~ Mens est Clavis Victoraie

The Goodpaster Scholar Program is named for General Andrew J. Goodpaster. He was one of the military’s most distinguished and preeminent strategic thinkers of his time.

The U.S. Army Goodpaster Scholar Program, also known as the Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program (ASP3), is a Chief of Staff of the Army initiative to develop strategic thinkers and future senior leaders. General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower once said, “there is no activity more important in a man’s preparation for war than his periodic return to school duty…for that period he is given an opportunity to think, to think in terms of war, without limit upon the scope of his ideas.”

Officers in the ASP3 program provide the Army with a vital reservoir of expertise and branded credentials to enhance America’s national security. They are well versed in written and oral communication, critical analysis, research skills, and the identification and solution of complex problems. ASP3 is administered on behalf of the Chief of Staff of the Army at the School of Advanced Military Studies, Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

ASP3 was established in 2012 and is governed under Army Regulation 350-1, Army Training and Leader Development, paragraph 3-68 (HQDA, 10 December 2017). ASP3 combines a unique blend of PME and civilian graduate school education. Upon completion of their degree program, ASP3 officers continue to pursue command opportunities and serve in utilization tours in the National Command Authority, at combatant commands, and a number of other challenging and demanding assignments.

General Andrew J. Goodpaster, PhD

INTERVIEWER: Sir, in 1947 I note that the Army sent you to graduate school at Princeton. What was the basis for this selection and what goals, if any, did you have regarding this?

GEN GOODPASTER: Well, that was rather interesting. As an engineer officer, I would normally be sent to graduate school to get the graduate engineer degree as had been done with my predecessors before the war came. The engineers were picking up this program and were interested in starting this—attending graduate school to get those degrees. I was serving in OPD at the time and my boss, General [George “Abe”] Lincoln, said he would not agree with that. He felt that having the background of experience that I had acquired, it would be more to the point for me to go and study in some area that would expand on planning, political military affairs, high command responsibility and matters of that kind. I may have mentioned to you that sometime in the last year that I was in the Pentagon, 1946-1947, Professor Harold Sprout of Princeton and Edward Earle of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton were serving as consultants or advisors on an occasional basis in the Department of the Army. They came around to suggest that I might attend Princeton working for an advanced degree in the general area of international relations. The compromise that was finally reached and to which General Lincoln’s agreement was given, was that I would go to Princeton and take a combined course which would cover both the engineering and international relations. Since Princeton’s master’s 27 program is a two year program, the idea was that I would go there for two years and combine these two courses. At the same time the same thing was done for two other engineer officers who had been serving in OPD. One of them went to Columbia and one of them went up to Yale to do something of the same thing. Well, I went up there and concentrated on engineering in my first year and completed the engineering work during the summer after my first year, and then went on into international relations and completed that—the course work—during the second year that I was there. On the basis of the work I had done, my faculty supervisor, Professor Sprout, developed the idea that I ought to stay for a third year and write a dissertation since in getting the master’s degree, I had met all the requirements other than the dissertation for getting the doctor’s degree. He made that proposal to the War Department stating that I was agreeable to it, but was not making it at my request. I later learned that after the Army staff had kicked it around for a long time and among a lot of people who didn’t know what to do with it, it finally came to General [Alfred] Gruenther, who was Deputy Chief of Staff, with the recommendation to turn it down. He dug into it and decided that was the wrong thing to do. Rather than turn it down, he felt it should be approved and I should be authorized to stay for the third year which is what I did. Now during that time I was there, I had the benefit of this superb course in international affairs; and a very sound and solid engineering course in which I was able, in addition to doing civil engineering and structural engineering, also to do some work in engineering management and industrial engineering—all of which later had a great deal of value to me. The subject on which I did my dissertation was The Influence of Modern Technology on International Relations, which combined aspects of the engineering and technical studies with the international relations’ study. I also had the benefit of attending seminars set up by Professor Earle out at the Institute for Advanced Study—separate from Princeton University, but located in the same city. And those proved to be again of tremendous educational value and to have a tremendous application in later years…Consequently, this entire program proved to be an immensely valuable experience which has a pay-off throughout the rest of my military service.

This summary of the Goodpaster Scholar Program and extract from the Senior Officer Debriefing Program (Interview with General Andrew J. Goodpaster By Colonel William Johnson and LTC James C. Ferguson) are provided by Dr. Robert Davis, Command & General Staff College.