The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security

About this book

The ideas of US Air Force Colonel John Boyd have transformed American military policy and practice. A first-rate fighter pilot and a self-taught scholar he wrote the first manual on jet aerial combat; spearheaded the design of both of the Air Forces premier fighters the F-15 and the F-16; and shaped the tactics that saved lives during the Vietnam War and the strategies that won the Gulf War. Many of Americas best-known military and political leaders consulted Boyd on matters of technology strategy and theory. In The Mind of War Grant T. Hammond offers the first complete portrait of John Boyd his groundbreaking ideas and his enduring legacy. Based on extensive interviews with Boyd and those who knew him as well as on a close analysis of Boyds briefings this intellectual biography brings the work of an extraordinary thinker to a broader public.