As future naval officers, I believe that we can learn a few valuable lessons based on the actions of Pericles. One of Pericles’ greatest failures was sending his military to war when his nation simply could not support a war effort. Athens was still suffering from a deadly plague when Pericles decided to sail out against the Spartans and face them on their conquest. Thucydides tells us that “while the Peloponnesians were in Attica and the Athenians campaigning the sea, the plague went on killing Athenians, both in the army and the city. A result of this, we are told, is that the Peloponnesians left the country sooner out of fear of the plague, when they learned it was in the city from deserters and by seeing funerals. Still, this invasion was the longest they ever made in Attica- almost forty days- and they wasted all of the land”.[1] In Pericles’ eagerness, he left his city defenseless and at a very vulnerable time all for the sake of pride and glory.
There is a possibility that some of us could one day hold enough power that we are required to help make the decision to send the United States to war. If we are one day in that position, this story of Pericles should immediately come to mind. When deciding on sending our nation to war, we must always first consider if the nation is in a state where it could support a war. In the past, the success of the United States military in war has been possible because of the incredible war effort that happens on the home front. Without a stable home front and a nation that supports the military, success is much harder to come by.
Not all of us will one day be an admiral or general or in the position to send a nation to war, but we will all one day be responsible for a division or platoon of Sailors or Marines. We can easily take the lesson learned from Pericles and scale it down to this level. When we are responsible for taking a small group into battle, the same theme of making sure the home front is stable still applies. Our subordinates will have families and issues to take care of, and it is our responsibility as officers to help them. When a Sailor or Marine goes into battle stressing about their affairs on the home front, they will be less effective and could put the mission at stake. As officers, we have the authority to keep those Sailors or Marines out of the fight until they settle their issues. We must do everything in our power to help our subordinates settle their issues, or we have to make the decision to sideline them until issues are resolved. Failure to make that decision at the right time could result in failure like it did for Pericles.
Andrew Mitchell
Word Count: 490
[1] Thucydides- Military operations of 430
The West in the Pre-Modern World 