Final answer:
Total warfare is employed to defeat and destroy the enemy and seize control over resources and centers, as seen in historical conflicts like the Vietnam War, the Civil War, and World War II, involving strategies from tactical insertions to blurring the lines between combat and civilian zones, evolving into modern hybrid warfare.
Step-by-step explanation:
The combat operations conducted to defeat and destroy enemy forces and seize terrain, resources, and population centers are typically referred to as total warfare.
This type of warfare was prominently seen during significant historical conflicts such as the Vietnam War, the Civil War, and World War II. The concept of total warfare involves mobilizing all of a nation's resources and extending the government's reach into citizens' lives to support the war effort.
Dramatically exemplified by the US tactics of search and destroy during the Vietnam War, these operations aimed to neutralize guerrilla warfare by targeting both the enemy and their supply lines, often involving swift, airborne insertions and extractions.
Total war also emerged during the American Civil War, where both the Union and Confederate forces moved toward this approach, disrupting their opponent's ability to maintain the war by destroying resources and sometimes targeting civilian structures.
Similarly, World War II forced countries to use every available resource, blurring the lines between the battlefield and the homefront, with civilian areas often becoming battlegrounds due to resistance movements or the occupation of territory.
Combat operations can also encompass strategic and tactical elements as highlighted by military theorist Sun Tzu, who emphasized the value of capturing the enemy's country intact rather than destroying it
The modern era has seen the development of hybrid warfare, challenging traditional notions of combat with more complex and pervasive forms of conflict.