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The document's purpose was to generally assess the role of military education in the professional development of American military leadership and to derive supporting educational theory and construct. Professional military education resides in difficult circumstances. While external challenges from the Congress and the administration appear to constitute the most serious problems, the gravest concerns emanate from within the military establishment. Military education tends to vocationalize and specialize professional development rather than convey broad understanding. The political environment faced by the military generalist is not adequately confronted in the educational system nor in the indeterminacy of future strategic design. The document concludes that military educators should combine to assist in the development of a general military professionalism of high technical and ethical quality. To achieve this the war and staff colleges must: (1) become institutions where individual disciplines and specialties are subjected to the active criticism of contending disciplines, (2) become teaching institutions to impart professional understanding, rather than simply disseminate information, and (3) achieve a systematic coherence among themselves as a regular part of career development in which the successful military generalist would participate in three war and staff college levels. (NTIS)