essay of history of military

The Role of the Military in U.S. History: Past, Present, and Future

2024 Index of U.S. Military Strength

Assessing the Global Operating Environment

Assessing Threats to U.S. Vital Interests

An Assessment of U.S. Military Power

Topical Essays

About the Index

Introduction

• Executive Summary

Contributors and Acknowledgments

• Methodology
• Previous Indexes and Essays

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Heritage.org

Jan 24, 2024 41 min read

James Jay Carafano

The rise of professional militaries in the West is credited with accelerating the process of creating the modern nation-state. In addition to defending the state from external threats, professional armed forces performed internal security, public safety, and administrative functions that helped to establish the legitimacy of its sovereignty.

The United States stood as an exception to that trend. While a professional army was assembled to help win independence from England, it did not help to create the U.S. This was accomplished by the people. In the new republic, national sovereignty was reserved for the people. The government’s armed forces, like all of the other instruments of national power, were to be servants of the people, not a means with which to govern them. This concept is foundational to the roles, missions, and actions of the U.S. armed forces past, present, and future. Nevertheless, as the nation evolved, so did the scope and activities of the American military.

Birth of the Republic

Defining appropriate civil–military relations was foundational to the establishment of the United States. The principles for organizing military force were largely drawn from British history, culture, legal concepts, and tradition.

The experience of Britain in the state-formation period of the 17th and 18th centuries was unique. In almost every other instance, militaries emerged as important instruments of domestic control as well as weapons of war. This evolution was not unique to Europe. It was also common in Latin America as well as parts of Africa and Asia. In places where great empires did not have dominion, rulers had limited capacity to marshal military forces either for military campaigns or for internal security. Rulers could either call for levies from lords or assemble militias on the one hand or contract for mercenaries on the other. Neither solution was particularly satisfying to sovereign powers because not completely controlling armed forces compromised both their power and their legitimacy.

The Italian scholar Nicollo Machiavelli (1469–1527) struggled with the dilemma of the pursuit of power in his political and military writings. He decried mercenaries as rapacious and unreliable. 1 He argued for an army of citizen-soldiers 2 who would virtuously serve the state, an idea that at the time was well-meant but impractical. What most states did instead was mass resources that allowed for temporary standing armies—either of conscripts or of rented forces from foreign powers like the German Landsknechte.

As the constitutional character of the British state evolved, however, history led Albion on a different path. During the English Civil War (1642–1651), the crown used both the professional army and hired foreign troops to prosecute the war against the forces mustered by a revolt led by leaders in Parliament. After an interregnum (1649–1660), the crown was restored, but James II abdicated in 1688 over another confrontation with Parliament. The Bill of Rights issued when William and Mary were offered the crown enshrined that foreign troops should not be stationed on British soil, the military should be raised only by Parliament, and only a limited standing army should be stationed in Britain and never mobilized against the British people. 3 This enshrined in law the concept of “no standing armies” as well as the rationale for checks and balances so that the government could never use the armed forces as an instrument of tyranny against the people.

It was the British “no standing armies” tradition and the republican concept of the citizen-soldier envisioned by Machiavelli that together served as the intellectual foundation for the American armed forces. The practical lessons from decades of armed warfare between nation-states in Europe, the Americas, and Asia were also considered in deciding how to organize the American armed forces. While the Americans wanted civilian control of the military, they also wanted armed forces that could fight and win. This meant that land and sea forces needed to be under unified military commands that could muster professional troops and matériel for extended campaigns and employ them as effectively as possible.

Thus, during the American Revolution in 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army. 4 Meanwhile, the Congress assumed responsibility for raising and supporting a professional army and naval forces instead of just relying on the colonial volunteer militias to fight for independence.

At the end of the war, the Continental Army watched from their cantonment at Newburgh in upstate New York, waiting for the final peace treaty between the United States of America and the United Kingdom and the evacuation of British forces. There was great consternation in the ranks that the Congress had not delivered on many of the promises made to enlistees. Some argued that the military should refuse to disband until their grievances were addressed or even march on the Continental Congress. Washington quelled the mutiny, 5 his principal argument being that their loyalty to the nation and to the appointed civilian leaders in the Continental Congress transcended their personal interests.

The practical lessons of the American Revolution did as much as the intellectual scholarship of writers like Machiavelli, John Locke, and others to shape the drafting of the U.S. Constitution that was finally ratified in 1788. 6 The foundational document had a great deal to say about the roles, missions, and oversight of the armed forces. In fact, there is more articulation of stated and enumerated powers related to defense in the Constitution than there is about any other function of government. 7

The Constitution enshrined civilian control of the military by making the President the commander in chief of the armed forces. 8 This was more than a symbolic appointment. Below the level of the President, to this day, no single officer has command authority over all U.S. military forces.

In addition to ensuring unity of command and effort in wartime, the Constitution gave Congress the authority and responsibility for raising and maintaining national military forces, 9 thereby limiting the power of the executive to use or maintain armed forces independently, without reference to Congress. Congress authorized creation of today’s Army (under the Secretary of War) in 1789; 10 Navy (under the Secretary of the Navy) in 1794; 11 and Marine Corps (serving within the Department of the Navy and under the Secretary) in 1798. 12

The Constitution also authorized individual states to raise and maintain militias. 13 This authority was granted partly because the Congress assumed that there would be a small standing Army and Navy in peacetime with most internal security tasks addressed by the states themselves. Laws later evolved for state forces to work in concert with or under the national government. During the War of 1812, for instance, Andrew Jackson had a commission as a major general in the regular United States Army and command of the Seventh Military District. He organized the defense of New Orleans with a combination of militias, volunteers, and a handful of professional forces.

Thus, since the earliest days of the republic, Americans proactively sought to implement all of the concepts they thought essential for the armed forces of a republican state with civilian control, limited professional militaries in peacetime, and armed forces focused on defending against external threats rather than being employed for internal security. The armed forces were primarily for foreign threats and constabulary duties in frontier territories and on U.S. borders. President Thomas Jefferson, for example, deployed naval and Marine forces to safeguard U.S. interests against the states of North Africa. The United States fought two separate wars with Tripoli (1801–1805) and Algiers (1815–1816) and maintained a Mediterranean Squadron in theater that has continued in different iterations down to the present day.

That said, however, the Constitution did not prohibit the use of armed forces in a domestic theater under extraordinary circumstances. 14 George Washington as the first President demonstrated that authority in 1794 when he called out troops under federal authority to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, a series of violent protests against the first excise tax imposed by the new government. At the time, before troops could be raised, the Militia Act of 1792 required a Supreme Court associate justice or “the district judge” to certify that law enforcement was beyond the control of local authorities. 15 After that determination, Washington issued a proclamation announcing that the militia would be called out under his command. The troops dispersed the insurrectionists.

In responding to the Whiskey Rebellion, the President declared that he was acting with “deepest regret” and that the military was being employed to restore civil order, not as a political instrument. 16 As President, Jefferson likewise looked to policies demonstrating that military forces were national instruments not to be used to further political interests. For instance, when the U.S. government built its first complement of frigates for the Navy, it ordered that contracts be distributed to several ports in different states to demonstrate that the Administration was not picking favorites. Jefferson established the first federal military academy at West Point in 1802 and distributed appointments among all the states to create opportunities for both political parties to contribute to the Army’s officer corps, ensuring that no single political faction dominated the ranks of regular Army officers. 17

The structural decisions made to organize national defense ensured an effective military without consolidating political control of the armed forces. In this respect, the U.S. overcame the principal critique over the capacity of republics to defend themselves, highlighted in Alex de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America . 18 De Tocqueville had many nice things to say about the new nation and the concept of democracy, but he wondered whether a representative republic could fight wars and deal with protracted security challenges without collapsing over internal squabbling and political factions in a government where authority was divided and organized to provide checks and balances against the independent use of force by the executive.

From the West to the Western Hemisphere and the World

Experience proved that the U.S. could use armed forces decisively to protect itself. In this respect, as the republic grew, strategy and interests did as much as the political constructs laid out in the Constitution to shape the roles and missions of the armed forces.

Again, Washington’s action proved formative in developing and employing the armed forces. From the birth of the republic, there was a ferocious debate between political factions over how to defend the new nation. At the time, the global geopolitics that largely affected the fledgling state was the rivalry between France and Great Britain over spheres of influence. This competition extended to the Western Hemisphere where both countries had colonial holdings as well as economic and security interests at stake.

In the U.S., one faction argued for aligning with the British. The other argued for siding with France. Washington argued for what at the time was an even more controversial decision. The U.S., he declared in his farewell address to Congress, should have “no entangling alliance,” 19 eschewing treaty alliances with either Paris or London. Washington did not intend to author an immutable principle of American foreign policy; Article II the Constitution specifically grants government the authority to execute treaties. 20 Rather, Washington was making a declaration of grand strategy: an overall expression of ends, ways, and means to secure U.S. interests over the long term.

The U.S. was a fledgling power, Washington reasoned, and the best way to secure American interests was to ensure that they were not intertwined with and overwhelmed by those of either great power (Britain and France), thereby avoiding the risk of the U.S. becoming a vassal state or being drawn into the endless wars between the rival empires. In part, this decision allowed the U.S. to maintain modest armed forces without stressing the finances of the young republic and creating a powerful government institution that might later be used to undermine democratic rule.

Washington’s choice became the orthodoxy of American grand strategy until President James Monroe advanced the Monroe Doctrine in his annual message to Congress in 1823. 21 Monroe argued that European powers were obligated to respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States’ sphere of interest. This new strategic formulation was grounded in America’s expanding power and interests, particularly with regard to westward expansion and ensuring freedom of the seas for American shipping. Commensurately, the U.S. military added modest expeditionary capability and increased capacity to conduct constabulary operations in new territories. The most muscular employment of U.S. forces in the hemisphere was the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).

Emphasis on hemispheric defense remained the focus of the U.S. armed forces, although there were exceptions. The U.S., for example, still maintained the European Squadron in the Mediterranean; deployed an East India Squadron in 1835 (which became the Asiatic Squadron in 1868); and established the Great White Fleet, a group of Navy battleships that circumnavigated the globe from 1907 to 1909. The U.S. military also maintained a ground-force presence in China throughout the first decade of the 20th century in addition to forces in the Philippines.

Hemispheric defense, however, remained the U.S. military’s dominant focus. The armed forces, for instance, were called upon for a punitive expedition in Mexico (1916–1917). The American occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 was justified in part as an attempt to secure avenues of approach to the United States through the Caribbean. Even the U.S. intervention in World War I was justified as based on hemispheric defense, predicated on the need for preemptive action to counter the likelihood of invasion by the German Empire and Mexico.

In fact, until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which triggered U.S. entry into World War II, hemispheric defense remained the guiding strategy behind the missions, structure, and manning of the American armed forces.

By the end of World War II, the U.S. had emerged incontestably as a global power with global interests and responsibilities. Strategy was largely structured around fighting the Cold War with the Soviet Union included establishing an independent Air Force branch; building strategic forces (nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines); permanently stationing major forces overseas; maintaining a global military command structure; and investing in expansive treaty alliances, principally NATO.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the crafting of a consensus global grand strategy became difficult, but the U.S. still recognized that it needed armed forces with global reach and the capacity to conduct extended campaigns.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks renewed concerns about the defense of the home front and engendered a persistent need for security not seen except in wartime since the early days of the republic, although the military traditionally had provided support to civil authorities—for example, in response to the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. In another example, in 1929, the city of Tacoma, Washington, experienced a massive power outage. 22 The Department of the Navy ordered the USS Lexington to respond, and the ship’s four giant generators helped to provide electricity for the next several weeks. Only after 9/11, however, did the mission of homeland defense become integral to long-term U.S. strategy.

