Rumsfeld, the Generals, and the State of U.S. Civil-Military Relations
Abstract
In the Summer 2002 issue of the Naval War College Review, the eminent historian Richard Kohn lamented the state of civil-military relations, writing that it was "extraordinarily poor, in many respects as low as in any period of American peacetime history." The article was based on the keynote address that Professor Kohn had delivered as part of a Naval War College conference on civil-military relations in the spring of 1999. Accordingly, the focus of attention was on problems that had bedeviled the Clinton administration. Some of the most highly publicized of these civil-military problems reflected cultural tensions between the military as an institution and liberal civilian society, mostly having to do with women in combat and open homosexuals in the military. The catalogue included "Tailhook," the Kelly Flinn affair, the sexual harassment scandal at Aberdeen, Maryland, and the very public exchange regarding homosexuals between newly elected President Bill Clinton on the one hand and the uniformed military and Congress on the other. Other examples of civil-military tensions included the charge that Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was illegitimately invading civilian turf by publicly advancing opinions on foreign policy. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Powell published a piece in the New York Times warning about the dangers of intervening in Bosnia. Not long afterward, he followed upwith an article in Foreign Affairs that many criticized as an illegitimate attempt by a senior military officer to preempt the foreign policy agenda of an incoming president. Critics argued that Powell's actions constituted a serious encroachment by the military on civilian "turf". They argued that it was unprecedented for the highest-ranking officer on active duty to go public with his disagreements with the president over foreign policy and the role of the military.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA519804
Entities
People
- Mackubin T. Owens
Organizations
- Naval War College