Demobilization and Democratizing Discipline: The Doolittle Board and the Post World War II Response to Criticism of the United States Army.

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the response of the U.S. Army to the barrage of criticism immediately after World War II directed against alleged abuse of enlisted men. The criticism directed at the War Department can be categorized into two types: first the immediate dissatisfaction with the 'slowness' of the demobilization and second with internal Army practices, such as tradiational officer-enlisted relationships, which allegedly made the service unattractive to prospective volunteers. The response to the demobilization clamer was not effective in maintaining sufficient numbers of effective military forces. The Doolittle Board (formal title: The Secretary of War's Board on Officer-Enlisted Man Relationships) on the other hand was in general successful in relieving the criticism of internal practices while maintaining essential military procedures for the preservation of discipline.