Drawdown : : The American Way of Postwar / / ed. by Jason W. Warren.

• MitwirkendeR: Bertinetti, Scott,; Bissonnette, Ashley,; Bonin, John A.,; Clemis, Martin G.,; Crane, Conrad C.,; Echevarria, Antulio J.,; Farrell, Kevin W.,; Gutiérrez, Edward A.,; Lacquement, Richard A.,; Lynch, Michael E.,; Mansoor, Peter,; Matheny, Michael R.,; McBride, Kevin,; Millen, Raymond,; Neiberg, Michael S.,; Warren, Jason W.,; Watson, Samuel,
• HerausgeberIn: Warren, Jason W.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Warfare and Culture ; 8
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Analyzes the cultural attitudes, political decisions, and institutions surrounding the maintenance of armed forces throughout American history While traditionally, Americans view expensive military structure as a poor investment and a threat to liberty, they also require a guarantee of that very freedom, necessitating the employment of armed forces. Beginning with the seventeenth-century wars of the English colonies, Americans typically increased their military capabilities at the beginning of conflicts only to decrease them at the apparent conclusion of hostilities. In Drawdown: The American Way of Postwar, a stellar team of military historians argue that the United States sometimes managed effective drawdowns, sowing the seeds of future victory that Americans eventually reaped. Yet at other times, the drawing down of military capabilities undermined our readiness and flexibility, leading to more costly wars and perhaps defeat. The political choice to reduce military capabilities is influenced by Anglo-American pecuniary decisions and traditional fears of government oppression, and it has been haphazard at best throughout American history. These two factors form the basic American “liberty dilemma,” the vexed relationship between the nation and its military apparatuses from the founding of the first colonies through to present times. With the termination of large-scale operations in Iraq and the winnowing of forces in Afghanistan, the United States military once again faces a significant drawdown in standing force structure and capabilities. The political and military debate currently raging around how best to affect this force reduction continues to lack a proper historical perspective. This volume aspires to inform this dialogue. Not a traditional military history, Drawdown analyzes cultural attitudes, political decisions, and institutions surrounding the maintenance of armed forces.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The American Way of Postwar: The Liberty Dilemma -- Part I Building the American Military Ideal -- 1 The Art of War: Early Anglo-American Translation, 1607–1643 -- 2 Liberty Paradox: The Failure of the Military System in Mid-Seventeenth- Century New England -- 3 Surprisingly Professional: Trajectories in Army Officer Corps Drawdowns, 1783–1848 -- Part II Managing Industrial-Era Warfare -- 4 Challenged Competency: U.S. Cavalry before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War -- 5 The Elusive Lesson: U.S. Army Unpreparedness from 1898 to 1938 -- 6 When the Smoke Clears: The Interwar Years as an Unlikely Success Story -- Part III Conceptualizing Cold War Framework -- 7 Searching for the Greatest Generation’s Army in 1950 -- 8 The Post–Korean War Drawdown under the Eisenhower Administration -- 9 Once Again with the High and the Mighty “New Look” Austerity, “Flexible Response” Buildup, and the U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1954–1970 -- Part IV Searching for a New Paradigm -- 10 Post-Vietnam Drawdown: The Myth of the Abrams Doctrine -- 11 The “Good” Drawdown: The Post-Vietnam Alignment of Resources -- 12 Preaching after the Devil’s Death: U.S. Post–Cold War Drawdown -- Epilogue -- About the Contributors -- Index