The Problems and Promise of the Vietnam Era GI Bills

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2005 A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise of the Vietnam Era G.I. Bills Mark Boulton University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Boulton, Mark, "A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise of the Vietnam Era G.I. Bills. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2005. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/667 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Mark Boulton entitled "A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise of the Vietnam Era G.I. Bills." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. G. Kurt Piehler, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Mark Boulton entitled "A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise ofthe Vietnam Era G.!. Bills." I have examined the final paper copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirement for the degree of Doctor of Phyo sophy, with a major in History. )VJ! ~ G. Kurt Piehler, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: =-¥2~~ VV1~t!1J Accepted for the Council: Graduate Studies ill A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise ofthe Vietnam Era G.I. Bills A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor ofPhilosophy Degree The University ofTennessee, Knoxville Mark Boulton December 2005 ,.. Acknowledgements First, I want to thank Dr. Kurt Piehler for his invaluable help, advice, and friendship in my time at the University ofTennessee and in the writing ofthis dissertation. Kurt's knowledge, willingness to read chapters quickly, and insistence that I seek outside funding made the process a lot easier and his insightful comments improved greatly the quality ofthe manuscript. I would also like to thank Dr. Janis Appier, Dr. George White, and Dr. Michael Fitzgerald for their suggestions on improving the final product as members ofmy dissertation committee. lowe a big debt ofthanks to Dr. Todd Diacon and the History Department at UT for all ofthe awards and support offered over the past few years. Penny Hamilton and Sarah Savidor helped me navigate the pitfalls ofgraduate school while Kim Harrison has been indispensable resource and an inspiration in the strength she has shown through difficult times. Cynthia Tinker has been a great friend and colleague at the Center for the Study ofWar and Society. I also want to thank my brother Huw, Mark Jeffries, and Dr. Phil Melling for sparking my interest in academia. Without their encouragement and example, I would never have followed this path. I also need to thank all the staffat the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Carl Albert Congressional Research Center in Nonnan, Oklahoma. Their travel grants and research assistance proved invaluable. The staffat UT's Special Collections helped enonnously in my search for congressional documents. Mr. Edgar Wilson, a great friend and patron of the Center for the Study ofWar and Society, always offered me assistance and a kind 11 word when it was needed most. Knowing him has been one ofthe highlights ofmy time in Knoxville. On a personal level, I want to thank my wife Lisa for her love, patience, support and encouragement. I also want to thank my parents Norman and Hilary for their continued unconditional support ofall the crazy things I have decided to do in my life. Finally, I want to thank all ofthe graduate students at the University ofTennessee that have made my time here far more fun than it should ever have been. I have met some wonderful people and made some lifelong friends. There are too many to mention, but you know who you are; thanks for lightening the load. 111 ~-~~~--~~--- ~-----~----~----------~--- Abstract At the end of World War II, the federal government bestowed one ofthe richest rewards ever given a mass mobilized army in the form ofthe Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the OJ. Bill ofRights. The OJ. Bill offered veterans generous loans, education benefits, and unemployment insurance to help them readjust to civilian life. The bill is widely lauded as one ofthe most important federal acts ofthe twentieth century. Further 0.1. Bills followed for veterans ofthe Cold War including those who served in Korea and Vietnam. Despite their continued impact on the lives of veterans and on society, the later bills have received very little public or academic attention. No major study examines the later OJ. Bills beyond the World War II generation. This dissertation helps fill that void by examining the political origins ofthe Vietnam era OJ. Bills of 1966, 1972, and 1974. Specifically, this dissertation explores the debates over veterans' education benefits at the federal level during the Vietnam era. After the passage of the 1966 OJ. bill, many Vietnam era veterans complained that their benefits fell short ofthose offered the World War II generation. As a result, the Vietnam era 0.1. Bills often get dismissed as a part ofa wider pattern of government neglect ofthe Vietnam veteran. This study provides a context for understanding why the benefits did not, at first, reach the same generous heights as the previous OJ. Bills and challenges the standard narrative that the government abandoned the Vietnam veteran. The government, particularly the Senate, did make considerable efforts to improve the Vietnam veteran's benefits. Although a succession ofpresidents and congressmen limited the government's generosity because oftheir ideological or economic convictions, numerous increases in the level of funding followed the 1966 bill, making iv veterans' benefits far more comparable to those offered World War II veterans. Following the increases, Vietnam era veterans claimed their education benefits in far greater numbers than their World War II predecessors. Because so many Vietnam veterans decided to return to school, this study shows that the G.I. Bill needs to be a central part oftheir homecoming story. v Table of Contents Introduction Continuing the Story ofthe G.I. BilL ...........................................................1 Chapter 1 Antecedents: Federal Debates Over Veterans' Benefits up to 1964 ........... 17 Chapter 2 Yarborough's Crusade: The 1966 "'Cold War" G.l. Bill .............................57 Chapter 3 A Peacetime Bill for the Wanior: Short Changing the Vietnam Veteran ...89 Chapter 4 Slouching Toward Equity: Slow Progress Under the Nixon Administration........................................ ,.................................................. 117 Chapter 5 Unwilling "soldiers in the war against brutal inflation": Congress, the Veterans, and the Fight with Gerald R. Ford Over the 1974 G.I. Bill ...... 159 Chapter 6 Back to School, Finally .............................................................................189 Conclusion The Problems and Promise ofthe Vietnam Era OJ. Bills........................213 Bibliography....................................................................................................................222 Vita..................................................................................................237 vi Introduction CONTINUING THE STORY OF THE G.!. BILL Were it not for this program, veterans might have found themselves unemployed, standing in a bread line .... The GI Bill changed America, it may have changed the world. Senator Bob Dole Ever since the passage ofthe 1944 Servicemen's Readjustment Act, or G.!. Bill of Rights, which offered returning World War II servicemen and women an unprecedented slew ofbenefits for educational and vocational advancement, as well as home and business loans, no other federal law ofthe twentieth century has attracted such unqualified and universal praise for its redeeming effects on society. Politicians and historians repeatedly cite the -bill's contribution to easing the nation's postwar social and economic pressures and hail its transformative effects on the lives ofthose that prospered under its beneficence. On the twentieth anniversary ofits signing, President Lyndon Johnson praised the G.!. Bill for "increase[ing] the strength ofour Nation by enlarging the opportunities ofour people." According to Johnson, the bill provided "600,000 engineers and scientists, 360,000 school teachers, and 700,000 business and executive personnel."} More recently, historian Jennifer Keane in Doughboys, The Great War, and The Remaking ofAmerica (2001), describes the 1944 G.!. Bill as "the most sweeping piece ofsocial legislation in American history .,il Others suggest that the G.!. Bill ranks alongside

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