Abstract
During the 1990s, a number of events led observers to conclude that all was not well with civil-military relations in America. These events generated an often acrimonious public debate in which a number of highly respected individuals concluded that American civil-military relations had become unhealthy at best and that they were “in crisis” at worst. In the words of the distinguished military historian Richard Kohn, the state of civil-military relations during this period was “extraordinarily poor, in many respects as low as in any period of American peacetime history.”1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Richard H. Kohn, “The Erosion of Civilian Control of the Military in the United States Today,” Naval War College Review 50, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 10.
Cf. Kohn, “Erosion of Civilian Control” and Richard H. Kohn, “Out of Control: The Crisis in Civil-Military Relations,” National Interest, no. 35 (Spring 1994); Russell Weigley, “The American Military and the Principle of Civilian Control from McClelland to Powell,” special issue, Journal of Military History, October 1993; Edward Luttwak, “Washington’s Biggest Scandal,” Commentary 97, no. 5 (May 1994); Charles Dunlap, “The Origins of the Coup of 2012,” Parameters, 22 (Winter 1992–93); Charles Dunlap, “Welcome to the Junta: The Erosion of Civilian Control of the Military,” Wa ke Forest Law Review, 29, no. 3 (Summer 1994); Gregory Foster, “Confronting the Crisis in Civil-Military Relations,” Washington Quarterly 20, no. 4 (Autumn 1997); Andrew Bacevich and Richard H. Kohn, “Grand Army of the Republicans,” New Republic, December 8, 1997, 22–25; and Ole Holsti, “Of Chasms and Convergences: Attitudes and Beliefs of Civilians and Military Elites at the Start of a New Millennium,” in Soldiers and Civilians: The Civil-Military Gap and American National Security, ed. Peter Feaver and Richard Kohn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).
See, for instance, Douglas Johnson and Steven Metz, “American Civil-Military Relations: A Review of the Recent Literature,” in US Civil Military Relations: In Crisis or Transition? ed. Don M. Snider and Miranda A. Carlton-Carew (Washington, D.C: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1995), 201,
and Michael Desch, Civilian Control of the Military: The Changing Security Environment (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 141.
Cragg Hines, “Clinton’s Vow to Lift Gay Ban Is Reaffirmed,” Houston Chronicle, November 12, 1992, A1; Barton Gellman, “Clinton Says He’ll ‘Consult’ on Allowing Gays in Military,” Washington Post, November 13, 1992, A1; U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General, The Tailhook Report: The Official Inquiry into the Events of Tailhook ’91 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1993);
William McMichael, The Mother of All Hooks (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1997); Elaine Sciolino, “B-52 Pilot Requests Discharge That is Honorable,” New York Times, May 18, 1997, A1; Bradley Graham, “Army Leaders Feared Aberdeen Coverup Allegations,” Washington Post, November 11, 1996, A1.
Peter Feaver, Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).
H. R. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam (New York: HarperCollins, 1997).
The origin of this understanding of civil-military relations can be traced to Samuel Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University, 1957).
Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (New York: Free Press, 2002).
Lewis Sorley, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam (New York: HBJ/Harvest Books, 2000).
See Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, The Generals’ War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995).
On Rumsfeld and the plans for the Iraq War, see Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Pantheon, 2006).
Frederick W. Kagan, Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy (New York: Encounter Books, 2006).
Hoffman, “Dereliction of Duty Redux?” Cf. Sam C. Sarkesian and Robert E. Connor, Jr., The U.S. Military Profession into the Twenty-First Century: War, Peace and Politics (London: Frank Cass, 1999), 167.
Charles C. Moskos, John Allen Williams, and David R. Segal, eds., The Postmodern Military: Armed Forces after the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), and John Allen Williams, “The Military and Society: Beyond the Postmodern Era,” Orbis 52, no. 2 (Spring 2008).
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2008 Derek S. Reveron and Judith Hicks Stiehm
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Owens, M. (2008). Understanding Civil-Military Relations during the Clinton-Bush Era. In: Reveron, D.S., Stiehm, J.H. (eds) Inside Defense. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613782_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613782_16
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-34300-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61378-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)