Strategy vs. Reality

While strategic needs have generally defined the scope, size, and missions of the military over the course of U.S. history, there is a saying: “Strategy can change faster than foster structure.” In other words, sudden changes in the geostrategic environment can occur that reveal inadequacy in force planning or introduce dramatic and unanticipated new demands.

The American Civil War (1861–1865) is perhaps the starkest example. For the first half-century of the republic, the armed forces mostly conducted constabulary duties and punitive expeditions on the frontier. It was never envisioned that the military would be required to conduct major campaigns or even operations in a domestic context. When the secession of the southern states plunged the country into conflict, the armed forces had to adapt rapidly, including by employing national conscription to fill the ranks.

The Civil War also saw the first widespread deployment of persons of color in the U.S. Army. By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10 percent of the force) served in the Union Army. Another 19,000 served in the U.S. Navy. 23 After the war, blacks continued to serve in segregated units. The most famous were the “Buffalo Soldiers,” cavalry units that served on the American frontier. Buffalo soldiers also fought in the Spanish–American War and served in the Philippines. 24

Another significant departure from tradition was the use of soldiers as federal marshals during Reconstruction. During the presidential election of 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant dispatched troops to polling stations in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, where electoral votes remained in dispute. Reflecting the ongoing national debate between security and government power within the United States and the appropriate use of the armed forces, this measure precipitated calls for the passage of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, 25 which prohibited federal troops from enforcing state or federal laws without congressional approval.

Reconstruction was not the first and would not be the last time that the armed forces became mired in political and social controversies. Despite Posse Comitatus, during the 19th century, military forces were often called upon to restore public order. For example, between 1875 and 1918, state militias or federal troops were called out to respond to labor unrest over one thousand times.

Unfortunately, although the armed forces were intended for hemispheric defense, the chaotic attempts to launch an invasion force from Tampa, Florida, proved that the U.S. Army was not up to the task of executing an expeditionary campaign in Cuba during the Spanish–American War in 1898. Further, the War Department struggled to integrate active-duty forces, state militias, and volunteer units. In response, the U.S. Congress passed the Militia Act of 1903 26 establishing the modern National Guard from state militias and codifying the circumstances under which state National Guard units could be federalized. Congress also created both Army and Navy Reserve forces, thereby establishing in the modern era three formal components of the armed services:

• The active force (full-time federal troops);
• The National Guard (state forces that could be mobilized under federal service); and
• Reserves (federal troops that were inactive until mobilized for federal service).

As the armed forces struggled with the transformation from an ancillary security force to the principal instrument of American national power, it also had to undergo a significant intellectual transformation. During the Civil War, for instance, the armed forces had an unprecedented requirement to conduct major campaigns including joint operations (involving multiple services). A modicum of military education was gained in the Army and Navy military academies as well as the military service schools.

Military theory and doctrine drew heavily from European experience, especially the Napoleonic wars, and influential writers such as Antoine Henri Jomini. 27 Later, the American armed forces were deeply influenced by works such as Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Seapower Upon History 28 and Carl von Clausewitz’s On War 29 that emphasized conventional military operations. American military theory and doctrine were also influenced greatly by combat experience, including experience during the Civil War and World War I, where U.S. forces drew heavily from the British and French military establishments’ understanding of planning, staff work, and other operational skills.

In preparation for and during World War II, the U.S. armed forces developed skills that far exceeded what was needed for hemispheric defense and would serve as the basis for modern thinking about warfare. For example, before the outbreak of World War II, the Naval War College conducted sophisticated war games for global war. 30 Military staffs developed the Rainbow Plans, 31 which dealt with various global contingencies. The Army Air Corps developed concepts for strategic bombing. By the time the U.S. armed forces emerged from World War II, they had the world’s most sophisticated system for the development of professional military education, doctrine, and strategic planning.

In preparing for participation in World War I and World War II, the U.S. also had to scramble to reorganize for new missions that exceeded hemispheric defense. During both wars, for instance, the United States instituted wartime drafts to expand military capabilities. However, the drafts ended when hostilities concluded.

In addition, the services had to develop new capabilities. During World War I, the Army established aviation forces under the Signal Corps. After the war, in 1926, the Army formally established an Army Air Corps. 32 The Navy developed submarine and naval aviation forces. In the interwar years, the Marine Corps developed expeditionary amphibious warfare capabilities (which were also adopted by the U.S. Army during World War II).

During the interwar and wartime years, there also were numerous incidents in which the armed forces and their leaders became mired in political controversy despite the constitutional strictures that sought to insulate the conduct and oversight of the military from partisan political activity. One of the most noteworthy was the controversial decision to use the Army to eject the Bonus Marchers (World War I veterans who marched on the capital in Washington, D.C., demanding cash redemption of their service bonus certificates). 33

Even during wartime, the U.S. military often became embroiled in the challenges of social change. Many of the major U.S. military training bases were in the South in states that had instituted “Jim Crow” laws legalizing unequal treatment of African Americans. The presence of mobilized black soldiers resulted in many incidents. Race riots also occurred overseas in Europe and the Pacific. Despite the tensions of segregation, many African Americans volunteered to serve in the military during World War II.

Women also mobilized in significant numbers to serve in the armed forces, though they were organized in reserve corps under the Army, Navy, Marines, and U.S. Coast Guard. Their service was limited by the fact that they were not allowed to perform combat-related duties.

A Dramatic Transformation

Before World War II, there was vigorous debate over the future of U.S. strategy and how best to protect American interests. This debate was catalyzed by a national organization, the America First Committee, whose leadership included famed aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, the movement’s most recognizable spokesperson. Right up until the U.S. entered World War II, the majority of Americans supported the group’s basic aim: to avoid becoming involved in overseas wars and instead strengthen the nation’s capacity for hemispheric defense.

Days after Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh wrote in his diary: “I can see nothing to do under these circumstances except to fight. If I had been in Congress, I certainly would have voted for a declaration of war.” 34 Many of the America First Committee’s leaders volunteered to serve in the armed forces. 35 Lindbergh managed to find ways to contribute to the war effort, even flying combat missions in the South Pacific.

After the Second World War, America’s place in the world and the requirement for large, standing military forces were open questions. The postwar world marked a dramatic transformation in the U.S. military that was shaped largely by changing geostrategic conditions and the evolving nature of American power and influence. The concept of hemispheric defense now seemed wholly inadequate. A number of initiatives were undertaken to ensure that U.S. forces had global reach and influence. As the confrontation with the Soviet Union escalated into a Cold War, the armed forces became the primary instrument for the American strategy of containment against the Soviet threat.

The National Security Act of 1947 formalized the roles of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which had evolved informally over the course of World War II. 36 The law created a National Security Council to improve coordination of the armed forces with the other instruments of national power. An independent Air Force was also established. In addition, authority over the armed forces was consolidated. This eventually led to the Department of Defense, which oversaw the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The Selective Service Act of 1948 served as the basis for the modern Selective Service System. 37 As global tensions with the Soviet Union rose, a draft was maintained during peace and war (unprecedented in U.S. history) until 1973.

America’s standing armed forces also expanded dramatically. During the course of the nation’s history from its founding to World War II, the U.S. averaged 1 percent to 2 percent of national GDP during peacetime, expanded dramatically during wars, but then was quickly reduced to a one-digit or two-digit norm after the conflict. Throughout the Cold War, however, the U.S. averaged between 7 percent and 8 percent of GDP. 38 Defense spending was also the lion’s share of the federal budget and government research and development (R&D) funding, mostly related to national security, that dwarfed the private sector.

New Age, New Challenges

The notion that maintaining a small peacetime standing force would be sufficient to ensure that the military would not be exploited as an instrument to undermine democratic rule was clearly no longer relevant in a modern age when large standing armed forces were the norm, not the exception. The notion remained attractive—even desirable—but global realities trumped America’s historical preferences.

The American military establishment grew to such an extent during the first decade of the Cold War that in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned that “[i]n the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex” and “must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.” 39 Nevertheless, the U.S. political structure proved remarkably resilient in sustaining civilian control of the military, a testament not only to the oversight of Congress and the sense of the American people, but also to the professionalism of the military itself and its commitment to constitutional principles.

Political and social tensions affecting the military were endemic throughout the Cold War. In 1949, a number of active and retired senior naval officers became embroiled in a plot to undermine the Administration’s naval policies, an incident that was labeled “the Revolt of the Admirals.” 40 During the Korean War, President Harry Truman ordered the full racial integration of the U.S. military. 41 Truman also sparked a significant confrontation when he fired the senior U.S. commander in the theater, General Douglas MacArthur, for insubordination. In the 1950s, President Eisenhower called out U.S. troops to enforce orders to integrate schools in the South.

The 1960s and 1970s proved even more contentious as the nation was rocked simultaneously by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. Military forces were frequently called out to quell disturbances. The most shocking incident occurred in 1970 when National Guard soldiers fired on demonstrators at the Kent State University campus, killing four students. 42

Military culture struggled to adapt to the tumultuous challenges of Cold War politics and social change and unrest. Two of the most influential books of the time were Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State (1957) 43 and Morris Janowitz’s The Professional Soldier (1960), 44 both of which sought to define the military’s place in modern American society and reconcile the struggles in contemporary civilian–military relations. But while both were deeply influential and widely read in the military, their prescription to define a professional space insulated from political turmoil, the rapidly changing modern world, and the rapid shifts in demands of and attitudes toward the military largely proved fruitless and inadequate.

For much of American history, absent major wars, the American military was comprised of people and institutions that had scant interaction with most Americans. The military drew limited public resources. Sailors were far away at sea, and soldiers were stationed on dusty bases in Texas or far-off garrisons in China, removed from everyday life.

From World War II (when more than 10 percent of American men were in uniform) on, the armed forces and veterans were a ubiquitous part of American life. Moreover, social change intertwined America and its armed forces. In 1978, the women’s reserve corps were disbanded, and women were integrated into the regular services (though still excluded from combat roles). Women were also accepted at the nation’s military academies. Change also brought new challenges. In the coming decades, for instance, all of the services would face major scandals involving the treatment of women in the military and be dogged by allegations of sexual abuse and violence in the armed forces.

Guns vs. Butter and More

Another significant change in the military’s place in American life was the armed forces’ impact on fiscal policy. From the American Revolution through the first half of the 20th century, when military forces were modest, defense spending might engender occasional heated controversies and debates but was not a significant factor in the American political economy. That completely changed after World War II. Although the military after the war remained—and remains to this day—a global force that required significant funding, the size of the military and its related funding were continually whipsawed, buffeted by politics, the state of the U.S. economy, and global affairs. For example:

• With the conclusion of the Second World War, President Harry Truman (1945–1952) consciously sought to reduce the armed forces, only to reverse course with the outbreak of the Korean War.
• President Dwight Eisenhower (1953–1961) also instituted significant reductions in conventional forces, which he offset in part by increased funding for nuclear arms, a policy that was continued by President John Kennedy (1961–1963). 45
• President Lyndon Johnson (1963–1969) dramatically increased defense spending to accommodate the war in Vietnam, but he also increased domestic spending, which resulted in a significant negative impact on the economy.

Presidents continued to look for military reductions until President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) dramatically increased the size of the military, justifying it as necessary to outmatch the Soviet military. Following the end of the Cold War, the military experienced a cascading series of force reductions that continued until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the outbreak of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Barack Obama (2009–2017) again sought force and spending reductions, only to see that trend reversed by President Donald Trump (2016–2017), who sought to increase readiness; focus on countering China, Russia, and Iran; and establish a new military service—the United States Space Force.

Much of the push and pull in the size, scope, and funding of military forces was the result of more than fiscal pressures, changing geopolitics, and views of how to employ modern militaries. In the wake of the Vietnam War, for instance, the U.S. military came in for scathing criticism. One influential critique, historian Russell Weigley’s The American Way of War (1973), 46 argued that American military tradition was overly focused and dependent on the use of brute force in war. Another well-known critique, Harry G. Summers’ On Strategy (1982), 47 concluded that the problem was how modern militaries are employed.

The Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986, 48 the first sweeping legislative reform since the National Security Act of 1947, was authored to address the inefficiencies and inadequacies of the military in modern warfare. Among the initiatives in the law were measures to improve the conduct of joint operations by improving the ability of the individual services not just to work together, but to develop synergies more intentionally by leveraging each other in an integrated way.

Technology also introduced dramatic changes. The proliferation of silicon microchips engendered a new generation of computer technologies that had an immediate impact on the military. GPS, for instance, enabled the widespread deployment of precision-guided weapons. Technological evolution also affected (and continues to affect) how the military conceptualizes operations. In addition to being joint, forces must also be multidimensional, integrating operations on land, at sea and below the surface, in the air, in space, and in cyberspace.

The U.S. military has also been asked to conduct a wide variety of operations, from conventional warfare to occupation duties, border security, and homeland defense, and to assume an expanding role in space operations. On top of this, while the U.S. armed forces have always been tasked with global missions since World War II, the rise of China, a resurgent Russian threat, and persistent aggression from Iran in the Middle East have led to a lively debate over how to apportion forces and efforts—an especially difficult challenge given the reduction in forces following the end of the Cold War.

In addition, manpower issues have increasingly come to shape the nature of the force. Before the end of the Cold War, reserve components (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard) and National Guard (Army and Air Force) were used predominantly only in wartime. Since the end of the Cold War, the armed forces routinely call on all components of the “total force.”

Further, the U.S. military has not employed Selective Service since the 1970s. Instead, the military relies on recruiting and retaining an all-volunteer force. The challenges of sustaining such a force are changing with the demographics of the country, particularly since there is decreasing propensity to serve in the military and fewer American youth are qualified for military service. 49 Though all military positions have been open to both men and women, the challenge continues to grow.

Another contemporary challenge is the size of the veteran population, which is on a scale not seen since Vietnam. Veterans who have a range of physical and mental health challenges, as well as valuable skills to bring to civilian communities, also have political influence. Historically, large veteran populations after the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam have had an economic, political, and social impact on the country in addition to affecting how we provide services and support for future servicemembers. The 9/11 generation most likely will as well.

While the armed forces were buffeted in the post–Cold War world by shifts in focus, demands, funding, and the advent of technologies that affect military operations, they were also affected by dramatic social change. President Bill Clinton (1993–2001) generated controversy when he attempted to change policies to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces. Opposition was substantial and led to a compromise policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Under President Obama, gays and lesbians were permitted to serve openly in the military, and restrictions prohibiting “gay marriage” were removed. 50

These shifts have introduced a dramatic cascade of social policy changes that now includes controversy over transsexuals serving in the U.S. military. Further, initiatives like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) programs have embroiled the armed services in controversial debates over social policies and cultural norms. Proponents of such changes argue that increased diversity within the force will somehow make it stronger, more effective, and more resilient while also aligning it with the demographic profile of American society, but there is no clear evidence that supports these claims. To the contrary, such politically progressive policies appear to hurt recruiting and retention efforts and have spurred strong opposition within the military and among the retired and veteran communities.

Looking to the Future

The history of America’s military demonstrates the resilience of democratic structures. Yet it is also clear that the constitutional order governing the military’s relationship with the federal government and the American people is not immune from political pressure and destructive influence. The healthy state of civil–military relations can never be taken for granted; nor should the need to check influences and impulses that seek to make military forces a tool of political factions.

U.S. history shows that the roles, missions, structure, and capabilities of America’s military forces are regularly subject to change. As the needs of providing for the common defense continue to evolve, so must the armed forces. Consequently, the why, how, and extent of change should be a subject of serious, sober debate. America will remain a global power and will continue to need a military that is up to the task of protecting the homeland and the country’s interests on a global scale. The struggles the nation has faced since the end of World War II and the forces that impact them—geopolitics, the economy, technology, and social change—are not going away. The choices that have to be made in the future will be no easier than the choices that had to be made in the past. Nor will the magnitude of the consequences of getting it right or wrong be any less.

[1] Florence Inferno, “Nicollo Machiavelli,” February 3, 2014, https://www.florenceinferno.com/niccolo-machiavelli/ (accessed August 11, 2023).

[2] Cary Nederman, “Niccolo Machiavelli,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Summer 2022 Edition, ed. Edward N. Zalta, https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=machiavelli (accessed August 11, 2023).

[3] Acts of the English Parliament, Bill of Rights [1688], 1688 Chapter 2 1 Will and Mar Sess 2, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction (accessed August 11, 2023). “The Bill of Rights is assigned to the year 1688 on legislation.gov.uk (as it was previously in successive official editions of the revised statutes from which the online version is derived) although the Act received Royal Assent on 16th December 1689.” Ibid., note X1.

[4] “Commission from the Continental Congress, 19 June 1775,” National Archives, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0004 (accessed August 11. 2023).

[5] Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (New York: Penguin Books, 2011), pp. 432–436.

[6] National Constitution Center, “The Day the Constitution Was Ratified,” Blog Post, June 21, 2023, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-day-the-constitution-was-ratified (accessed August 11, 2023).

[7] U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clauses 11–14, https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-1/#article-1-section-8 (accessed August 13, 2023).

[8] U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/#article-2-section-2 (accessed August 13, 2023).

[9] “The Congress shall have Power…To raise and support Armies” and “To provide and maintain a Navy.” U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clauses 12 and 13.

[10] National Constitution Center, “On This Day: Congress Officially Creates the U.S. Army,” Blog Post, September 20, 2020, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-congress-officially-creates-the-u-s-army (accessed August 13, 2023).

[11] National Archives, “Launching the New U.S. Navy,” Educator Resources, page last reviewed September 7, 2016, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/new-us-navy (accessed August 13, 2023).

[12] U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Corps University, “Brief History of the United States Marine Corps,” July 2001, https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Brief-Histories/Brief-History-of-the-United-States-Marine-Corps/ (accessed August 13, 2023).

[13] U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 16.

[14] Though the Insurrection Act was not passed until 1807, it was clear from the statements and actions of America’s early elected officials that there were times of crisis when U.S. military forces would be needed in domestic affairs under extraordinary circumstances. The permissions and restrictions were eventually codified in the act. See 10 U.S. Code Chapter 13—Insurrection, https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter13&edition=prelim (accessed August 12, 2023).

[15] Militia Act of 1792, 2nd Cong., 1st Sess., May 2, 1792, https://constitution.org/1-Activism/mil/mil_act_1792.htm (accessed August 12, 2023).

[16] George Washington, “Proclamation, 7 August 1794,” National Archives, Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-16-02-0365 (accessed August 12, 2023).

[17] United States Military Academy West Point, “A Brief History of West Point,” https://www.westpoint.edu/about/history-of-west-point (accessed August 12, 2023).

[18] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America , trans. Henry Reeve, Vol. I (London: Saunders and Otley, 1835), https://ia800302.us.archive.org/5/items/democracy01tocq/democracy01tocq.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023), and Vol. II (London: Saunders and Otley, 1836), https://ia804707.us.archive.org/8/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.42993/2015.42993.Democracy-In-America--Vol2.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[19] George Washington, “Farewell Address,” September 19, 1796, https://www.ushistory.org/documents/farewelladdress.htm (accessed August 12, 2023).

[20] U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2.

[21] National Archives, “Monroe Doctrine (1823),” Milestone Documents, page last reviewed May 10, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine#transcript (accessed August 12, 2023). The transcript is introduced by a note specifying that “ The Monroe Doctrine was expressed during President Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823. ”

[22] David Wilma, “U.S.S. Lexington Provides Electricity to Tacoma Beginning About on [ sic ] December 17, 1929,” HistoryLink.org , January 24, 2003, https://www.historylink.org/File/5113 (accessed August 12, 2023).

[23] Jim Percoco, “The United States Colored Troops,” American Battlefield Trust, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/united-states-colored-troops#:~:text=In%20contrast%20to%20men%20serving%20on%20land%2C%20the,another%2019%2C000%20served%20in%20the%20United%20States%20Navy (accessed August 12, 2023).

[24] Jonathan Curran, “Buffalo Soldiers,” National Museum of the United States Army, https://www.thenmusa.org/articles/buffalo-soldiers/ (accessed August 12, 2023).

[25] For the most recent text of the act as amended, see 18 U.S. Code Section 1385—Use of Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force as Posse Comitatus, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1385 (accessed August 12, 2023). See also Jennifer K. Elsea, “The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law,” Congressional Research Service Report for Members and Committees of Congress No. R42659, updated November 6, 2018, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/R42659.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[26] Militia Act of 1903, Public Law 33, 57th Congress, 2nd Session, January 21, 1903, https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/32/STATUTE-32-Pg775.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[27] Encyclopedia.com , “Swiss History: Biographies: Antoine Henri Jomini,” updated May 18, 2018, https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/swiss-history-biographies/antoine-henri-jomini (accessed August 12, 2023).

[28] Alfred Thayer Mahan., The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1890), http://www.enabed2016.abedef.org/resources/download/1403180516_ARQUIVO_MahanInfluenceofSeaPowerUponHistory.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[29] Carl Von Clausewitz., On War , trans. Col. James John Graham (London: N. Trübner, 1873), https://www.clausewitz.com/readings/OnWar1873/TOC.htm (accessed August 12, 2023). This version is introduced by a note specifying that “[i]t is derived from the German original, Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege (Berlin: Dümmlers Verlag, 1832).”

[30] The U.S. Naval War College conducted 318 war games during the 1920s and 1930s that drove 21 fleet exercises to test various concepts developed by the games. See “The Fleet Exercise,” Chapter 4 in James A. Miller, “Gaming the Interwar: How Naval War College Wargames Tilted the Playing Field for the U.S. Navy During World War II,” Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Military Art and Science, Military History, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, December 13, 2013, pp. 48–69, https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA599136.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[31] Henry G. Cole, The Road to Rainbow: Army Planning for Global War, 1934–1940 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002).

[32] U.S. Air Force, Air Force Historical Support Division, “1926—The U.S. Army Air Corps Act,” https://www.afhistory.af.mil/FAQs/Fact-Sheets/Article/459017/1926-the-us-army-air-corps-act/ (accessed August 12, 2023).

[33] Public Broadcasting Service, “The Bonus March (May–July, 1932), American Experience , https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/macarthur-bonus-march-may-july-1932/ (accessed August 12, 2023), and Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen, “Marching on History,” Smithsonian Magazine , February 2003, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/marching-on-history-75797769/ (accessed August 12, 2023).

[34] Charles A. Lindbergh, The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1970), p. 561.

[35] James Jay Carafano, “The Truth About the America First Movement,” Heritage Foundation Commentary , July 11, 2016, https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/the-truth-about-the-america-first-movement .

[36] S. 758, National Security Act of 1947, Public Law 80-253, 80th Congress, July 26, 1947, https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195385168/resources/chapter10/nsa/nsa.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023). For the text of the law as amended, see National Security Act of 1947 [Chapter 343; 61 Stat. 496; approved July 26, 1947] [As Amended Through P.L. 117–328, Enacted December 29, 2022], https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-1493/pdf/COMPS-1493.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023).

[37] Report No. 2438, Selective Service Act of 1948 , Conference Report to Accompany S. 2655, U.S. House of Representatives, 80th Congress, 2nd Session, June 19, 1948, https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/act-1948/act-1948.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023); Selective Service System, Office of the General Counsel, The Military Selective Service Act as Amended Through July 9, 2003: Compilation of the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.) , https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MSSA-2003.pdf (accessed August 12, 2023); and Selective Service System, “History and Records: History of the Selective Service System,” https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/ (accessed August 12, 2023).

