‘The Art of War’: Learning How to Fight, According to the Book : Books: “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu contains a Chinese militarist’s centuries-old advice that still rings true for personal and global conflicts.

Move over, Machiavelli.

The current bible of play-to-win strategists is no longer that 16th-Century Italian author’s “The Prince,” but the much older writings of the Chinese military tactician Sun Tzu, assembled as “The Art of War.”

Sun Tzu’s writings finally reached the Western world in the late 18th Century and were reputedly followed by the Soviet Red Army, the Japanese military, Vietnamese guerrilla leader Ho Chi Minh and Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung.

The works drew little attention in the United States until recent years, but have been become increasingly popular. For example:

Republican Party Chairman Lee Atwater, perhaps the most hard-nosed political strategist of this decade, is a devotee who reads “The Art of War” before every campaign.

Eastern Airlines machinists union leader Charles E. Bryan, one of the airline industry’s most powerful and most controversial labor heads this decade, hands out copies of the Sun Tzu text to all his organization’s general chairmen.

In director Oliver Stone’s movie “Wall Street,” Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas’ “greed is good” character, Gordon Gekko, advises his protege: “Read Sun Tzu, ‘The Art of War.’ ‘Every battle is won before it’s fought.’ Think about it.”

Stone, in Los Angeles finishing “Born on the Fourth of July,” about the life of Vietnam War double-amputee Ron Kovic and his anti-war crusade, said that although “The Art of War” isn’t yet widely read on Wall Street, it was appropriate to the thinking of Gekko, “ruthless, yet accurate.” As did Sun Tzu, Gekko emphasized the importance of information and the use of spies.

Atwater, who recently read “The Art of War” for the 20th-plus time on a flight from Washington to San Francisco, calls the book “the most succinct strategy document ever written.”

‘You Can Relate’

“Everything in it you can relate to my profession, you can relate to the campaign,” Atwater says. “Every time I read it, I am reminded of something very important.”

Some scholars consider “The Art of War” common sense put on paper and don’t quite understand its current popularity.

“It was always around and I personally find it to be a collection of little aphorisms,” says June Dreyer, a University of Miami professor of political science and a student of Chinese military history. “For example, he says: ‘Know your enemy and know yourself.’ I think every ghetto kid in Chicago is thinking that before he gets into a fight.”

Dreyer suspects that one of the reasons the book is so popular is that “there’s a certain panache to quoting an ancient Chinese author.”

Sun Tzu’s emphasis on the aspects of psychology, information-gathering, deception, planning and limiting casualties are applied to many cases by his students. History, they point out, is full of examples of how leaders failed to follow the basic rules of Sun Tzu.

James Clavell, the author and screenplay writer who has studied Chinese and Japanese military thought, wrote in a foreword to one of the English translations:

“I truly believe that if our military and political leaders in recent times had studied this work of genius, Vietnam could not have happened as it happened.

“We would not have lost the war in Korea (we lost because we did not achieve victory), the Bay of Pigs could not have occurred; the hostage fiasco in Iran would not have come to pass; the British Empire would not have been dismembered, and in all probability, World Wars I and II would have been avoided--certainly they would not have been waged as they were waged, and the millions of youths obliterated unnecessarily and stupidly by monsters calling themselves generals would have lived out their lives.”

Little is known about the personal background of Sun Tzu, an adviser and general for Chinese warlords. Scholars have differed on when he wrote his guide to warfare, with some saying the 7th Century BC and others saying the 3rd Century. And some have argued that he never existed at all and that “The Art of War” is a compilation.

Sun Tzu wrote that “moral law”--belief in the cause and in the leaders--is crucial to victory, as is command discipline. The object is not to devastate the enemy, but to win with as little actual engagement as possible, he wrote.

Among his teachings:

“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

“All warfare is based on deception.”

“In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.”

“While we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.”

“War is a matter of vital importance to the state . . . It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied.”

“If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

A desire to know his foe led Bryan, the union leader, to “The Art of War” some 10 years ago.

‘Mostly Lessons’

“There was a rumor that management was using that book,” said Bryan, who bought copies for himself and his union leadership.

“It’s mostly lessons, more on understanding and anticipating the strategy of an adversary and being prepared to deal with it,” said Bryan, who in 1983 took his union to the brink of a strike before management gave in with a favorable contract. In 1986 he was blamed by Eastern officials for forcing the sale of Eastern to Texas Air Corp., and this year he led the strike against Eastern that began March 4.

Bryan emphasizes gathering information about the company and management and usually keeps his strategy as secret as possible, both Sun Tzu-type attributes. The strategies of Bryan, also based on personal philosophical and religious beliefs, have come under fire as Texas Air Chairman Frank Lorenzo follows a plan to rebuild Eastern without its unions.

Atwater, who first read “The Art of War” while a University of South Carolina graduate student, read it again this summer and savored how Sun Tzu’s guidelines had been followed in the 1988 presidential campaign.

“He talks in there repeatedly about keeping your own group united,” Atwater says. “One of the driving things of the Bush campaign was keeping united.”

Atwater says the importance of laying out a strategy and sticking to it, as taught by Sun Tzu, was demonstrated in the Super Tuesday strategy in which Bush effectively locked up the Republican nomination with his domination of the South. The plan to use the South to defeat Bush’s opponents had been planned for three years, Atwater says.

One of Atwater’s favorite Sun Tzuisms is: “When you get into the mind of your opponent, you can move it.”

Asked about deception and other Sun Tzu tactics, Atwater chuckles. “You’ll have to get someone else to make observations on that.”

Atwater also read and was influenced by Machiavelli, best known for advising the powerful that the end justifies the means in gaining and maintaining power.

“I think Sun Tzu is a highly refined version of ‘The Prince,’ ” Atwater says.

“The Art of War” can be found these days in U.S. military study libraries, and is on a suggested reading list the U.S. Marine Corps compiled this year.

Marine Lt. Col. Fred Peck says Sun Tzu’s writings contrast in approach to another highly recommended war strategy work, “On War,” by the 19th-Century Prussian military author Karl von Clausewitz. Clausewitz’s teachings, contained in 10 to 12 volumes, also combine social, political and personal factors with military strategy.

Clausewitz presents his theories “at extreme length and in excruciating detail,” Peck says.

‘Primer for Warlords’

“Sun Tzu wrote his book as a primer for warlords. It’s got a lot of pithy little advice, a lot lighter reading.”

Samuel B. Griffith, a retired Marine brigadier general who translated and published Sun Tzu three decades ago after writing about China’s civil war, wrote that “The Art of War” should be “required reading for those who hope to gain a further understanding of the grand strategy” of both the Soviet and the Chinese leadership.

However, Dreyer says, Chinese leaders apparently don’t follow Sun Tzu today. Their bloody quelling of the summer’s student protests goes against “The Art of War” philosophy that says the government must serve the people’s interest and maintain national unity.