John Boyd was indeed brilliant. The best that can be said about him was from former Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak is quoted as saying “The Iraqi army collapsed morally and intellectually under the onslaught of American and Coalition forces. John Boyd was an architect of that victory as surely as if he’d commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver division in the desert.”
Cheney said the same thing. He was the one that brought private citizen Boyd in for the planning of Desert Storm.