[38] Guillaume Vandenbroucke, “Which War Saw the Highest Defense Spending? Depends How It’s Measured,” Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis, On the Economy Blog, February 4, 2020, https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2020/february/war-highest-defense-spending-measured (accessed August 13, 2023), and Robert Higgs, The Cold War Economy: Opportunity Costs, ideology, and the Politics of Crisis , Independent Institute, July 1, 1994, https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1297 (accessed August 13, 2023).

[39] National Archives, “President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961),” Milestone Documents, page last reviewed June 20, 2023, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address (accessed August 12, 2023).

[40] Peter C. Luebke, “H-078-1: ‘The Revolt of the Admirals,’” U.S. Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command, March 2023, https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-078/h-078-1.html (accessed August 12, 2023).

[41] National Archives, “Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948),” Milestone Documents, page last reviewed February 8, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9981 (accessed August 12, 2023).

[42] “The Background of the Tragedy at Kent State University,” The American Legion Magazine , Vol. 89, No. 1 (July 1970)], pp. 22–27, https://archive.legion.org/node/1830 (accessed August 12, 2023).

[43] Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Practice of Civil–Military Relations (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1957).

[44] Morris Janowitz., The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait (New York: The Free Press. 1971).

[45] “The Army and the New Look,” Chapter 26 in American Military History , U.S. Army, Office of the Chief of Military History, Army Historical Series, 1989, https://history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-26.htm (accessed August 12, 2023), and Patrick M. Condray, “The New Look of 1952–53,” Chapter 3 in Charting the Nation’s Course: Strategic Planning Processes in the 1952–53 “New Look” and the 1996–97 Quadrennial Defense Review , Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, for Completion of Graduation Requirements, Academic Year 1997–98, Air University Press, 1999, https://media.defense.gov/2017/Dec/28/2001861726/-1/-1/0/T_CONDRAY_CHARTING_THE_NATIONS_COURSE.PDF (accessed August 12, 2023).

[46] Russell F. Weigley, The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1973).

[47] Harry G. Summers Jr., On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1995).

[48] H.R. 3622, Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, Public Law 99-433, 99th Congress, October 1, 1986, https://www.congress.gov/99/statute/STATUTE-100/STATUTE-100-Pg992.pdf (accessed August 11, 2023).

[49] Thomas Spoehr and Bridget Handy, “The Looming National Security Crisis: Young Americans Unable to Serve in the Military,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 3282, February 13, 2018, https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/BG3282.pdf .

[50] News release, “Statement by the President on the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” The White House, September 20, 2011, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/20/statement-president-repeal-dont-ask-dont-tell (accessed August 11, 2023).

Executive Summary of the 2024 Index of U.S. Military Strength

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Importance of Military Essays ⚔

Essays on the military are critical because they help us comprehend the military’s history, tactics, and effects on society. They give us a place to conduct in-depth study and analysis, enabling us to examine and assess many facets of the military career.

We may learn a great deal about the complexity of combat, the advancement of military strategies and equipment, and the military’s influence on international politics and security by reading and writing on military topics. These pieces encourage critical thinking, spark intellectual debate, and improve military knowledge and study in addition to instructing and informing readers.

When writing a military essay, you may explore compare and contrast essay topics such as the similarities and differences between military strategies or the contrasting perspectives on the impact of warfare in different historical periods. For example, you can compare the military tactics used in World War I and World War II or contrast the views on the effectiveness of air power in modern warfare.

Types of Military Essays 🎖

Military essays come in various formats with various functions and writing styles. Here are four specific categories:

☑ Expository essays

 These papers seek to offer a concise and impartial exposition of a military subject or idea. They investigate the issue logically and methodically while providing factual information. Expository essays can be written on various subjects, including the history of a particular fight, the composition and organization of a military unit, and the operation of military technology.

☑ Argumentative Essays

In a military setting, an argumentative essay will express a particular point of view or argument and back it up with facts. Critical thinking and persuasive writing skills are needed to make a strong argument in these essays. Argumentative military essays could examine the moral ramifications of military action, debate the merits of a specific defense plan, or assess the efficacy of a military strategy.

☑ Comparative essay

Comparative essays analyze and contrast various elements of military systems, tactics, or historical events. They draw attention to contrasts, similarities, and patterns to comprehend the topic better. A comparative essay, for instance, can examine the parallels and differences between ancient and current combat or contrast the military strategies of various countries.

☑ Analytical essays

They dive into the specifics of a military subject, dissecting it into its component elements and critically analyzing them. To comprehend the subject, these essays require thorough investigation, data interpretation, and theoretical frameworks. Analyzing the origins and effects of a particular fight, evaluating the influence of military technologies on conflict, or reviewing the efficacy of a military doctrine are a few examples of analytical military studies.

If you’re looking to incorporate a capstone project into your military essay, consider exploring various capstone project ideas related to the military. These can range from analyzing the effectiveness of military training programs to developing strategies for improving military logistics or examining the ethical implications of autonomous weapon systems.

Format and Structure of a Military Essay 🪖

Here is a broad outline for a military essay, though precise requirements may change based on the assignment or institution:

☑️ Introduction

Start your paragraph with a compelling opening sentence or hook to capture the reader’s interest.

Describe the subject’s history and how it relates to the military.

Declare the essay’s thesis or significant point in clear terms.

Each paragraph should concentrate on a distinct subtopic or argument supporting the thesis.

Start each paragraph with a topic phrase that states the paragraph’s central theme.

Include examples, analysis, and supporting data to support the core point.

Use transitional words or phrases to transition between paragraphs and concepts seamlessly.

☑️ Discussion and Analysis

Discuss the implications of the evidence offered in the body paragraphs after it has been analyzed.

Think critically and offer perceptive criticism on the subject.

Consider opposing viewpoints or arguments, then reasonably and logically respond to them.

Summarise the key ideas covered in the essay, focusing on their importance.

Indicate how the essay’s main argument or thesis has been reinforced by restating it.

☑️ Citations & References

Include a separate section or bibliography for references, if necessary.

Use an appropriate citation format (such as APA, MLA, or Chicago) to give credit where credit is due.

Make that the reference list and in-text citations are formatted correctly and consistently.

Writing Tips for Military Essays

Research: Investigate your issue in-depth using reliable sources, including academic journals, books, government publications, and reliable websites. Obtain a range of viewpoints to create a comprehensive grasp of the subject.

Creating a Strong Thesis: Create a thesis statement that summarizes your essay’s essential points and is clear and concise. Throughout the essay, specific, contested arguments should support your thesis statement.

Creating an outline or structure for your essay guarantees the concepts are presented logically. Your essay should be broken up into an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Each paragraph should contain a primary topic or point supporting your thesis.

Using Proper Language: Use a clear, concise, and formal tone when writing. Use proper and suitable military jargon and concepts. Aim to avoid jargon or excessively technical language that could mislead readers unfamiliar with military lingo.

Accurately citing your sources will ensure they receive due credit. Use the APA, MLA, or Chicago citation styles as specified by your instructor or institution. Use in-text citations for direct quotations, paraphrases, and other material that is not well known.

Military essay examples

“The Impact of Military Technology on Modern Warfare” examines how the character of warfare has changed due to developments in military technology, including drones, cyberwarfare, and artificial intelligence, and what this means for military strategy and ethics.

“Leadership Lessons from Historical Military Figures”: Examine the traits and tactics of historic military titans like Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great, and General George Patton, and discuss how they apply to modern military leadership.

Examine the historical development, present difficulties, and prospects for women serving in the armed forces in “The Role of Women in the Military.” Discuss how gender integration has affected military culture and effectiveness.

“The Use of Propaganda in Military Conflicts”: Examine how various countries and their armed forces have used propaganda to sway public opinion, inspire soldiers, and affect the results of military operations.

“Ethical Dilemmas in Modern Warfare”: Examine the moral dilemmas that military personnel face in today’s conflicts, such as the use of drones, the killing of civilians, and torture. Analyze various ethical systems and consider possible answers to these problems.

To incorporate the concept of a capstone project in your military essay, it’s crucial to understand the four essential elements that make up a successful capstone project. These elements include identifying a problem or challenge, conducting in-depth research, developing a comprehensive solution or approach, and presenting your findings through a well-structured and persuasive essay, for example, in “I want to be soldier” Essay .

For a concise and focused military essay, you may employ a 5-paragraph essay format . This format includes an introduction, three body paragraphs discussing key points or arguments, and a conclusion. It allows you to present your ideas clearly and organized, making it easier for readers to follow your thoughts.

Remember to pick a subject that interests you personally and fits the assignment’s or course’s requirements. To make your military essay exciting and instructive, do extensive research, create a fascinating topic, and employ concise, well-structured arguments backed by proof.

⏭ ORDER CUSTOM MILITARY ESSAY ⏮

As a result, military essays are critical in helping us learn more about the military, its history, tactics, and effects on society. They give people a place to conduct research, analyze information, and engage in critical thought, which promotes intellectual development and adds to the body of knowledge in military studies. Whether it’s an argumentative essay on the ethics of war or an expository essay on military technology, these pieces provide insightful analysis.

By diving into the complexities of military themes, we acquire a greater understanding of the sacrifices and difficulties military people face and the broader ramifications of their actions. Military essays provide a way to explore, analyze, and connect with the many facets of the military profession, making them an essential instrument in education, research, and intellectual conversation.

Writing a military essay can be a tricky task. Hence, you should seek professional help. There are various advantages to ordering your essay from WritingMetier . Our staff of expert writers, who specialize in military subjects, guarantees thoroughly researched and excellent articles.

You will receive personalized and unique content punctually provided and treated with strict confidentiality. We are the best option for your essay or military research paper demands because of our commitment to academic brilliance, user-friendly method, and focus on customer happiness.

Free topic suggestions

Laura Orta is an avid author on Writing Metier's blog. Before embarking on her writing career, she practiced media law in one of the local media. Aside from writing, she works as a private tutor to help students with their academic needs. Laura and her husband share their home near the ocean in northern Portugal with two extraordinary boys and a lifetime collection of books.

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How to write an Essay on Army Values?

Army values, deeply entrenched in military ethos, serve as guiding beacons not just for soldiers but for society at large. These principles of loyalty, respect, and selfless service are more than mere words; they are the very foundation upon which harmonious societies can be built.

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2010 --> 2010 664 pages. from $38.00

Hardcover ISBN: 9780804762069 Paperback ISBN: 9780804792073

Winner of the 2012 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award (non-US category), sponsored by The Society for Military History.

Winner of the 2012 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award (non-US).

Most studies of the Sino-Japanese War are presented from the perspective of the West. Departing from this tradition, The Battle for China brings together Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars to provide a comprehensive and multifaceted overview of the military operations that shaped much of what happened in political, economic, and cultural realms. The volume's diverse contributors have taken pains to sustain a scholarly, dispassionate tone throughout their analyses of the course and the nature of military operations, from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident to the final campaigns of 1945. They present Western involvement in Sino-Japanese contexts, and establish the war's place in World War II and world history in general.

About the authors

Mark Peattie is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and visiting scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Edward Drea is former Chief of the Research and Analysis Division of the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

Hans van de Ven, FBA, is Professor of Modern Chinese History at Cambridge University.

—Gregor Benton, The China Journal

—Ke-Wen Wang, Journal of World History

—Qiang Zhai, Frontiers of History in China

—Edward A. McCord, China Review International

—David Gordon, Pacific Affairs

—Parks M. Coble, Chinese Historical Review

—Colonel Stanley L. Falk, ARMY Magazine

—Dennis Showalter, Colorado College

—Major Robert S. Burrell, United States Marine Corps, Naval History Magazine

Contested Environmentalisms

Fragile Hope

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Resistance as Negotiation

Uday Chandra

Capitalist Colonial

Matan Kaminer

Dictatorship on Trial

Tyrell Haberkorn

Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship

Samantha A. Vortherms

Feeling Machines

Shawn Bender

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Rhys Machold

Millennial North Korea

Suk-Young Kim

Circular Ecologies

Chinese Workers of the World

Selda Altan

Cosmopolitan Scientists

Nahoko Kameo

Military History Essays (Examples)

Military History

Steele, B. (2005). Military Reengineering Between the World Wars. RAND NATIONAL DEFENSE RESEARCH INST SANTA MONICA CA.

