War planning at the U.S. Army War College, 1934-1940: The road to rainbow

War planning at the U.S. Army War College from 1934 onward was realistic, sensitive to the contemporary international climate, and impressive in foreseeing the course of actual events in World War II. The prescient planning for a two-ocean coalition war at the Army War College was known to, indeed was in many cases requested by, the War Department General Staff, including the War Plans Division of the General Staff. Further, assignment of graduates to key positions at the apex of the Army insured that officers intimately familiar with planning at the College were present as the Rainbow Plans were developed in the transition to war. Both the substance and the process of the College war planning demonstrate that the third-rate Army of the 1930s produced first-rate plans and planners. The Rainbow Plans of 1939-1941 evolved from the College planning for coalition warfare begun in 1934.