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was a veteran of the franco-prussian war and
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an appreciative student of what he took to be
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the lessons taught by the great military historianand theorist Clausewitz.
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He believed that he had acquired some useful knowledge
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of the science of war, as he put it,
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that led him vigorously and entirely to condemn Pericles' generalship,
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and Pericles' conduct of the peloponnesian war.
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He says that we see expeditions without inner unity,
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without the possibility of greater results,
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and I'm quoting pflugk-harttung now.
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"to avoid danger,
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Pericles regularly gave away important advantages.