Public Confidence and the U.S. Military

Abstract

According to major public opinion polls, the U.S. military has garnered strong public confidence since the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Two reasons for this phenomenon are acknowledged: (1) a high degree of professional competence and (2) an appropriate level of political subservience. Professional competence refers to public perception regarding the military's ability to satisfactorily accomplish assigned missions. Political subservience refers public perception regarding the military's willing acceptance of civilian directives despite institutional desires. This intent of this paper is (1) to review how public confidence increased as the current civ-mil model developed; (2) discuss associated benefits; (3) to highlight the potential for public confidence to suffer as reduced resources impact the current civ-mil model.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 16, 2012
Accession Number
ADA561403

Entities

People

  • Sean Mckenney

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Forces
  • Combat Operations
  • Combat Readiness
  • Directives
  • Education
  • Governments
  • Military Budgets
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Perception
  • Personnel Management
  • Procurement
  • Public Opinion
  • Students
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.