How America goes to war

172 Pages·2005·10.203 MB·English

by  Frank Everson Vandiver

How America
Goes to War
This page intentionally left blank
How America
Goes to War
Frank E. Vandiver
Modern Military Tradition
Jon L. Wakelyn, Series Editor
PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vandiver, FVank Everson, 1925-
How America goes to war / Frank E. Vandiver.
p. em. —(Modern military tradition)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-98514-8 (alk. paper)
1. United States —History, Militarv. 2. War and emergency powers —
United States-History. I. Title. II. Series.
E181.V36 2005
355!.033073'09-dc22 2005004212
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2005 bv The Estate of Frank E. Vandiver
All rights reserved. No portion of this book mav be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005004212
ISBN:'0-275-98514-8
ISSN: 1553-7196
First published in 2005
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Croup, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States oi America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued bv the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a demo
cratic country. . . . War does not always give over democratic com
munities to military government, but it must invariably increase the
powers of civil government. All those who seek to destroy the liber
ties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and
the shortest means to accomplish it.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Foreword by Jon Wakelyn ix
Preface xi
1 The Whiskey Rebellion 1
2 Mr. Madison's War 11
3 The War with Mexico 21
4 The Civil War 31
5 The Spanish-American War 43
6 The Great War 51
7 The Second World War 63
8 Korea 75
viii • Contents
9 Vietnam 89
10 The Cold War 99
11 New War, Old Cost 111
12 The Fifth Horseman 127
Afterword 141
Notes 145
Further Reading 149
Index 151
Foreword
Frank E. Vandiver passed away just after he delivered the finished text of
this important work in military history to the publisher. A pioneer in the
study of warfare and warriors, from his earliest work Vandiver understood
the relationship between preparedness and the ability to fight. His book
on Josiah Gorgas remains a landmark effort on the value of logistics in
warfare. The countless articles and thematic books he wrote on the Civil
War revealed to his peers his nearly effortless powers to describe men and
their materiel of war. Flis Mighty Stonewall was the first work to reveal
how that great captain Thomas J. Jackson prepared for and fought an of
fensive war. Vandiver, always keen on the comparative dimension in war
studies, next wrote the definitive biography of that great student of mod
ern warfare, Black Jack Pershing. Vandiver's love of the Great War, and
his time spent as Harmsworth Professor at Oxford, led to an enduring in
terest in the career of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, about whom he had
long planned to write a biography.
Generations of readers and Vandiver's many students benefitted from
both his work and his many friendships. From his first students at Wash
ington University, to a generation of students trained at Rice University, to
the gifted students he somehow7 managed to take on while serving as a dy
namic president of Texas A&M, to his splendid mentoring of scholars at