Strategic Command: General Sir John Wilton and Australia’s Asian Wars

General Sir John Wilton was one of the most significant senior officers that the Australian Army has produced, his career spanning more than forty years. It began before the Second World War as a graduate from the RMC and ended with command of Australian forces during the Vietnam War. As Horner outlines, Wilton’s story provides lessons on a number of levels—staff officer and tactician, institutional manager and innovator, and strategic operator. Wilton’s career also provides a case study on civil-military relations. As Chief of the General Staff (now Chief of Army) and Chairman of the Chief of Staff’s Committee (now Chief of the Defence Force) Wilton was responsive to a series of prime ministers and Defence ministers.