How and Why Has America`s Military and Political Influence changed since the early-mid twentieth century (1900-1960`s)

Running Head : How and Why Has America 's Military and Political Influence changed since the early-mid twentieth century (1900-1960`s

How and Why Has America 's Military and Political Influence changed since the early-mid twentieth century (1900-1960`s

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Institution Name The United States possessed the largest , most skilled , energetic armed force in the world . Within two years that massive force was gone its citizen volunteers back on the farm and in the factories . The army and navy returned to traditional duties with their organizations nearly unchanged , although Congress added two

infantry and two cavalry regiments of African Americans to the army (Millett and

. Maslowski 1994

Though , the Mexican War posed few problems , but the Civil War challenged the navy as much as it mystified the army . In spite of the evident flaws in the American military system , the United States won the Mexican War and prevailed again in 1865 . Winfield Scott 's strategic leadership in the Mexico City campaign and the involvement of many junior officers who were West Point graduates gave the nation victory in 1847

For the remainder of the nineteenth century the army served the nation much as it had before 1860 . It served mainly in the trans-Mississippi west policing or subduing Native Americans . In a progression of campaigns beginning in 1866 and culminating in the late 1870s , soldiers broke the power of the Plains Indians and confined them to reservations They repeated the development in the southwest in the early 1880s . As part of the effort to quell Native Americans the army assisted in the construction of the great transcontinental railroads

The army also continued to act as the nation 's police force . It faced frustration in imposing Reconstruction policy in the south and most soldiers welcomed relief from that failed experiment . As Reconstruction ended , however , the army suppressed uprising railroad workers in 1877 performed similar service throughout the 1894 Pullman strike , and intervened in lesser labor disruptions through the early 1900s . On all other counts , postwar army life resembled an earlier era of routine garrison duty in small posts scattered across the nation

Naval service for twenty years after 1865 also replicated previous practice . The navy largely abandoned the iron hulled , steam powered ships acquired throughout the war and once again patrolled foreign stations in sail driven wooden ships . Given the nature of overseas duty it made some sense to rely on the more simply maintained wooden vessels in a time of great technological change . As the United States pursued a reactive foreign policy based on continental defense and noninvolvement in foreign wars the return to ante-bellum military and naval practice seemed logical in an era when the nation was blessed with the freest security in its history

The matter of military legal and political subordination to properly comprised civil political authority has long been a determined issue in American politics . Yet , the Cold War presented to U .S . policymakers as well as military planners some unanticipated and exceptional challenges The Cold War U...