Historical Event Analysis

• Using concepts taught throughout the Lesson: Operational Art & Design, you will write an analytical/research paper on a historical event (your instructor will give you the historical event).

You will analyze the historical event, for example, the Vietnam War from the perspective of the operational art & design concepts and terms from chapter IV, JP 5-0, Joint Planning and/or other appropriate joint doctrinal publications.
You can analyze the entire campaign/operation, a single battle, or a group of battles from the campaign/operation.
Use the following questions to guide your research and analysis:
How did country X’s military leaders apply operational art during the campaign/operation?
How did country X’s military leaders design the campaign/operation?
How did country X’s military leaders understand the operational environment?
What problems did country X’s military have to solve?
What approaches did country X’s military use to solve the problem and achieve the military end state?
What was the military end state?
What were the military objectives?
What effects were established to obtain the military objectives?
What was the adversary/friendly center of gravity and the associated critical factors?
How did country X’s military attack/defend the adversary/friendly center of gravity, directly or indirectly?
What decisive points were established?
What lines of operation/effort were established?
What defeat/stabilization mechanisms were used?
How did country X’s military apply the concepts of anticipation, operational reach, or culmination? How were operations arranged?
Did country X’s military consider the factors of simultaneity, depth, timing, and tempo?
Did country X’s military use the tools phases, branches and sequels, or operational pauses?
Was the campaign/operation design focused on defeating either adversary forces and/or functions?
Was the campaign/operation phased?
Did country X’s military consider numbers, sequence, overlap, or transitions?
What phases of the joint operation model were used?

You do not have to address all the guiding questions, but you are expected to integrate the operational art & design concepts and terms from chapter IV, JP 5-0, Joint Planning and/or other appropriate joint doctrinal publications into your paper. The majority of the word count must address operational art & design concepts and terms. This will ensure you understand the lesson material.

You can use articles from databases such as ProQuest, EBSCO, Google Scholar, or military schools such as SMA, CGSC or the Army War College are the best types of sources for research and will help ensure you receive a maximum score. These types of databases will ensure you use scholarly, peer-reviewed articles for your research. Books written about your historical event are also appropriate for research.

You will use a minimum(7) research sources for your paper, which JP 5-0, Joint Planning, is one of the resources.

In the introduction section, ensure to have a purpose statement that includes your major points (Operational Art & Design concepts and terms/elements). Briefly describe the historical background of the assigned event in the introduction section. In the body section of the paper, ensure to include your evidence (in-text citations) and have solid transitions between major points. For the conclusion, ensure to summarize all major points. Do not include new information in the conclusion.

Important Note:
Contents – In your conclusion, the first sentence must restate your purpose statement.
Standard. The primary military sources for research must reflect Joint Publications.
According to Purdue Owl, an analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.