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None So Consistently Right: The American Legion's Cold War, 1945-1960
| Title: | None So Consistently Right: The American Legion's Cold War, 1945-1960 |
| Author: | Bach, Morten |
| Description: | This dissertation examines the American Legion’s role in shaping U.S. national security policy during the early Cold War, specifically in the fifteen years from 1945 to 1960. With a membership more than three times the size of the interwar period, and the subject of concerted attention from the press as well as political candidates, the national American Legion’s expectations of influence were high. Its outlook was also influenced by its sense of special obligation to help safeguard the nation from external and internal enemies. By asking how, for what ends, and with what degree of success the Legionnaires attempted to influence national security policy during these years, this study adds to the existing literature on the early Cold War, specifically that dealing with domestic anti-communism as well as to a very slim literature on the American Legion in the wake of World War II. Through extensive use of public sources and private papers, the dissertation draws two general conclusions about the Legion’s activities concerning national security. First, in spite of size and prominence, the Legion’s discernible influence on national security policy does not appear to have been great. Quite aside from its occasional and perhaps half-hearted attempts at having various organizations investigated by Congressional committees, the acid test may be its long campaign for universal military training. Although universal military training was its top legislative priority on several occasions and the Legion had friendly hearings in Congress, it never proved able to convince legislators to enact a program. Second, militant rhetoric notwithstanding, the Legion always considered itself a mainstream organization. The campaign against subversion posed a continuing problem as some members and employees continually overstepped the fluid bounds of permissible behavior. As public sentiment began to turn against counter-subversive activism in the late 1950s, the image-conscious Legion lost its appetite for it as well. |
| Permanent Link: |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1177536678
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/14655 |
| Date: | 2007 |
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