US And Poland Relations And Military Partnerships

Comparing irans military and culture to the u s military and culture.

Snow, R., & Wynn, S. T. (2018). Managing Opioid Use Disorder and Co-Occurring Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Veterans. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 56(6), 36-42.

1864 And Grant S Union Military Strategy

Race and ethnicity in the us military, us customs and border protection and defense intelligence agency, career path plan, irregular warfare and united states, enforcing standards and discipline in the united states army, mental health access for veterans, related topics.

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The international library of essays on military history: the international library of essays on military history.

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15 Series Titles

Medieval warfare 1000–1300, 1st edition, african military history, medieval ships and warfare, medieval warfare 1300–1450, modern counter-insurgency, naval history 1500–1680, the armies of classical greece, warfare in china since 1600, warfare in china to 1600, warfare in early modern europe 1450–1660, warfare in europe 1919–1938, warfare in japan.

Edited By John France January 11, 2019

The study of medieval warfare has developed enormously in recent years. The figure of the armoured mounted knight, who was believed to have materialized in Carolingian times, long dominated all discussion of the subject. It is now understood that the knight emerged over a long period of time and ...

Edited By John Lamphear November 07, 2007

This collection of essays on pre-colonial sub-Saharan African military history is drawn from a number of academic journals and includes some which are considered milestones in African historiographical discourse, as well as others which, while lesser known, provide remarkable insight into the ...

Edited By Susan Rose June 09, 2008

This collection of essays and articles from a wide range of journals is intended to make more accessible to students and scholars some of the most important writing in English in this field from the 1950s to the present day. The volume draws attention to work on both the design and the use of ships ...

Edited By Kelly DeVries October 08, 2010

War was epidemic in the late Middle Ages. It affected every land and all peoples from Scotland and Scandinavia in the north to the southern Mediterranean Sea coastlines of Morocco, North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East in the south, from Ireland and Spain in the west to Russia and Turkey in the ...

Edited By Ian Beckett February 13, 2007

Insurgency has been the most prevalent form of conflict in the modern world since the end of the Second World War. Accordingly, it has posed a major challenge to conventional armed forces, all of whom have had to evolve counter-insurgency methods in response. The volume brings together classic ...

Edited By Jan Glete November 24, 2005

In recent decades historians have studied several new aspects of early modern naval history and placed it in a wider context than traditional studies of naval warfare. This volume brings together 23 studies on naval technology, policy-making and administration, tactics, strategy, operations and ...

Edited By Everett L. Wheeler March 28, 2007

The origin of the Western military tradition in Greece 750-362 BC is fraught with controversies, such as the date and nature of the phalanx, the role of agricultural destruction and the existence of rules and ritualistic practices. This volume collects papers significant for specific points in ...

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Warfare has shaped the modern history of China more than any other single factor. This book brings together the best recent English language scholarship on warfare in China over the last four centuries and situates warfare within the broader sweep of China's modern historical development. ...

Edited By Peter Lorge October 27, 2005

Chinese military history has emerged as one of the most promising and radical fields of Chinese studies. China's rapidly increasing military power make understanding the place of war in Chinese culture, as well as the role of the military, and Chinese strategic thought, vital to dealing with this ...

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The early modern period saw gunpowder weapons reach maturity and become a central feature of European warfare, on land and at sea. This exciting collection of essays brings together a distinguished and varied selection of modern scholarship on the transformation of war”often described as a ’ ...

Edited By Geoffrey Jensen May 19, 2008

Although ostensibly a time of peace, one of the richest and most fascinating periods in military history falls between the two world wars. With good reason, even today military theorists look to these years for relevant lessons. The articles and papers collected together in this volume highlight ...

Edited By Harald Kleinschmidt August 02, 2007

Warfare in Japan from the fourth to the nineteenth century has caused much controversy among Western military and political historians. This volume assembles key articles written by specialists in the field on military organization, the social context of war, battle action, weapons and martial arts ...

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Military History, Democracy, and the Role of the Academy

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Tami Davis Biddle, Military History, Democracy, and the Role of the Academy, Journal of American History , Volume 93, Issue 4, March 2007, Pages 1143–1145, https://doi.org/10.2307/25094599

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Wayne Lee's review essay offers an excellent overview of some of the most interesting literature to appear in the field of military history in the last decade. It is a welcome stocktaking, especially since we are at a moment when it is appropriate to assess the role of the military in American history and American society. There is no denying that what we typically call “military history” has been a controversial discipline inside the academy. This is understandable, and not wholly inappropriate, since democratic societies ought to treat all military issues carefully and with self-awareness. But care and self-awareness do not—and should not—equal avoidance. Among its many roles, scholarship plays a civic function: it facilitates our understanding of the institutions we have created and opens a debate on their purpose. By focusing on literature that draws explicit connections between American military institutions and American society and culture, Lee has given us an excellent point of departure for an important and timely discussion. 1

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The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military Essay

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Introduction

Sino-european interactions before the mongols, song dynasty’s interactions with the liao, western xia, and jin, the history of mongol conquests and their military and its significance, works cited.

During the Mongols’ military and political rise, the Mongolian empire made outstanding achievements under Genghis Khan. He invaded Northern and Southern China dynasties, conquering the Jin, Xia, and Song dynasties. The essay explores Sino-European interactions before the Mongols and Song dynasty’s interactions with the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin. In addition, the essay examines the history of Mongol conquests and its military while highlighting the significance and significant points of the Mongolian empire.

Sino-European interactions are relations between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the European Union (E.U.). The Chinese traded with their European counterparts before the Mongols. The Roman high classes greatly wanted Chinese silk in exchange for Mediterranean coral and glass valued in China (Lattimore O., and Lattimore. E 54). In the PRC, there were settlements of foreigners in most of the towns, and they played a vital role in the spread of cities and towns beyond the old management centers and assisted in disseminating foreign ideas and objects throughout Chinese land. For instance, the Tang Chinese felt some ambivalence concerning foreigners in their land. They were enthused and fascinated by what Europeans brought, whether material culture or intellectual excitement; however, they did not often trust or like the messenger (Waley-Cohen 10). The interactions appeared to bring some civilization to China because it was possible to attain some powerful sense of the world beyond the PRC from the accounts of European merchants, soldiers, and religious travelers.

Moreover, the Silk Roads came to link China to Europe, which opened a network of trade avenues across Asia and Europe. The borders were open, and travel became easy, making European merchants take advantage while expanding many different religions. Significant travels from Europe to China occurred during the Yuan dynasty before the Mongols. In this period, several delegations traveled from European countries to China as religious leaders, diplomatic ambassadors, and traders (Hanshu 88). In addition, a diplomatic envoy was sent from China to Europe and met with the European kings and the pope (Waley-Cohen 30). Further, before the Mongols conquered China left an in-depth effect on the political, economic, and cultural life of several states and countries throughout Eurasia (O. Lattimore and E. Lattimore 59). Hence, before the Mongols, Sino-European interactions were conducive and favorable to both parties, as the Chinese and Europeans benefited from these interactions.

The interactions of the Song dynasty with the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin were that of adversaries. Jin, the Liao, and the Western Xia were non-Chinese states and enemies of Song in northern China. The three regimes continuously fought against one another, which permitted the Song dynasty to enlarge its borders. Nonetheless, they did not implement a defensive approach against them. The Song frequently came into conflict with the non-Chinese states. A dynasty governed China during the most brilliant cultural epochs (O. Lattimore and E. Lattimore 62). The Song Dynasty alternated between warfare and diplomacy with the Western Xia in the Northwest region and the Liao Dynasty in the Northeast. The Song dynasty applied military force to conquer the Liao and recapture the 16 Prefectures (Waley-Cohen 35). The Liao troops revolted against Song armies and were involved in destructive yearly campaigns in the Northern region of Song until 1005 when they signed the Shanyuan Treaty that determined the northern border conflicts (Waley-Cohen 37). This treaty was a conclusion of successive wars between the Song and Liao dynasties creating peace in the region.

Further, Song won many military victories over the Jin dynasty in the early 11th century, ending in a campaign spearheaded by Shen Kuo. Nonetheless, the campaign failed because the rival military officers disobeyed straightforward orders, and the territory attained from the Western Xia was lost. For approximately 150 years, the outcome of the Song wars was a stalemate (Waley-Cohen 39). They did not conquer their neighbors, Liao, Western Xia, and Jin; however, they lost a substantial area. Thus, they kept their regional integrity and were able to thrive within their boundaries. The Liao dynasty in the Northeast served as a military threat to Song. Their empire extended in the late 900s even though Xia resisted them. In addition, the Song believed that if they attained the Xia region, they might re-establish the profitable Silk Road commerce (Lattimore and Lattimore 65). Fortunately, they won many military battles over the Xia in the 11th century. Further, the combined forces of Song and Jin overwhelmed the Liao dynasty (Waley-Cohen 41). Nevertheless, Jin rose against the Song dynasty capturing its capital city.

The Mongol Empire was one of the world’s biggest empires. It began in the Central Asia Steppes before it spread to over 9 million square kilometers. Genghis Khan established this empire around 1200CE when an organization of tribes elected him (Waley-Cohen 43). The Mongolians and the Turkish-speaking were the tribes that formed this territory (Invictus 1). From this point, Khan began to take a sequence of expansions to increase his land and kingdom. The first assignment of his expansion was the His Hsia, located in Northwest China, and then went to the Jin dynasty (Invictus 1). In addition, he managed to conquer the Song dynasty after 319 years of rule.

Further, campaigns of Khan contributed to the fall of Beijing to his leadership, and he included Turkistan in his realm in Central Asia. The efforts shown in his quest for power saw the Mongol empire stretching from the Caspian to China Seas with people of diverse origins, religions, languages, and civilizations. The Mongolians’ nomadic lifestyle and the aspect of using horses made them fierce and swift on the war front. Besides, they adapted to various environments and could survive wherever they were transverse. It offered the best force for the emperor and the Mongolian Empire’s expansion (Invictus 1). They had troops with superior strategy and tactics other than the strength in their numbers. The armies could organize and re-organize to adapt and survive assaults.

The Mongolians were brutal conquerors who smashed everything in their way, and their vast expansion contributed to some environmental effects as many people lost their lives. Hence, a significant depopulation of the conquered territories resulted in vegetation growth cover and a cooling effect on those areas. Mongol empire contributed to the development of the Silk Road as it offered security and created trade to thrive. The leaders served as patrons of the conquered people’s Greta arts, preserving them and leading artists to migrate from Central Asia and the Middle East to Mongolia (Invictus 1). Further, there were significant interactions and exchanges during this era as the Europeans made with Africans and Asians as they traversed the Middle East. It contributed to the exchange of religion, products, ideas, culture, technology, and knowledge (Waley-Cohen 43). Moreover, since they were religious and culturally tolerant people, they permitted the thriving of different religions and cultures across the territory.

It may be summed that each realm was conquered and enlarged into a geographical location where emperors could defend and gain wealth while increasing their influence. Sino-European interactions before the Mongols involved trade, diplomacy, and religious missionaries. Song dynasty’s interactions with Liao, Xia, and Jin were constant aggressive attacks against each other. The Mongolian empire managed to defeat other dynasties such as Song, Xia, and Jin to emerge as one of the largest in the world.

Hanshu, Hou. “Early Chinese Account of the West.” History of the Later Han, 5 th century C.E., 25-220 C.E., pp. 86,88.

