A Family Affair-Military Service in the Postwar
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A FAMILY AFFAIR: MILITARY SERVICE IN THE POSTWAR ERA A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by John C. Worsencroft August 2017 Examining Committee Members: Richard Immerman, Advisory Chair, History Bryant Simon, History Beth Bailey, University of Kansas, History Jennifer Mittelstadt, External Member, Rutgers University, History © Copyright 2017 by John C. Worsencroft All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT Prior to World War II, the typical American Soldier was young and unmarried. As the old saying in the service went: if they wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued one to you. Today’s servicemember is most likely married and we customarily thank our military families in the same breath as those who wear the uniform. This dissertation is the story of how “support our troops” came to encompass the broader community of military families and how this fundamentally changed the military. Rooted in cultural and gender history, my dissertation argues that changing gender roles in the domestic sphere (i.e., fatherhood, motherhood, breadwinner, and homemaker) had a profound impact on martial roles in the military world, and vice versa. In the postwar era, as domestic roles were beginning to change, more and more married men enlisted in the Army and the Marine Corps, forcing the services to craft policies to accommodate families. Large numbers of married men in uniform was a new development in the United States, and my dissertation shows how marriage transformed civil-military relations. My dissertations addresses questions that are crucial to both the history of the military as well as American cultural life in the second half of the twentieth century. Just as military life became more family friendly, and as the services expanded opportunities for women, far fewer Americans overall chose to share in the burden of national service. Although military policymakers crafted policies to make military life more attractive, they contributed to its further isolation from the broader population by providing iii generous social services for military families increasingly inaccessible to other American families. Embedded within these contradictions is the story of what it meant to be an American after the Vietnam War. iv For my mother, Michelle, who loved to read. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several vibrant intellectual communities have influenced my scholarship and my identity as a scholar. And although researching and writing history can be a lonely pursuit, I have been fortunate to meet so many wonderful people along the way. As an undergraduate and master’s student at the University of Utah, Beth Clement was (and remains) the best mentor, friend, teacher, occasional under-the-table employer, writing coach, and advisor a student could ever hope to meet. I know I would not be where I am today without your guidance and continued faith in me. Thanks also to Bob Goldberg, who taught me the value of writing deadlines, and for our many discussions in your office and at your home. The American West Center (AWC) at the University of Utah made a public historian out of me, giving me the chance to cut my teeth in the world of oral history. Thanks to the venerable Floyd O’Neil for teaching me that getting a PhD is the process of learning something about everything and everything about something. Floyd will be pleased to know that I’ve accomplished both—all while staying out of jail. Matt Basso is a gentleman and a scholar, in that order. Thank you for the years of continued friendship, mentorship, patience when I was your assistant director at the AWC, and being a role model for what it means to be a publicly engaged scholar. The history department at Temple University has been my intellectual home for six years now, and I am sad that my time here is over. To the members of my cohort— especially Jess Bird, Seth Tannenbaum, David Thomas, Tom Reinstein, Tommy Richards, and Kaete O’Connell—thank you for building a supportive community with me vi these past several years. Jess, Tom, and also Minju Bae proved to be indispensible writing partners, and this dissertation is much better because of your feedback and insights. Carly Goodman never stopped believing in the importance of my work or my ability as a writer. During my time at Temple, I was fortunate enough to serve as the Allen Davis Fellow in Public History at the Philadelphia History Museum. I am grateful to Cindy Little and the rest of the staff at the museum for making that experience rewarding. From day one, Beth Bailey has been my unfailing advocate in the department and in the broader academic world. She always asked the hard questions and pushed me to be a better writer and scholar. Even after she left Philadelphia for greener pastures (literally) in Kansas, she continued to direct my dissertation, read chapter drafts, write me countless letters of recommendation, and feed me delicious food nearly every time we met. Richard Immerman was kind enough to step in and chair my committee when Beth left, even serving into his retirement. Richard is a model scholar and mentor to graduate students — even students who don’t work under him have benefited from his tireless advocacy in the college and from his dedication to graduate training. Bryant Simon has always encouraged me to think about the broader story. I value our friendship very much. Thanks to Jennifer Mittelstadt for the thoughtful feedback on conference papers and for her willingness to serve as external reader for this dissertation. The Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy (CENFAD) generously supported my research over the years, awarding me both the John Votaw and Marvin Wachman Endowed Research Fellowships. CENFAD and the College of Liberal Arts at vii Temple have awarded me travel grants to present my work at conferences. The Graduate School at Temple awarded me a dissertation completion grant, which allowed me to spend my last semester at Temple writing. I am eternally grateful to the McEvoy- Worsencroft family for their years of support as I pursued my educational goals. Researching this dissertation took me all over the country, occasionally on long road trips with my dog Barley, who is the best copilot. I have been fortunate to work with several great archivists who have helped me navigate online catalogs and finding aids, pointed me to collections I would have never known about, and provided much needed conversation to break up the silence in the archives. The research librarians and archivists in Ridgeway Hall at the Army’s Heritage and Education Center have been most helpful over the years. Likewise, Frank Shirer at the Army’s Center for Military History was kind enough to give me the lay of the land when I arrived at Ft. McNair. Thanks to the professional and courteous staff in the Library of the Marine Corps, especially Greg Cina. I am grateful to the research librarians at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, who patiently guided me through the WEAL and NOW collections. Any researcher would be lucky to meet an archivist like David Hays, who works way down in the bowels of the Norlin Library at UC Boulder. David was kind enough to take me to lunch at Dot’s, show me around his beautiful campus, and share stories with me about his time in the Army— allons! I also want to thank Cynthia Enloe for always responding to my emails, helping me track down sources, and for courageously speaking truth to power for decades. Finally, thanks to Carolyn Becraft—a central actor in this story— who was kind enough viii to talk with me over the phone, providing me with some much needed background information to help me make sense of what I was reading in the archives. Graduate school is measured by a series of milestones—coursework, exams, prospectus, research, writing, and, finally, the defense. And while most of my memories of Temple are happy, my journey has also been marked by personal tragedies. Six months after I started the PhD program at Temple, we found out that my mom had brain cancer, and although she fought bravely, she died at the end of my second year, while I was studying for my comprehensive exams. My mom taught me to question everything, to always search for a deeper meaning. She had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a pile of books always surrounded her. I wish you could have read this dissertation, Mom. Perhaps overcome by the grief, just over a year after my mom’s death, my younger brother Wes died suddenly. It was a profoundly difficult experience to be writing his eulogy while also writing the prospectus for this dissertation. In one of his last text messages to me before he passed away, Wes encouraged me to stick with it and finish the dissertation. I wish you could be here to share this moment with me, Brother, you would be so proud. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the members of my committee, my close friends in the program, and the rest of the history department faculty for their understanding, kindness, and unflagging support. Amid all of the loss, my remaining family and my close friends outside of the program have provided me with strength and support throughout graduate school. Thanks especially to my dad and my sister, Kathryn. I love you both. ix Finally Angela Bennett, the love of my life, has been my constant companion for most of my adult life. From the Marines and Iraq to graduate school and Philadelphia, for sixteen years you have been my compass.