The U.S. Air Force Just Another Interest Group? An Examination of Post-Cold War Civil-Military Relations

<p>Periodically the relations between America's civilian political leaders and senior uniformed members of the armed forces become an issue of national concern. Well recognized historical examples that describe the divide in civil-military relations include President Truman's relieving General Douglas MacArthur for defiant insubordination during the Korean War and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's clashes with senior military leaders over Vietnam War strategy. While most of today's national defense policy debates correctly focus on continuing operations in Iraq Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism there is a troubling gap underlying civil-military relations with potentially negative long-term consequences if ignored. Each military service can certainly identify examples of civil-military relations struggles but the U.S. Air Force has a rich tradition of breaching acceptable limits in this area while advocating its airpower perspective.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>