ROAD
A quarter of a century ago, in Brown v. Board ofEducation, the
U.S. Supreme Court spoke with one voice in outlawing "sepa- rate but equal" schools for black and white children. Such unanimity has been rare in recent years, as a divided Court has looked beyond de jure segregation in the South to deal with de facto segregation in the North. At the same time, the goals of colorblind justice and desegregation have been superseded by more complicated disputes over affirmative action...
David Maclsaac and Samuel F. Wells,Jr.
In 1784, shortly after the end of the War for Independence, the Continental Congress agreed with Elbridge Gerry of Massa- chusetts that "standing armies in time of peace are inconsistent with the principles of republican government." So saying, the Congress ordered the post-Revolutionary Army reduced to 80 caretakers (at Fort Pitt and West Point), banned any officers above the rank of captain, and asked the states for 700 militia to guard the western...
In 1784, shortly after the end of the War for Independence, the Continental Congress agreed with Elbridge Gerry of Massa- chusetts that "standing armies in time of peace are inconsistent with the principles of republican government." So saying, the Congress ordered the post-Revolutionary Army reduced to 80 caretakers (at Fort Pitt and West Point), banned any officers above the rank of captain, and asked the states for 700 militia to guard the western frontier.
Not long afterward, in...
vide enough men to maintain U.S. readiness, or, in effect, was America again relying on the old "Minuteman" tradition to beef up its forces in time of war? Could diplomacy again be divorced from military power, as it was prior to 1945?
Most of these issues had their antecedents in past American experience. They were inflamed by the chronic tensions between the military's needs on one hand and the values of a liberal democracy on the other. The issues were not likely to fade away.
Seeking t...
was endorsed bv both a Republican president and a Democratic Congress. he armed services, al- ready grappling with the racial disputes, drug problems, and insubordination of the early 1970s, had no choice but to try to make it work.
After six years, sufficient time has elapsed to permit an ini- tial appraisal of the all-volunteer experience, and in the Penta- gon and in Congress, such appraisals are now underway. Most of the ensuing Washington debate-and the headlines-have been dominated by those...