Roles, Rivalries, and Change

Abstract

Service roles and missions were historically well understood and accepted until around the 1940's. Although there occasionally arose some perturbations earlier over which service was responsible for what, the mid- forties brought with it several service role problems. After the war, President Truman vowed to correct the deficiencies that he and other leaders perceived in DOD. With the National Security Act of 1947 followed by the Key West Accords in 1948, service roles and missions were legislated. Despite this, service rivalry continued to shake the defense establishment over service missions. The most notable of these was the 'Revolt of the Admirals' in 1949. Disputes and rivalries over roles and missions continue today. The thesis of this paper is that although there has been a history of interservice rivalry over roles and missions, de jure service functions will not change appreciably in the foreseeable future.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA207352

Entities

People

  • James D. Majchrzak

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Classification
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Law
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Navy
  • Organizational Realignment
  • Tactical Air Support
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.