The US Marine Corps and Defense Unification 1944-47. The Politics of Survival.

摘要

An examination of the controversy surrounding defense organization in the period 1944-1947 is fitting in light of current events. Having passed through public disenchantment attendant to the Vietnam war (by no means our country's first unpopular fight), the US national security establishment is being promised rebirth. With fresh designs for defense organization in the offing, it is worthwhile to study the heated policy conflict that ultimately resulted in a structure affecting virtually every aspect of civil-military relations in the United States. The Marine Corps' part in the conflict is a little-known chapter in American civil-military relations or, more precisely, the field of politico-military affirs. The purpose of this study is to analyze events leading to the enactment of the National Security Act, focusing on the Marine Corps as perhaps the most vocal and bitter military opponent of the concept of unification expressed by the War Deparment. The main themes of this study are: centralization versus dectralization in the defense structure, the role of military lobbying, and the relationship between the Marine Corps on one hand, and Congress and its constituency on the other.