Invictus. “ The Mongol Empire .” All Empires: Online History Community , 2001, Web.

Lattimore, Owen, and Eleanor Lattimore. Silks, Spices and Empire: Asia Seen Through the Eyes of Its Discoverers . 3rd ed., Sage Publishers, 1973.

Waley-Cohen, Joanna. The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History . 7th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

• Circumnavigating the World 1200 C.E. to 1550 C.E.
• How the Mongols Changed World History
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• Impact of Religion and British Colonialism on India
• China's Emperors and Their Role in History
• Why the Revolutions in Kyrgyzstan Were Different
• The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (2005)
• The Camp David Accords and Prior Negotiations
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IvyPanda. (2024, March 23). The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-mongol-conquests-and-its-military/

"The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military." IvyPanda , 23 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-mongol-conquests-and-its-military/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military'. 23 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military." March 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-mongol-conquests-and-its-military/.

1. IvyPanda . "The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military." March 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-mongol-conquests-and-its-military/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The History of Mongol Conquests and Its Military." March 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-history-of-mongol-conquests-and-its-military/.

World War II United States Military Records, 1941 to 1945

Over 16.5 million men and women served in the armed forces during World War II, of whom 291,557 died in battle, 113,842 died from other causes, and 670,846 were wounded.

National WWII Memorial [ edit | edit source ]

The introduction to the memorial on the website says, "The memory of America's World War II generation is preserved within the physical memorial and through the World War II Registry of Remembrances, an individual listing of Americans who contributed to the war effort. Any U.S. citizen who helped win the war, whether a veteran or someone on the home front, is eligible for the Registry." The memorial was dedicated 29 May 2004. Visit their website National WWII Memorial for more information.

The WWII Registry combines four databases of the names of Americans who are:

• Buried in American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) overseas military cemeteries.
• Memorialized on ABMC Tablets of the Missing.
• Listed on official War and Navy Department Killed in Service rosters now held by the National Archives and Records Administration ( NARA ).
• Honored by public enrollment in the Registry of Remembrances.

American Battle Monuments Commission [ edit | edit source ]

• Cemeteries - Memorials
• Search ABMC Burials
• Search ABMC Burials and Memorials

Research Tools [ edit | edit source ]

WWII American Cemetery, Madingley, Cambridgeshire : 3 miles west of Cambridge and donated by the University of Cambridge. This is the only American WWII burial ground in England. There are 3,800 white crosses and an additional wall with 5,000 names to pay tribute to the American servicemen and women who died in this war. You can read more about this on the website.

State World War II Records [ edit | edit source ]

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• West Virginia

Websites [ edit | edit source ]

• United States Army Military History Institute Contains photographs, cemeteries & obituaries, land records, wills, and newspapers; along with a Soldier's Memorial searchable database.
• World War II Links and Resources
• Veteran's History Project
• Dad's War: Finding and Telling Your Father's World War II Story Use the information at this site to make sure a record of your own military service is preserved.
• Stories of the Survivors of the ship USS Henry Mallory This ship was part of the one of the largest convoy battles of WWII.
• Maps of World War II arranges WWII maps by place and date.
• World War II Maps Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.
• World War II Toolbox contains a list of repositories, online books, and records resources for all branches of the military.
• Were You Or Your Relatives Exposed To Mustard Gas? Search Database NPR has compiled the first public database of American veterans who were secretly exposed to mustard gas in military experiments conducted during World War II.
• Air Ferry Squadrons. Newly-built aircraft, replacement parts, supplies, and support personnel were delivered to the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters and around the United States by thousands of male and female civilian and military personnel between 1941 and 1945.
• World War II (and other conflicts) records of aviation crashes, etc.

Online Records

• 1939-1946 World War 2 Allies Collection at Findmypast - index ($)
• 1940-1947 U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1942 U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1942-1945 Idaho, Jerome County Historical Society, Minidoka Japanese Relocation Center Mixed Vital Records, 1942-1945 at FamilySearch — index
• 1943-1945 U.S., WWII Army Deserters Pay Cards, 1943-1945 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
• 1942-1946 United States, War Relocation Authority centers, final accountability rosters, 1942-1946 at FamilySearch — index and images
• Web: Japanese American Veterans Association Personnel at Ancestry - index ($)
• United States, World War II Casualty Lists at Findmypast - index & images ($)

National Veterans Gravesite Administration [ edit | edit source ]

• National Cemetery Administration . Department of Veterans Affairs Cemetery Listing.
• Nationwide Gravesite Locator . Search for burial locations of veterans and their family members in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and for veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker.

National Archives and Records Administration - Washington, D.C. [ edit | edit source ]

• World War II Records
• Military Resources: World War II
• Finding Information on Personal Participation in World War II- Brochure
• Finding Aids Related to WWII at NARA
• National Archives. Archives Library Information Center. Military Resources: Women in the Military
• Records of the Adjutant General's office RG 407. Most of the records cover 1917-1958
• Theodore J. Hull The World War II Army Enlistment Records File and Access to Archival Databases. Prologue 38 #1 (Spring 2006)
• Records Relating to D-Day
• United States National Archives Twentieth Century Military Records
• Records of U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Commands, 1870–1942 RG 395 NAID 693
• World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories, ca. January 1, 1942–ca. June 1, 1946 NAID 4697018

FamilySearch Catalog

• Timothy P. Mulligan, comp.; Rebecca L. Collier, ed. et.al. World War II:guide to records relating to U.S. military participation. 2 volumes. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 2008. FS Library 973 J53mt
• Federal records of World War II. volume 2. Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1951.
• Publications of the Office of Military History, U.S. Army, American Forces in action series NARA Pub T1107

European Theater [ edit | edit source ]

• Order of Battle of the United States Army World War II. European Theater of Operations. Divisions.
• WWII Operations Reports, 1941-1945. 29th Infantry Division. Omaha Beach. June 6th-June 10th 1944. Map
• National Archives. Records Relating to D-Day

Philippine Islands [ edit | edit source ]

• Philippine Archives Collection
• Philippine Archives Collection - Alphabetical List of Guerrilla Units
• Philippine Archives Collection - Glossary of Initialisms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
• Philippine Prisoners of War Card Files, 1941 - 1946 RG 64, US Army Personnel and civilians held as prisoners of war

Pacific Theater [ edit | edit source ]

• Order of Battle of the United States Army Ground Forces in World War II. Pacific Theater of Operations.
• George J. Chambers. World War II as seen through the eyes of United States Navy cruisers : an integrated, chronological history of cruiser operations during the war against the Axis powers 1939-1945 2 volumes. Berwyn Heights, Maryland : Heritage Books, Inc., c2015 FS Library 973 M2cgj

Pearl Harbor

• National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
• Pearl Harbor Survivors Association
• Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Collection
• Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors
• Pearl Harbor National Memorial - National Park Service
• Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau
• Battle Ship Row
• List of United States Navy Ships Present at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 - Wikepedia
• Ships Present at Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941 - Navy History and Heritage Command
• United States, Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Muster Rolls of US Navy Ships, 1941 FamilySearch Wiki Article
• Department of the Navy. Arizona (Battleship). 10/17/1916-12/29/1941 Organization Authority Record - National Archives
• U.S. Navy Casualties
• U.S. Marine Corps Casualties
• U.S. Army Casualties
• U.S. Army Air Force Casualties
• Pearl Harbor Casuality List, December 7, 1941
• USGenWeb Pearl Harbor Official Casualty List, 1941

Medical Department Naval

• Medical Department of the U.S. Navy, Compilation of the Killed, Wounded and Decorated Personnel
• Army Hospital Ships of World War II

Oral History Projects [ edit | edit source ]

The following is a selected list. Check with you state archives, historical society or veteran organization for veteran oral history projects in your state.

• Veterans History Project - Library of Congress
• The National Museum WWII - New Orleans - Oral History Resources
• Atlanta History Center - Veterans History Project
• University of Maine - Veterans Oral History Program
• National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey - Center for U.S. War Veterans' Oral Histories
• New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center - Veterans Oral History Program
• State Archives of North Carolina -Veterans Oral History Program
• Southeastern Oklahoma State University - Veteran Oral History Project

Sources for Further Reading [ edit | edit source ]

• Ancell, R. Manning, with Christine Miller. The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers: The U.S. Armed Forces . Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. (FS Library book 973 D36anc.)
• Bunker, John. Heroes in Dungarees. The Story of the Merchant Marine in World War II Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
• DeWhitt, Benjamin L. “ World War II Ship’s Logs .” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives 24 (Winter 1992): 400–4. (FS Library book 973 B2p.)
• Forty, George US Army handbook, 1939-1945 2nd ed. New York, New York : Barnes & Noble, c1995 FS Library 973 M27f
• Gray, Paul D. “ The Human Record of Conflict: Individual Military Service and Medical Records .” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives 23 (Fall 1991): 307–13. (FS Library book 973 B2p.)
• National Archives. World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 . Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created 1942 - 1947, documenting the period 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946.
• Heaps, Jennifer Davis. “World War II Prisoner-of-War Records." Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives 23. (Fall 1991): 323–8. (FS Library book 973 B2p.)
• Holik, Jennifer. "Stories from the Battlefield: A Beginning Guide to World War II Research." Woodridge, IL: Generations, 2014.
• Johnson, Melissa A. Researching World War II Naval Armed Guard Veterans NGS Magazine 42 #1 (January-March 2016): 54-61. FS Library 973 D25ngs
• Kennett, Lee G.I. The American Soldier in World War II. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987 FS Library 973 M2ke
• Mix, Ann Bennett. Touchstones: A Guide to Records, Rights, and Resources for Families of American World War II Casualties . Bountiful, Utah: American Genealogical Lending Library, 1996. (FS Library book 973 M27t.)
• Molnar, Michele. U.S. Merchant Marine Paducah, Kentucky : Turner Pub. Co., c1993 (FS Library book 973 M3me)
• Moore, Arthur R. A careless word -- a needless sinking : a history of the staggering losses suffered by the U.S. Merchant Marine, both in ships and personnel during World War II Kings Point, New York : American Merchant Marine Museum, c1983, 2006 (FS Library 973 U3ma)
• Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Pearl Harbor Survivors: 50th Anniversary . Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing, 1992. (FS Library book 996.93 M2p.) This book contains biographical sketches of veterans and a list of association members.
• RootsWeb Review, 21 February 2007, Vol. 10, No. 8. By Doris Demet, Article entitled "Locating Information about Your Veteran"
• Robert T. Kimbrough and George Herman Chapman. World war II veterans' rights and benefits; a handbook for veterans of World War II and their families. Rochester, N.Y., The Lawyers co-operative publishing company
• United States. Selective Service System. Handbook, veterans assistance program of the Selective service system.
• Dorthy Lazelle Williams United States military bases during World War II and as of 1947 Sacramento, California : D.L. Williams, c1987. FS Library 973 M2wd
• United States War Department. TM 12-252 The Army Clerk, 1943
• United States War Department. Department of the Army Army Life 1944.
• Wittmer, Paul W. United States submarine men lost during World War II : a compilation of basic information on all the known men who died while in, or attached to, a command of the U.S. Submarine Service; including passengers lost on U.S. submarines 2 volumes. Manchester, Missouri : P.W. Wittmer, c2006 FS Library 973 M3wu

National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

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History | September 15, 2022

The Real Warriors Behind ‘The Woman King’

A new film stars Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, the all-woman army of the African kingdom of Dahomey

Meilan Solly

Associate Editor, History

At its height in the 1840s, the West African kingdom of Dahomey boasted an army so fierce that its enemies spoke of its “ prodigious bravery .” This 6,000 -strong force, known as the Agojie, raided villages under cover of darkness, took captives and slashed off resisters’ heads to return to their king as trophies of war. Through these actions, the Agojie established Dahomey’s preeminence over neighboring kingdoms and became known by European visitors as “ Amazons ” due to their similarities to the warrior women of Greek myth .

