NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW JANUARY, 1928 THE NATIONAL DEFENSE BY FOX CONNER, MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.A. THAT "War to end War" was merely a slogan of propaganda Some knowledge of the development of public opinion is in- Copyright, 1927, by North American Review Corporation. All rights reserved. 46 more whiskers around and below their faces than brains under their scalps; toad-eaters and boot-licks to their superiors. . . . Again: permit me to enquire why appropriations are made year after year to that worse than useless institution, West Point Academy, a perfect system of profligacy and extravagance, a nursery of a popinjay aristocracy. Since West Point is the most democratic of all our institutions, with its corps of cadets the most perfect cross section of the best we have in America, it is difficult to understand these attacks on the United States Military Academy. The words of General Scott, the victor of the War with Mexico, and himself not a graduate, should never be forgotten: I give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated cadets the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would, have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish. Few, if any, wars have been so full of lessons for students of National Defense as our Civil War. Most serious students of the history of that war have reached the conclusion that an available field force of 50,000 fully trained and equipped men would have saved the country the lives of hundreds of thousands of her youth, billions of treasure, and untold suffering. Some there were who saw this in the beginning; in the Senate on July 10, 1861, Mr. Lane said: I believe if we had had a standing army of 40,000 true men last January, the present disastrous condition which has overtaken the country would never have befallen it. However, in 1861 there were but few who realized that untrained, unorganized, three-months volunteers could not carry through a war, and one of our most influential newspapers raised the cry "On to Richmond!" The Congress took up the cry and imperative orders were given General McDowell to begin the campaign which was to end so disastrously at Bull Run. So confident were the majority of Congress that making a soldier was merely a matter of putting a musket on a man's shoulder, that on July 19, 1861, the House of Representatives adjourned until July 22, so that its members could organize a picnic to witness the battle that was to end the war. Although we later forgot them, some of the lessons from Bull Run were immediately apparent. Soon after the battle The Albany Evening Journal said: We have learned, too, the importance and necessity of discipline. Effective troops, however excellent the material, cannot be found in workshops, the corn fields, or the city. They must have military training, without which every "On to Richmond!" movement will prove a failure. In spite of all history, the idea that a Special Providence renders preparedness on our part a useless extravagance constantly recurs. On April 14, 1896, Mr. Livingston, in the House of Representatives, said: Now, Mr. Chairman, I do not take much stock in the danger of an early war with Spain or England. Even Mr. Cannon said on the same day: I want to say that I do not believe we will have war the coming year,—no war this year, nor next year, nor the year after. I doubt if there will be any during this century or perhaps the early years of the next century. Within a few days more than two years from the day on which these predictions of "no war" were made, the United States engaged in war with Spain. As in all of our wars, we then experienced dangerous delays and difficulties, not only in organizing and training the hastily raised forces but also in supplying them with the simplest necessities of the soldier. As always, the War with Spain was followed by strenuous efforts to divert attention from our failure to prepare. Charges of incompetence against the War Department were rife. On June 2, 1898, Mr. Cannon on the floor of the House of Representatives tersely stated the facts concerning the lack of uniforms: We could not have the uniforms on hand because the money had not been appropriated. Following the War with Spain we had to undertake by force of arms the suppression of insurrection in the Philippines. To protect American missionaries and other citizens in China the Army was called on to send an expedition to China. In addition the Army was called upon to set up provisional governments in Cuba and Porto Rico. These problems, the acquisition of Hawaii, and the construction of the Panama Canal, awakened the interest of the country in questions of National Defense. Then, too, President Roosevelt and Secretary Elihu Root took an aggressive and active part in all questions pertaining to the National Defense. Not the least of Mr. Root's contributions to the cause was his rescue from oblivion of the manuscript of General Upton's The Military Policy of the United States. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this action. Published as a public document, the results of General Upton's studies were made available not only to members of the Congress but to a wide circle of thinkers and writers. For the first time the facts as to our lack of preparation, the true history of our wars, and the terrific dangers we had run as the direct result of mistaken policies, or lack of policies, were made accessible. General Upton set forth facts which emphasized not only the result of our lack of preparedness, but such glaring defects as ninety-day volunteers; lack of an organization capable of expansion in emergency; forgetting or ignoring the lessons of each war; inadequate training— in short all our principal shortcomings in National Defense as revealed by each of our wars. The recent history of the National Defense shows that we have profited from many of the lessons which so plainly follow from the facts presented by General Upton. But there is still a tendency to believe that each war is the last, and many of us are perhaps in the same attitude of mind as was Mr. Dies when in the House of Representatives on January 18, 1913, he said: God has placed us upon this great, rich continent, separate and secure from the broils and wars of Europe. Our fancied isolation, however, received at least a temporary shock in the troubles that came to us immediately upon the outbreak of the World War and in the necessity of protecting our citizens against banditry in Mexico. Intelligent public opinion throughout the land demanded provision for the National Defense and the Congress undertook the task of formulating the National Defense Act of 1916. While there were great differences of opinion as to what should be provided, the debates on that act show that the Congress was practically unanimous as to the necessity for a substantial increase in the military establishment. . |