Classical Theory of Civil-Military Relation
The classical writers on war as well as the leading statesmen and the revolutionaries of the twentieth century have long argued for civilian control over the military. General Von Clausewitz, wrote about 150 years ago :
the subordination of the political point of view to the military would be unreasonable, for the policy has created the war, policy is the intelligent faculty, war only the intrument and not the reverse. The subordination of the military point of view to the political is, therefore, the only thing which is possible'.
No group of politicians are more appreciative of the role of violence and armed force in state and inter- state affairs than Marxists. But Marxists revolutionaries have been most careful to keep tight control over the instruments of violence and to determine the extent and nature of violence, to be employed. Lenin was quick to note Clausewitz's "famous dictum" that "war is politics continued by other means" and stated: "The Marxists have always considered this axiom as