The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-1-2015 The Soldier and the Cigarette: 1918-1986 Joel Richard Bius University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Military History Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Bius, Joel Richard, "The Soldier and the Cigarette: 1918-1986" (2015). Dissertations. 63. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/63 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE SOLDIER AND THE CIGARETTE: 1918–1986 by Joel Richard Bius Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 ABSTRACT THE SOLDIER AND THE CIGARETTE 1918–1986 by Joel Richard Bius May 2015 The military-industrial complex has been the topic of intense conversation among historians since President Dwight Eisenhower first gave the phrase life in January 1961. The term typically conjures up images of massive weapons procurement programs, but it also ironically involved one of the world’s most highly-engineered consumer products, the manufactured cigarette. “The Soldier and the Cigarette: 1918–1986” describes the unique, often comfortable, yet sometimes controversial relationships among the military, the cigarette industry, and tobaccoland politicians. The dissertation argues that the federal government’s first cigarette warning in 1964 changed a relationship between soldiers and cigarettes that the Army had fostered for almost half a century. Thereafter, the Army faced formidable political, cultural, economic, and internal challenges as it sought to unhinge a soldier-cigarette bond that it helped to entrench . “The Soldier and the Cigarette” is also a study in modern American corporatocracy . Through a lens of corporatocracy, the dissertation reveals an American political economy that can only be described as paradoxical, involving a host of characters possessing vested and varied interests in the cigarette enterprise. Whether bureaucrats, soldiers, lobbyists, government executives, legislators, litigators, or anti- smoking activists, all struggled over far-reaching policy issues involving the cigarette. Under the visible hand of modern economic arrangements , these groups attempted to balance issues of conscience, commerce, and personal freedom, as well as the needs of ii big business, taxpayers, and the military-industrial complex. This study is important because the soldier-cigarette relationship established by the Army in WWI, renewed time and again thereafter, and then broken apart in 1986, underpinned one of the most prolific social, cultural, economic, and health care related developments in American history: the rise and proliferation of the American manufactured-cigarette smoker and the lucrative industry supporting them. iii COPYRIGHT BY JOEL RICHARD BIUS 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi THE SOLDIER AND THE CIGARETTE: 1918–1986 by Joel Richard Bius A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: __________________________________________ Dr. Louis M. Kyriakoudes, Committee Chair Professor, History __________________________________________ Dr. Andrew P. Haley, Committee Member Associate Professor, History __________________________________________ Dr. Kyle F. Zelner, Committee Member Associate Professor, History _________________________________________ Dr. Chester M. Morgan, Committee Member Professor, History _________________________________________ Dr. Andrew A.Wiest, Committee Member Professor, History _________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School May 2015 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my beautiful, lovely, and faithful wife, Leigh Bius, two solid young sons, Jake and Brooks Bius, and the precious little girl, Mary Jewel Bius, who was born to all of us the day before this dissertation was presented for defense. I also dedicate this work to the memory of my father, H. Wayne Bius, my mother, Billi Fae Bius, and close family members Jewel Brannan, Larry Brannan, and Carol Lewis Bailey, who all passed away during the time I was writing. In the midst of such a cycle of life, death, joy, pain, and creation, it is with great sincerity and true humility that I call this a work of inspiration grounded in Christian faith, enduring hope, and everlasting joy. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks go to my committee director, Dr. Louis Kyriakoudes, and my other committee members, Dr. Kyle Zelner, Dr. “Bo” Morgan, Dr. Andrew Haley, and Dr. Andrew Wiest, for their advice and support throughout the duration of research and writing. I would like to thank my wife, Leigh, and my mother-in-law, Deana Brannan, for hours spent reading and editing everything that follows. I could not have completed this work without them. I give special thanks to Nadine, Dee, and all the Interlibrary Loan Staff at the University of Southern Mississippi Cook Library for their professionalism, friendship, and support. Finally, I would like to thank the United States Air Force for valuing professional military education enough to send me away for three years to complete my PhD; I look forward to giving back to the mission - fly, fight, and win. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 II. THE RISE OF THE SOLDIER AND THE CIGARETTE ........................21 III. THE DAMN Y, THE SOLDIER, AND THE CIGARETTE IN WORLD WAR I ........................................................................................................48 IV. GENERAL PEYTON MARCH, THE SOLDIER, AND THE CIGARETTE .............................................................................................80 V. SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM: THE GREATEST GENERATION GOES TO WAR ......................................................................................104 VI. THE SOLDIER, THE CIGARETTE, AND THE ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE .....................................................................................................144 VII. SOLDIER-STARTERS ...........................................................................165 VIII. HEALTH CARE AND THE AVF ..........................................................192 IX. CAP, JOE, AND THE JESSE HELMS CREW GO TO WAR ...............217 X. THE CIGARETTE SNOWBALL ...........................................................255 XI. THE END OF THE SOLDIER AND THE CIGARETTE: SFA2000 INVADES THE DOD..............................................................................282 XII. EPILOGUE ..............................................................................................308 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................320 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAA Agricultural Adjustment Act AAR After Action Reports ADVON Advanced Echelon Team AEF American Expeditionary Force AVF All Volunteer Force B&W Brown and Williamson CEO Chief Executive Officer CHAMPUS Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services CoS Chief of Staff CTCA Commission on Training Camp Activities CTR Council for Tobacco Research DoD Department of Defense DRMS Defense Resource Management Study FDR President Franklin Delano Roosevelt FTC Federal Trade Commission FY Fiscal Year vii GHQ General Headquarters H&K Hill & Knowlton HASC House Armed Services Committee HEW Department of Health, Education, and Welfare HHQ Higher Headquarters ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile KIA Killed in Action LBJ President Lyndon Baines Johnson MP Military Police MSC Medical Service Corps MTF Military Treatment Facility MWR Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Subcommittee NRA National Recovery Administration OCS Officer Candidate School OMB Office of Management and Budget OPR Offices of Primary Responsibility OSD/HA Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs viii OSD/MPP Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Personnel PME Professional Military Education PR Public Relations PX Post Exchange RJR R.J. Reynolds SECDEF Secretary of Defense SSD Special Services Division TI Tobacco Institute TIRC Tobacco Industry Research Council UCMJ Uniform Code of Military Justice UMT Universal Military Training USP Unique Selling Position USO United Services Organization VA Veterans’ Association VD Venereal Disease WIB War Industry Board WWI World War One ix WWII World War Two USAF United States Air Force YMCA/The Y Young Men’s Christian Association x 1 INTRODUCTION In the councils of government,