military leaders,” said Weddle. “They are typically viewed as possessing narrow vision and perspective that excludes all but the blunt appreciation of military power.”

However, Weddle believes this notion could not be further from the truth. “Military leaders can certainly be statesmen too, in the broadest sense of skill in doing the nation’s business.”

In the course, students study the statesmanship exemplified by senior Allied military officers in World War II, including U.S. Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George C. Marshall and George S. Patton, and British Generals Alan Brooke and Bernard Montgomery. Through viewing the officers’ careers under multiple lenses, including diplomacy, strategy development, civil-military relations, coalition warfare and the planning and execution of military operations, students gain new perspective on what it takes to be a military statesman.

“Going into the course, I thought I had a solid understanding of strategy and World War II in general,” said freshman Tucker Hill. “However, it became evident that Professor Weddle's class would not simply be a timeline of World War II. On the contrary, the course requires students to engage in real time with the same types of circumstances and decision-making dilemmas that were present during World War II, so as to be able to fully appreciate and develop an understanding of what it means to be a ‘General as Statesman.’” 

Students were given an opportunity to apply their understanding of strategy, diplomacy and statesmanship with a strategy game, a tool that is used to educate senior officers at the Army War College. Weddle’s colleagues from the War College, Retired Colonel Joel Hillison, Ph.D. and Colonel John Mowchan, Ph.D. came to Princeton to help Weddle execute the game.

Set in 2020, the game imagines a scenario in which tensions are rising in the Baltic states. Each team of three students is assigned a role in the conflict, including Russia, NATO, the EU, the U.S., and the Baltic states, and is given a series of objectives to achieve. The students come into the game with a prepared strategy that will enable them to achieve their objectives. Weddle and his colleagues act as mediators, relaying the current situation at the beginning of each round, evaluating each delegation’s argument, and assigning odds based on its likelihood of success. The team able to come closest to achieving their strategic objectives at the end of four rounds “wins” the game.

“The matrix game tests students’ structured argumentation and strategic formulation,” said Weddle. “It is a complex version of experiential learning, and hopefully drives home the fact that while good strategy takes skill and preparation, there is always an element of randomness or luck and reacting to what other teams do.”

Katherine Trout, a senior concentrating in the Woodrow Wilson School, said: “During the strategy game, we were able to generate and execute military strategy in real time, reacting from the choices made by other players. It helped me recognize and appreciate the ever-changing, complex nature of strategy in our globalized world.”

She added: “I've regularly been surprised by the direct applicability of the lessons learned during World War II operations to current military situations. While the world of military strategy has substantially evolved since then, World War II and the Battle for Normandy really do provide an excellent case study that can be applied to today.”

Jack Whelan, a senior majoring in classics, had a similar takeaway: “I've always been interested in World War II, but much of what I've read and learned has been focused on the mechanics of the actual operations, rather than how the operations were decided and planned,” he said. “The strategy game helped me to understand the challenges of operating with incomplete information in a rapidly changing strategic environment.”

Over spring break, Weddle led a trip to Normandy, where 15 students toured a number of historic sites related to D-Day. For the students who attended the trip, seeing these landmarks brought many of the course’s themes to life.

“Seeing everything on the ground and in person really solidified my understanding of the Normandy campaign writ large and instilled in me a genuine awe for the magnitude of what the Allies were able to do,” said first-year student Karl Jackson. “Until I looked up from Omaha beach, or down the cliffs of Pont du Hoc, or down the rows of white crosses at the American Cemetery, I don’t think that I really grasped fully what those men did or what they faced.”

First-year student Tucker Hill agreed: “Without the trip, my appreciation for the campaign would not be the same. It doesn’t matter whether you are speaking in terms of the grand scale and complexity of the operation, or lives lost for its success, having the opportunity to stand where it all happened is a privilege I will hopefully never lose sight of.”