A military operation plan (also called a war plan before the Second World War) is a formal plan for military armed forces, their military organisations and units to conduct operations, as drawn up by commanders within the combat operations process in achieving objectives before or during a conflict. Military plans are generally produced in accordance with the military doctrine of the troops involved.
Plan XVII and the Schlieffen Plan are examples of World War I military plans. The United States developed a famous color-coded set of war plans in the early 20th century; see United States Color-coded War Plans.
Military plans often have codenames.
Operations plan (in Spanish, "Plan de Operaciones") is a secret document attributed to Mariano Moreno, that set harsh ways for the Primera Junta to achieve its goals. Some historians consider it a literary forgery, and others consider it true.
Contents |
According to historians who consider the document to be real, the need for it would have been the result of a meeting of Moreno, Manuel Belgrano, and Juan José Castelli, the latter two requesting Moreno to write it: by August 31, 1810, he proposed it to the whole Junta.
The document states the need to defeat the royalist forces and therefore proposes many possible actions similar to those employed by Jacobins during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. It proposes to give privileges to the supporters of the Revolution and persecute Peninsulars or enemies. It also proposed to give broad press coverage to the news that benefit the government and conceal the ones that may harm it.
On the level of international relations, it proposed to have good relations with other revolutionaries of South America, such as Artigas or the revolution in Chile. It considered a great menace the risk of a complete Spanish defeat in the Peninsular War or a restoration of absolutism and regarded Britain as a potential ally against such menaces. However, it also warned against the risk of Britain having too much influence in the economic life of the country.
In the economic field, it addressed the lack of a bourgeoisie that may turn the political changes into economic development and proposed to overcome such lack with statem active intervention. It proposed to confiscate the mines in the Upper Peru, create factories, protect natural resources, and forbid the import of luxury goods.
The first copy of the Plan was found in Spain by Eduardo Madero, who sent it to Argentina. Bartolomé Mitre received it but lost it, in unknown circumstances. Norberto Piñeiro found a second one, but instead of sending it, he published it. Other historians would later draw relations between the Plan and the government acts of the Junta such as the execution of Santiago de Liniers after the Liniers Counter-revolution or the work of Castelli at the Upper Peru.
Historian Paul Groussac and later Ricardo Levene accused the document of being a forgery, written by an enemy of the revolution in order to discredit it. Levene also insisted in that the copy found was not handwritten by Mariano Moreno but by Andrés Álvarez de Toledo. Supporters of the document accepted it, stating that the document found was not the original but a copy, and that it was not something unexpected that the copy was handwritten by another man. The original document, handwritten by Mariano Moreno, has not been discovered yet.
No other texts of the time written by the members of the Junta, either public or private, make mention to the Operations plan. However, Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú published in 1952 a pair of letters of Carlota Joaquina and Ferdinand VII, where both members of the house of Bourbon make direct reference to the plan written by Moreno. Carlota also cited in it parts of such document, which are coherent with the copy found by Piñeiro.
Later, some authors question the authorship of Moreno, and stated that some expressions or redaction styles may suggest it to be the work of Manuel Belgrano or Hipólito Vieytes. Supporters of the document like Norberto Galasso accept a middle ground option: the document may be the result of a collaborative writing instead that of a single author, even if Moreno wrote most of it.
| |||||||||||||
|
|
Wikis
Search
