policy - The Black Vault

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which followed World War I. It can, in fact, be argued that the backlash
against foreign wars which has traditionally followed American involvement
in such wars, was only delayed by the Cold War after World War II, and set
in the 1S60s. Likewise, the Vietnam era reaction against the military -
including the return to an all volunteer army - is more in line with traditional
American attitudes towards the military than was the posx-WW II
attitude.
Unfortunately, the traditional American hostility toward large,
conscript, standing armies and disrespect for the military profession may
not be suited to the altered international and technolcgical environment in
which the United States currently finds itself.
F. INSIGHTS
In 1964,
the United States was ill-prepared to deal with the social
issues that were brought to the forefront throughout the country. The
relatively placid domestic scene from 1945 to 1960 had established consensus
as the presumed "normal" American social pattern. The system showed
considerable flexibility in meeting challenges like the civil rights movement
of the 1950s and threats from abro-d.
The shattering of consensus
over the Vietnam War issue shook the nation to its roots and by 1968, with
the urban riots, public assassinations, campus riots, massive antiwar and
antigovernment demonstrations, etc., there seemed to have been genuine
reason to question the vitality of the nation and its institutions. Since
that time this nation has continued its dialectical evolution and absorbed
many elements of the challenge that was posed in the 1960s.
more stable now,
The nation is
but it is also vastly changed in the way that it perceives
itself, individuals within it, and its place in the world.
Support for the military in the United States is fickle at best.
is highest in periods of popularly "-ecognized defense threats, but declines
rapidly when no threat is apparent or if military acties go on for too
'long without a decisive end in sight. This contrasts with th attitudes % of
other nations, notably Germany, which sustained respect for its military
despite the cataclysmic defeat in W.W.I and immense national suffering in
W.W.II.
It
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