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...
BACKGROUND B
Perhaps the best long view of the
U.S. military is The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy (Mac-millan, 1973, cloth; Ind. Univ., 1977, paper). Russell Weigley describes the military-political ups and downs of American history from the Battle of Bunker Hill to the battles in Viet- nam. Some of Weigley's assertions are debatable, notably his thesis that, as its resources grew, the U.S. military usually came to favor an "anni-hilative"...
public agencies and private institutions
"Making Government Work: A Common Cause Report on State Sunset Activity"
Common Cause, Issue Development Office, 2030 M St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
20036. 12 1 pp. $3.00
Sunset legislation, which provides for
the automatic termination of govern-
ment agencies unless they are recre-
ated statute, is a growing response
to public resentment over lackluster
government performance.
First conceived by the Colorado unit of Common Cause in 19...
Much as a child's drawing of a neighborhood reflects his attitude toward the surroundines and his
"
own place in them, so a society's map of its geographical setting reveals, often in the same unconscious way, something of its sense of position in the world. The. cartography of the physical world is a cartography of the mind.
The Chinese, for example, from ancient times have depicted their country as the "Middle Kingdom," surrounded bv assorted "barbarian" lands, wh...
Twenty years ago on a sunny hilltop Our patriotism was a medley of gal- near Salzburg, I came across a clump lant images and slogans: bulldog of people in musical-comedy cos-breed, Battle of Britain, Sink the Bis- tume, together with a camera crew marck, Britain Can Take It. And up to and a director in a big camel-hair some point in the late 1960s, we re- coat. "We are making a romance," he mained fairly proud of our past rec- told me, "about the court of Franz ord and cautiously...
Peter Stein-
fels, in Esquire (Feb. 13, 1979), P.O. Box 2961.Boulder,Colo.80321.
A "neoconservative" movement, born in reaction to the turmoil of the
1960s, is taking center stage in American politics, writes Steinfels, ex-ecutive editor of Commonweal. The neoconservatives "are setting the agenda for our national political life, laying down the ground rules for public discussion."
Neoconservatism has no place for social turbulence, political con-flict, or cultural experimentation....
John Edward Wiltz, in
Milirur?~ Affui~~z (Dec. 1978), Eisenhowel-
Hall, Kansas State University, Manhat-
tan, Kans. 66506.
The Wake Island meeting between President Harry S Truman and Gen-
eral of the Army Douglas MacArthur on October 15, 1950, has occupied an important niche in the literature of the Korean War and in sub-sequent controversy involving the two men.
The purpose of the meeting, says Wiltz, a historian at Indiana Uni-
versity, was not to settle U.S. policy toward Taiwan or win...
Neal R. Peilce
ofkibevalisn2
and Jerl·~ HagstrDm,in Natio,lui Joun?ul(Dec. 30, 1978), 1730 M St. N.W., Wash-
ington,
D.C.
20036.
New citizen action organizations are springing up to represent the interests of low- and middle-income people at the state and local level. Collectively, "they are the liberal counterpart of the 'New Right'," say Peirce and Hagstrom, contributing editors of Natiolzal Jolln·2al.
The...