The Woman King , a new movie starring Viola Davis as a fictionalized leader of the Agojie, tells the story of this all-woman fighting force. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the film takes place as conflict engulfs the region and the specter of European colonization looms ominously. It represents the first time that the American film industry has dramatized this compelling story.

As the Hollywood Reporter ’s Rebecca Keegan writes, The Woman King is “the product of a thousand battles” fought by Davis and Prince-Bythewood, both of whom have spoken out about the obstacles the production team faced when pitching a historical epic centered on strong Black women.

“The part of the movie that we love is also the part of the movie that is terrifying to Hollywood, which is, it’s different, it’s new,” Davis tells Keegan. “We don’t always want different or new, unless you have a big star attached, a big male star. … [Hollywood studios] like it when women are pretty and blond or close to pretty and blond. All of these women are dark. And they’re beating … men. So there you go.”

From the origins of the Agojie to Dahomey’s eventual fate, here’s what you need to know about the true history behind The Woman King ahead of its arrival in theaters on September 16.

Is The Woman King based on a true story?

In short, yes, but with extensive dramatic license. Though the broad strokes of the film are historically accurate, the majority of its characters are fictional, including Davis’ Nanisca and Thuso Mbedu ’s Nawi, a young warrior-in-training. (Nanisca and Nawi share names with documented members of the Agojie but are not exact mirrors of these women.) King Ghezo (played by John Boyega) is the exception; according to Lynne Ellsworth Larsen , an architectural historian who studies gender dynamics in Dahomey, Ghezo (who reigned 1818 to 1858) and his son Glele (who reigned 1858 to 1889) presided over what’s seen as “the golden age of Dahomean history,” ushering in an era of economic prosperity and political strength.

The Woman King opens in 1823 with a successful raid by the Agojie, who free captives bound for enslavement from the clutches of the Oyo Empire , a powerful Yoruba state in what is now southwestern Nigeria. Dahomey has long paid tribute to the Oyo but is beginning to assert itself under the leadership of Ghezo and General Nanisca. A parallel plotline finds Nanisca, who disapproves of the slave trade after experiencing its horrors personally, urging Ghezo to end Dahomey’s close relationship with Portuguese slave traders and shift to production of palm oil as the kingdom's main export.

The real Ghezo did, in fact, successfully free Dahomey from its tributary status in 1823. But the kingdom’s involvement in the slave trade doesn’t align as neatly with the historical record. As historian Robin Law notes , Dahomey emerged as a key player in the trafficking of West Africans between the 1680s and early 1700s, selling its captives to European traders whose presence and demand fueled the industry—and, in turn, the monumental scale of Dahomey’s warfare.

Though the majority of individuals taken prisoner by Dahomey were enslaved abroad, a not-insignificant number remained in the kingdom, where they served on royal farms, in the army or at the palace. In truth, Ghezo only agreed to end Dahomey’s participation in the slave trade in 1852, after years of pressure by the British government , which had abolished slavery (for not wholly altruistic reasons ) in its own colonies in 1833 . Though Ghezo did at one point explore palm oil production as an alternative source of revenue, it proved far less lucrative, and the king soon resumed Dahomey’s participation in the slave trade.

In response to concerns about how her movie will depict Dahomey’s engagement with European slave traders, Prince-Bythewood told the Hollywood Reporter , “We’re going to tell the truth. We’re not going to shy away from anything. But also we’re telling a part of the story which is about overcoming and fighting for what’s right.”

Portraying the Agojie, through Nanisca’s actions, as critics of the slave trade makes for a “nice story,” says Larsen in an interview. “Do I think it’s historically accurate? I’m skeptical.” She adds, “These women are symbols of strength and of power. But … they’re [also] complicit in a problematic system. They are still under the patriarchy of the king, and they are still players in the slave trade.”

Maria Bello, an actress and producer who co-wrote the story The Woman King ’s script is based on, first learned about the Agojie during a 2015 trip to Benin. Recognizing the subject’s cinematic appeal, she persuaded producer Cathy Schulman to find a studio willing to finance the project. Prince-Bythewood and Davis joined the team soon after. “It was a constant push and fight to convince people that we deserve a big budget, that we deserved to tell a story like this,” Prince-Bythewood tells the Los Angeles Times .

That the film was greenlit at all likely stems from the blockbuster success of 2018’s Black Panther , which testified to the demand for entertainment created by and featuring Black creatives. The movie’s Dora Milaje regiment was inspired by the Agojie .

“For so long, Hollywood has only ever framed Africa in stereotypical ways,” Aje-Ori Agbese , an expert on African cinema at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, tells Ms. magazine . “So [ The Woman King ], centered on African women and African history, will generate a conversation. We have Black Panther to thank for that.”

Who were the Agojie?

The first recorded mention of the Agojie dates to 1729 . But the unit was possibly formed even earlier, toward the beginning of Dahomey’s existence, when King Huegbadja (reigned circa 1645 to 1685) created a corps of woman elephant hunters . Alternatively, Queen  Hangbe , who briefly ruled as regent following the death of her brother in the early 18th century, may have introduced the women warriors as part of her palace guard. Either way, the Agojie reached their peak in the 19th century, under Ghezo, who formally incorporated them into Dahomey’s army. Thanks to the kingdom’s ongoing wars, Dahomey’s male population had dropped significantly, creating an opportunity for women to replace men on the battlefield.

“More perhaps than any other African state, Dahomey was dedicated to warfare and slave-raiding,” wrote Stanley B. Alpern in Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey , the first full-length English-language study of the Agojie. “It may also have been the most totalitarian, with the king controlling and regimenting practically every aspect of social life.”

Dahomey’s standing army was an anomaly in and of itself, as most other African kingdoms disbanded their forces when not actively at war. The fact that the Agojie and their male counterparts wore uniforms also set them apart, establishing the Dahomean military as an organized, highly visible fighting force.

“They’re meant to have a public face,” says Larsen. “They wanted to … be feared by their neighbors. This was a slave-trading kingdom, so warfare was part of their annual cycle. They needed to gather humans to be part of this heinous trans-Atlantic slave trade,” as well as for human sacrifices to posthumously deified kings.

The Agojie’s ranks included volunteers and forced conscripts alike. “Regiments were recruited from slaves, some of them captured as early in age as 10 years old, also the poor, and girls who were rebellious,” said Terri Ochiagha , an expert on colonial and postcolonial Nigeria at the University of Edinburgh, in the 2018 Smithsonian Channel documentary series “ Epic Warrior Women .” In The Woman King , Nawi ends up in the army after refusing to marry an elderly suitor.

All of Dahomey’s women warriors were considered ahosi , or wives of the king. They lived in the royal palace alongside the king and his other wives, inhabiting a largely woman-dominated space. Aside from eunuchs and the king himself, no men were allowed in the palace after sunset.

As Alpern told Smithsonian magazine in 2011, the Agojie were considered the king’s “third-class” wives, as they typically didn’t share his bed or bear his children. Because they were married to the king, they were restricted from having sex with other men, although the degree to which this celibacy was enforced is subject to debate . In addition to enjoying privileged status, the warriors had access to a steady supply of tobacco and alcohol. They also had enslaved servants of their own.

To become an Agojie, recruits underwent intensive training, including exercises designed to harden them to bloodshed. In 1889, French naval officer Jean Bayol witnessed Nanisca (who likely inspired the name of Davis’ character in The Woman King ), a teenager “who had not yet killed anyone,” easily pass a test of wills. Walking up to a condemned prisoner, she reportedly “swung her sword three times with both hands, then calmly cut the last flesh that attached the head to the trunk. … She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it.”

Another common form of training involved mock assaults that found recruits scrambling across towering walls of acacia thorns. In the words of a British traveler who examined the barriers, “I could not persuade myself that any human being, without boots or shoes, would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen.” The warriors bore the pain without complaint, and the bravest among them received acacia thorn belts marking their stoicism.

The Agojie’s divisions consisted of five branches: blunderbuss or artillery women, elephant hunters, musketeers, razor women and archers. Surprising the enemy was of the utmost importance. Warriors snuck up on villages at or before dawn, taking captives and decapitating those who resisted. Though European accounts of the Agojie vary widely, what “is indisputable … is their constantly outstanding performance in combat,” wrote Alpern in Amazons of Black Sparta . With the rest of the Dahomean army, these women warriors were “the scourge and terror of the whole surrounding country, always at war and generally victorious,” as an American missionary later recounted.

What happened to the Agojie?

Dahomey’s military dominance started to wane in the second half of the 19th century, when its army repeatedly failed to capture Abeokuta , a well-fortified Egba capital in what is now southwest Nigeria. An 1851 battle with the Egba, who’d settled in the region following the decline of the Oyo Empire, resulted in the deaths of up to 2,000 Agojie; in 1864, King Glele, who succeeded Ghezo a few years earlier, sought to avenge his father’s defeat at Abeokuta but was forced to retreat after just an hour and a half of fighting. Dahomean forces continued to target Egba villages until the early 1890s, when war with the French threatened the kingdom’s very existence.

Dahomey’s encounters with European colonizers had historically revolved mainly around the slave trade and religious missions . As the Scramble for Africa ramped up, however, tensions between Dahomey and France escalated. In 1863, the French declared the neighboring kingdom of Porto-Novo a colonial protectorate, angering Glele, who considered Porto-Novo a vassal of Dahomey. Glele also clashed with the French over the port city of Cotonou .

As Larsen articulates, the existence—and dominance—of Dahomey’s women warriors upset the French’s “understanding of gender roles and what women were supposed to do” in a “civilized” society. The women’s “flaunting of ferocity, physical power and fearlessness was manipulated or corrupted as Europeans started to interpret [it] in their own context of what they felt societies should be,” she says. For the French, the Agojie were simply “more fuel for their civilizing mission ,” which sought to impose European ideals on African countries.

The First Franco-Dahomean War began on February 21, 1890, just two months after the accession of Glele’s son Kondo, who took the name Béhanzin upon claiming the throne. On March 4, the Dahomean army attacked the French at Cotonou, only to fall to the Europeans’ vastly superior firepower. Nanisca, the teenager who’d left such an impression on French officer Bayol the previous year, decapitated the enemy’s chief gunner but died on the battlefield. Upon seeing Nanisca’s body, Bayol wrote that a “cleaver, its curved blade engraved with fetish symbols, was attached to her left wrist by a small cord, and her right hand was clenched round the barrel of her carbine covered with cowries.”

After facing a similar defeat at the Battle of Atchoupa on April 20, Dahomey agreed to a peace treaty assenting to French control over Porto-Novo and Cotonou. The lull in warfare lasted less than two years—an intermediary period that Béhanzin spent equipping his army with weapons equal to, or at least better matched with, the French’s. According to Alpern, upon receiving news of the French’s declaration of war, the Dahomean king said , “The first time, I was ignorant of how to make war, but now I know. … If you want war, I am ready. I wouldn’t stop even if it lasted 100 years and killed 20,000 of my men.”

Béhanzin proved true to his word. Over the course of seven weeks in fall 1892, Dahomey’s army fought valiantly to repel the French. The Agojie participated in 23 separate engagements during that short time span, earning the enemy’s respect for their valor and dedication to the cause. As one marine noted , “[N]either the cannons, nor the canister shot, nor the salvo fire stops them. … It is really strange to see women so well led, so well disciplined.” Though sources disagree on the number of women warriors who fought in the Second Franco-Dahomean War , Alpern cites 1,200 to 2,500 as a likely range.

