The Conduct of the Chaco War

Fought between Bolivia and Paraguay from 1932 to 1935 over disputed territory, the Chaco War is the most enigmatic of all American conflicts. Lying between the two great global struggles in this century, the Chaco War derived inspiration from the first and pointed out lessons for the second. As the hemisphere's greatest struggle since the American Civil War, the Chaco War is indeed important, not only as a proving ground for military strategy and tactics, but also as a case in point, illustrated by the diplomatic contention preceding and accompanying the conflict, for the necessity of a vigorous and forceful defense of a national position.

The Chaco War has had far-reaching consequences. It was Bolivia's defeat that laid the basis for her great social upheaval of the 1950's and resulted in extensive political and social reform; and victorious Paraguay entered a period of complacency that cemented her traditional pattern of politics and social order. Her progress in the quarter-century since the war has generally failed to fulfill the promise heralded by her wartime success.
Although the work of a military man, The Conduct of the Chaco War is by no means a purely military account. On the contrary, the author analyzes the political and diplomatic aspects of the war with as much skill, method, and care as he does the development of the campaign in the field. The two sides of the problem are so intimately interwoven that neither can properly be understood without the other.

The book, therefore, is of interest not only to the student of military affairs but also to the political scientist, the historian, and to anyone concerned with the processes responsible for the interaction of human thought and action on the plane of national and international affairs.