Prepare the Army for War

The year 1993 marks the 20th anniversary of the Army’s establishment – on 1 July 1973–0f the Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, as the major innovation in its post-Vietnam War reorganization. Skeptics were free with predictions that the new organization would not survive the test of time, but at the 20-year point, it is appropriate to note that TRADOC has existed longer than any of its predecessors. The other major component of the 1973 reorganization of the Army in the United States; Forces Command; or FORSCOM, also observes its 20th anniversary on the same date. The formal observance of TRADOC’s 20th anniversary provides not only the opportunity, but the obligation for the TRADOC Office of the Command Historian to produce a historical assessment that surveys the reasons for the 1973 reorganization and the role TRADOC played in carrying out its assigned mission responsibilities as the instrument for change and development in the Army.