At the village of Adégon on October 6, the Agojie suffered arguably their worst losses yet, with just 17 soldiers returning from an initial force of 434. Béhanzin’s brother Sagbaju Glele, who lived until the 1970s, told a local historian that the battle brought a moment of clarity for Dahomey’s courtiers, who now realized the inevitability of their kingdom’s destruction. The Dahomean army made a final stand at Cana in early November. The last day of fighting, reported a French marine colonel, was “one of the most murderous” of the entire war, beginning with the dramatic entrance of “the last Amazons … as well as the elephant hunters whose special assignment was to direct their fire at the officers.” The French officially seized the Dahomey capital of Abomey on November 17.

Between 2,000 and 4,000 Dahomean soldiers—including both men and women—died during the seven-week war. Of the roughly 1,200 Agojie in fighting shape at the beginning of the war, just 50 or 60 remained ready for battle by its end. Comparatively, the French side lost 52 Europeans and 33 Africans on the battlefield.

After the war, some of the surviving Agojie followed Béhanzin into exile in Martinique or served his brother, a puppet king installed by the French. Others tried to reenter society, to varying degrees of success. Still others toured Europe and the United States, performing dances and battlefield reenactments at “ living exhibitions ” that played into racist stereotypes of African people. At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, visitors to the “ Dahomey Village ” were welcomed by a pair of juxtaposed paintings: an Agojie holding up an enemy’s severed head and a white colonizer raising his helmet. “You have these parallel images of what was considered barbaric and what the civilizers were here to correct,” says Larsen.

Last year, Leonard Wantchekon , an economist at Princeton University and native of Benin who leads research seeking to identify the Agojie’s descendants, told the Washington Post that French colonization proved detrimental to women’s rights in Dahomey, with colonizers barring women from political leadership (in addition to serving as warriors, ahosi could become royal cabinet ministers) and educational opportunities.

“The French made sure this history wasn’t known,” he explained. “They said we were backward, that they needed to ‘civilize us,’ but they destroyed opportunities for women that existed nowhere else in the world.”

Nawi, the last known surviving Agojie with battlefield experience (and the probable inspiration for Mbedu’s character), died in 1979 , at well over 100 years old. But Agojie traditions continued long after Dahomey’s fall, with descendants of the warrior women sharing stories about their formidable ancestors and participating in religious rituals. When actress Lupita Nyong’o visited Benin for a 2019 Smithsonian Channel special , she met a woman identified by locals as an Agojie who’d been trained by older warriors as a child and kept hidden within a palace for decades.

Speaking with History.com , Wantchekon emphasizes the central role played by women in Dahomean society. “When we push back against [colonialist] misconception[s] and embrace the culture of gender equality that was thriving in Benin and places like it before colonization,” he says, “it is a way to embrace the legacy of this exceptional group of African female leaders that European history tried so hard to erase.”

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Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history.

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• Essay Contest Call for Submissions: Solving the Military Recruiting Crisis

MWI Staff | 07.19.23

Update: We’re thrilled to announce that the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has joined the Modern War Institute in organizing this essay contest and evaluating submissions. In addition to the top essays being published by the Modern War Institute, authors of the best submissions will have an opportunity to discuss their ideas with TRADOC senior leaders. TRADOC will also review all essays to evaluate their contributions to resolving the military recruiting crisis.

Essay requirements and the submission deadline remain the same, and authors who have already submitted their entries should not resubmit.

“Credible defense begins with our ability to steadily attract and retain the men and women who would assume the initial burden of a fast breaking war.” More than forty years ago, Vice Admiral Robert B. Pirie, Jr. eloquently described why recruiting was a national security issue.

This year, the Army will again fail to meet recruiting goals after falling fifteen thousand short last year. Likewise, the Navy anticipates falling six thousand sailors short of its target. The Air Force has issues too , with Secretary Frank Kendall acknowledging in March that his service would fall 10 percent short this year. Except for the two smallest services—the Marine Corps and Space Force—the United States’ armed forces continue to face recruiting woes.

With this serious issue as a backdrop, the Modern War Institute and the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) are launching an essay contest that seeks to explore the problem and identify solutions that could help the services address it.

Essay Prompt

Essays must answer the following prompt: What novel approaches can the United States military employ to solve the recruiting crisis?

This topic is broad. Essays might address new incentives, lessons from other countries or uniformed services, the impact of telework, messaging and marketing, how to resolve tensions created by years of recruiting shortfalls, ideas from labor economics or other academic fields, historical perspectives on recruiting challenges and solutions, or other ideas related to recruiting. Essays can take any form, to include speculative fiction. However, because of length limits, we strongly encourage authors to clearly articulate one idea or concept in their responses to the prompt.

Your ideas will inform internal conversations and workshops in support of the Modern War Institute’s human resources research theme. Based on the ideas presented in their essays, authors may be invited to contribute to future MWI publications or events on this topic.

Eligibility

• Essays will be accepted from any person in any field, and submissions from non-US participants are welcomed.
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• Essays must be original, unpublished, and not subject to publication elsewhere.
• Essays will not exceed 1,500 words.
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• Submission deadline: essays will be accepted until 11:59 PM EDT on September 3, 2023.

Selection Process

Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by a team from the Modern War Institute and TRADOC. Submissions will be assessed based on how well and creatively they address the topic of the contest and provoke further thought and conversation, as well as their suitability for publication by the Modern War Institute (e.g., style, sources, accessibility, etc.). Evaluation criteria include:

• Does the essay clearly define a problem and present a solution?
• Does the essay show thoughtful analysis?
• Does the essay inject new provocative thinking or address areas where there needs to be more discussion?
• Does the essay demonstrate a unique approach or improve current initiatives?
• Does the essay take lessons from history and apply them to today’s challenges?
• Is the essay logically organized, well written, and persuasive?

Winning Submissions

The top three essays will be announced publicly and will be published by the Modern War Institute. Depending on the evaluation of the Modern War Institute editorial team, revisions may be required before publication.

Additionally, the authors of the top submissions with senior leaders from TRADOC and the US Army’s Recruiting Command. Furthermore, TRADOC will review all essays to support the Army’s recruiting efforts.

Image credit: Spc. Kelsea Cook, Indiana National Guard

Although I am not much of an essay writer, perhaps the thesis, etc.. that I provide below will allow someone — who is a decent essay writer — to develop and provide a good essay for this competition. Here goes:

First, the essay prompt/question: "What novel approaches can the United States military employ to solve the recruiting crisis?"

Next, the proposed answer to this such essay prompt/question:

In order for the United States military to solve its current recruiting problems, the United States military must become able — in some way, shape or form — to better assure potential military recruits — and their families and friends — that they (these potential military recruits) will now (a) be less likely to be used to prosecute unnecessary, improper, ill-advised and/or ill-conceived and executed engagements and wars and, thus, will now (b) be less likely to find themselves in a position to be badly injured and/or killed in such unnecessary, improper, ill-advised, etc., engagements and wars.

(Herein to note that this such thesis and approach takes direct aim at the our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan of late and, thus, potentially gets directly to the/a true "root cause" of our current recruiting problems?)

It is not so much the fact that potential military recruits — and their families and friends — are unlikely to join/want their children and friends to join because they understand that these children and/or friends might get seriously injured and/or kill while engaged in our military profession.

Rather it is the fact that these such potential military recruits — and their families and friends — are unlikely to join/want their children and friends to join because they see the trend (think Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) wherein these such injuries and deaths were/are incurred in what now is considered to be unnecessary, improper, ill-advised and/or ill-conceived and executed engagements and wars.

(Herein, it will be important to address the "common nature" of these such unnecessary, improper, Ill-advised, etc., engagements and wars — this being — that they were ultimately undertaken to achieve "revolutionary" political, economic, social and value "change" in the states and societies of the world — that is — states and societies in the world who are most different from ultra-modern "us.")

Bottom Line Thought — Based on the Above:

Today's recruiting problems, thus I believe, can be traced to the fact that our potential military recruits — and their families and friends — :

a. Do not agree with the "transformative" political objective of the United States post-the Old Cold War and/or:

b. Do not agree with the manner (war; military engagement) in which the U.S. has chosen to pursue this such — "transformative" — post-Cold War political objective.

B.C I believe after reading this long-winded comment. That you have a problem with Americas terrible policy and foreign policy decisions. You of course would be correct. For the same reasons they can't figure out foreign policy, our leaders can't figure out Retention and Recruitment problems. In both cases the American people are becoming aware that little of the decisions being made are done to benefit the country as a whole. Instead, they are to line the pockets of certain individuals and companies. For example, the Ukraine conflict, Billions of taxpayer dollars for no strategic goal or benefit. This coming off the back side of 20 years of Iraq and Afghanistan which obviously served little purpose at this point. Where is Kurdistan? Was Dick Chaney ever charged? There are many more such examples. But to your original point, I would believe that contest submissions would need to limit the material to only what the military itself could do to correct the recruitment shortfalls.

Don't worry. I wrote a very direct but elligent version of thus. You're welcome. Shoot me an email if you want it, [email protected]

Bring back the 6 month active duty with 4 years active reserve and free college education.

So, when it is time to combat, they will retreat with the excuse that I got in to get the college, not to go to war. My father (RIP) lived this cluster, and it was ridiculous seen young men and women played the Army. My son and I did active duty, did the required services, and every time that we hear the national anthem "of the land of the brave", we meant it. We never embrace college free benefits to defend our nation. and money

If you would like access to at least 250 papers on this topic get with the Sergeants Major Academy. Class 73 wrote a lot on this topic between white paper, capstone papers, and possibly a focus papers.

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U.S. Intelligence Helped Israel Rescue Four Hostages in Gaza

Intelligence collection and analysis teams from the U.S. and the U.K. have been in Israel throughout the war.

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By Julian E. Barnes ,  Ronen Bergman and Michael D. Shear

• June 8, 2024

The U.S. provided intelligence on the hostages before Israel’s successful rescue operation Saturday, according to American and Israeli officials briefed on the assistance.

A team of American hostage recovery officials stationed in Israel assisted the Israeli military’s effort to rescue the four captives by providing intelligence and other logistical support, one American official said, speaking without attribution to discuss the sensitive operation.

Intelligence collection and analysis teams from the United States and Britain have been in Israel throughout the war, assisting Israeli intelligence in collecting and analyzing information related to the hostages, some of them citizens of both countries, according to a senior Israeli defense official familiar with the effort to locate and rescue the hostages.

Two Israeli intelligence officials said the American military officials in Israel provided some of the intelligence about the hostages rescued Saturday.

Speaking in Paris after meeting with Emmanuel Macron of France, President Biden said he welcomed “the safe rescue of four hostages that were returned to their families in Israel.”

“We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a cease-fire is reached,” he added, “and it’s essential.”

The Pentagon and the C.I.A. have been providing information collected from drone flights over Gaza, communications intercepts and other sources about the potential location of hostages. While Israel has its own intelligence, the United States and Britain have been able to provide intelligence from the air and cyberspace that Israel cannot collect on its own, the Israeli official said.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, celebrated the rescue, and referred glancingly at the American assistance.

“The United States is supporting all efforts to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas, including American citizens,” Mr. Sullivan said in a statement. “This includes through ongoing negotiations or other means.”

Mr. Sullivan added that the cease-fire proposal currently being discussed by negotiators from Hamas, Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States would be the way to bring home the remaining hostages.

“The hostage release and cease-fire deal that is now on the table would secure the release of all the remaining hostages together with security assurances for Israel and relief for the innocent civilians in Gaza,” he said.

American officials have said their intelligence support for Israel is focused on the location of hostages and information about Hamas’s top leadership. In large measure this is because American officials believe the best way to persuade Israel to end the war is to get back its hostages and capture or kill top Hamas leaders.

The Israeli official said neither the American nor British teams were involved in the planning or execution of the military operations to rescue the hostages. Israelis, experts in hostage rescue, would have required little support in the tactical planning. But the American and Israeli officials said the outside intelligence did provide added value.

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades. More about Julian E. Barnes

Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House. More about Ronen Bergman

Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Biden and his administration. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years. More about Michael D. Shear