The Wages of a Mercenary Army: Issues of Civil-Military Relations David M

Draft inductees leaving Wilmington, November 1940. Photo credit: Delaware Public Archives The Wages of a Mercenary Army: Issues of Civil-Military Relations David M. Kennedy These remarks were given at a meeting of the American Academy, held at Stanford University on October 14, 2005. David M. Kennedy is Donald J. McLachlan urgent questions about America’s role in want, rather, to explore some structural Professor of History at Stanford University. the world and about the health of our de- questions about the relation of the mili- He has been a Fellow of the American Acad- mocracy. tary we now have to the conduct of Amer- emy since 1996. ican foreign policy and especially to the I also want to acknowledge at the outset important matter of political account- that many people will ½nd it offensive to he premise of these remarks is this: The ability. T describe this country’s military as having U.S. armed forces today have many of the any of the characteristics of a mercenary attributes of a mercenary army. I will But the fact remains that some people take army. I want to emphasize that my use of shortly explain what I mean by ‘mercenary’ the term ‘mercenary army’ quite literally that term is in no way intended as a criti- and offer a brief historical account of how –no pun intended whatsoever–as ‘½ghting cism of those currently serving in uniform. and why such a force came into being–a words.’ At the close of these remarks I hope My own belief is that the profession of story with more than a few ironic twists. to say something about a bit of a ½ght they arms can be a noble calling, and I harbor recently provoked and what that dust-up More importantly, I want to explore some no disrespect for those who follow it. Their suggests about the current state of American of the political, and arguably even moral, motives are not my concern here–though culture, including the implications for in- issues that the existence of a force with their demographic pro½le suggests some stitutions of higher education. those characteristics poses for American issues to which I will return. My principal society. The proposition I wish to advance interest on this occasion is to undertake My Random House dictionary de½nes ‘mer- is this: The current state of civil-military neither a psychological nor a sociological cenary’ as “working or acting merely for relations in the United States raises some analysis of today’s service personnel. I money or other reward. .hired to serve in 12 Bulletin of the American Academy Spring 2006 a foreign army.” I am not suggesting that and citizenship was among the reasons why American service personnel today work the Founders were so committed to militias What is the relation of ‘merely’ for money–though recent re- and so worried about standing armies, service to citizenship and cruiting campaigns for the all-volunteer which Samuel Adams warned were “always force lay a lot of stress on wages, bene½ts, dangerous to the liberties of the people.” of our current force and signing bonuses. And, of course, we Franklin Roosevelt drew from the same hire our soldiers and sailors mostly from well of doctrine and sentiment in his D- structure to political within our own society, unlike, for example, Day Prayer, when he called those G.I.s of the much-maligned Hessians whom George the “greatest generation” who were then decision making? III employed to ½ght against the American landing in Normandy “our sons, pride of Revolutionaries. The exceptions are some our nation . lately drawn from the ways more than doubled since 1945. Proportion- sixty thousand noncitizens currently serv- of peace. They yearn but for the end of ate to population, today’s active-duty mil- ing in the active-duty forces, prompting battle, for their return to the haven of itary establishment is about 4 percent the the Bush administration to expedite natu- home.” African Americans understood size of the force that won World War II. ralization procedures for aliens in the mil- that linkage in the Civil War, and again in What’s more, in the behemoth, nearly $13 itary. World Wars I and II, when they demanded trillion American economy we now enjoy, combat roles as a means to advance their the 2005 military budget of some $420 bil- gdp The current state of civil- claims to full citizenship rights. For more lion is about 3.3 percent of .* That’s than two millennia, the tradition of the about one-third of the rate of military ex- gdp military relations in the citizen-soldier has served the indispensable penditure relative to at the height of purposes of strengthening civic engagement, the Cold War. In World War II that rate United States raises some promoting individual liberty–and, perhaps was more than 40 percent–a greater than most notably, encouraging political ac- twelvefold difference in the relative in- urgent questions about countability. cidence of the military’s wartime claim on this society’s material resources. America’s role in the world Today that tradition has been seriously compromised. No American is now obli- At the same time, this relatively small and and about the health of gated to military service, few will ever relatively inexpensive force is by far the serve in uniform, even fewer will actually most potent military establishment the our democracy. taste battle–and fewer still of those who world has ever seen. I say “relatively in- do serve will have ever sat in the class- expensive” advisedly. The absolute num- In any case, ‘mercenary’ is a term that rooms of an elite university like Stanford bers tell a different story: by some esti- carries a lot of negative connotative freight. or any of the other institutions whose fac- mates, U.S. defense expenditures, even at I’d like to unburden the word of most of gdp ulties contribute so many members to the 3.3 percent of , are greater than the that freight and focus on its core meaning, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. sum of all other nations’ military budgets rooted in the Latin term from which it’s combined–a calculation that testi½es as derived, mercari–“to trade” or “to ex- A comparison with a prior generation’s much to the scale of the U.S. economy as change.” What are the terms of trade be- war can illuminate the scale and suggest it does to the role of the military in Amer- tween civil society in this country today both the novelty and the gravity of this ica’s conception of its security needs and and the military organization that ½ghts situation. foreign policy priorities. The American mil- in its name and on its behalf? What is itary, in short, is at once exceptionally lean the relation of service to citizenship and In World War II, the United States took and extraordinarily lethal. It displays what of our current force structure to political some sixteen million men and several might be called a compound asymmetry: decision making? thousand women into service, the great far larger than any potential rival force yet majority of them draftees. What’s more, far smaller with respect to the American Our forebears had a ready answer to that it mobilized the economic, social, and psy- population and economy than at any time question. From the time of the ancient chological resources of the society down since the onset of World War II. Greeks through the American Revolutionary to the last factory, railcar, victory garden, War and well into the twentieth century, and classroom. World War II was a ‘total The implications of this compound asym- the obligation to bear arms and the privi- war.’ It compelled the participation of all metry are unsettling: History’s most pow- leges of citizenship were intimately linked. citizens, exacted the last full measure of erful military force can now be sent into In republics from Aristotle’s Athens to devotion from some four hundred thou- battle in the name of a society that scarce- Machiavelli’s Florence and Rembrandt’s sand of them, and required an enormous ly breaks a sweat when it does so. The Unit- Amsterdam and Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia commitment of the society’s energies to ed States can wage war while putting at and Robert Gould Shaw’s Boston and be- secure the ultimate victory. risk very few of its sons and daughters, yond, to be a full citizen was to stand ready and only those who go willingly into harm’s to shoulder arms–indeed, in many cases, Today’s military, in contrast, numbers just to provide one’s own arms, at one’s own 1.4 million active personnel, with another * This number excludes extraordinary appro- expense. Their respect for the political nearly nine hundred thousand in the re- priations of more than $100 billion for the consequences of that link between service serves–in a country whose population has Afghan and Iraq wars. Bulletin of the American Academy Spring 2006 13 way. And unlike virtually all previous soci- study the feasibility of ending conscrip- Vietnam era. Abrams hoped that with his eties in history, the United States today tion, and in 1973 the Selective Service Sys- “Total Force” structure in place, political can inflict prodigiously destructive dam- tem stopped drafting young men and the leaders would hesitate to undertake a major age on others while not appreciably dis- United States adopted an all-volunteer deployment that would deeply disrupt rupting its civilian economy.

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