Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

The DePuy files (VI): If you can, find a way to force the enemy to attack you

Attacking may sound like more fun, Gen. William DePuy told young infantry officers, but the best way to fight is to get into a position where the enemy has to attack you, like infiltrating and putting a battalion on a hill or other key piece of terrain behind him. Then the enemy has to attack ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons

Attacking may sound like more fun, Gen. William DePuy told young infantry officers, but the best way to fight is to get into a position where the enemy has to attack you, like infiltrating and putting a battalion on a hill or other key piece of terrain behind him.

Attacking may sound like more fun, Gen. William DePuy told young infantry officers, but the best way to fight is to get into a position where the enemy has to attack you, like infiltrating and putting a battalion on a hill or other key piece of terrain behind him.

Then the enemy has to attack you and you’re down and waiting and he’s up and moving and, gentlemen, no matter how romantic you may be about the attack being the preferred method, my preferred method is staying alive while killing the enemy. The aim is to get him up and moving while you’re down and waiting. That doesn’t mean you don’t go on the offense. But if you can sit down on a piece of terrain right behind his front, in the middle of his airfield or whatever, and he has to come to you, that’s what you constantly seek once you become a seasoned soldier.

(Again, my italics. P. 457, Selected Papers of General William E. DePuy)

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

Read More On History | Military

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.