Date of Award
Fall 2019
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
Humanities
Committee Chair
Heather Stur
Committee Chair School
Humanities
Committee Member 2
Kyle Zelner
Committee Member 2 School
Humanities
Committee Member 3
Andrew Wiest
Committee Member 3 School
Humanities
Committee Member 4
Allison Abra
Committee Member 4 School
Humanities
Committee Member 5
Brian Lapierre
Committee Member 5 School
Humanities
Abstract
The following dissertation chronicles the evolution of argument, institutional self-advocacy and its presentation in the U.S. Army’s own voice. The work chronicles forward thinking, forward movement, and organizational evolution when the Army faced austerity in resources. From 1946 to 1964, the Army’s intellectual, rhetorical, and organization evolved considerably—and Army advocacy with it. This work interprets the written and verbal arguments, speeches, and patterns of thinking deployed to shape the service, its role in national security, and the U.S.’s vision for the free world more broadly. The work contextualizes the service’s arguments within resource constraints, the Army’s relationship to its sister services, and the service’s perception of public and political attitudes. In advocating for itself, the service subsumed and distilled new threats, national security strategies, and new military technologies within a traditionalist interpretation of war. Here the Army fomented the beginnings of institutional identity in a post-nuclear age, and conceptualized requirements for the nuclear battlefield—to include the service’s role within it. The Army found dispersion, mobility, communication, and firepower critical to victory. In considering future threats, the Army constructed and defended a system of beliefs based on past conflicts, present and future capabilities, and potential limited and total war in a non-nuclear and nuclear environment. The service remained adamant and steadfast on its importance to U.S. national security. In its self-advocacy, the service staked its beliefs, reputation, and character on the following assumption: that by will of the nation, the U.S. Army soldier, when properly equipped, trained, and supported, was the guarantor of the free world.
Copyright
2019, Michael Doidge
Recommended Citation
Doidge, Michael, "An Army Worth Fighting For: The U.S. Army’s Battle for Relevance in National Security from 1946 to 1964" (2019). Dissertations. 1720.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1720