U.S. Military History

This commentary, published in The Japan Times on January 27, 2021, discusses NAACP civil rights lawyer (and future Supreme Court Associate Justice) Thurgood Marshall's work in Japan seventy years ago in 1951 for racial justice and equality among the U.S. military forces.

The author states that the "Europe First" strategy of the United States in World War II was more a political statement that a military strategy.  He asserts that the U.S. effort required to defeat Japan has been underestimated by many historians.

A discussion of the US Civil War and the Historiography of the “Lost Cause” and Its Effect on How We View US Civil War History, specifically exploring the basic tenets of the Lost Cause, their development, and the effect on how U.S. Civil War history is viewed with particular emphasis on General James Longstreet who was scapegoated and blamed for the loss of the war.

The Natchez U.S. Colored Troops Monument Committee is seeking public input on its monument project. The committee is working to erect a monument that will honor the more than 3,000 African American men who served with the U.S. Colored Troops at Fort McPherson in Natchez, Miss. The honor will include the Navy servicemen who were born in Natchez.

If you have questions or ideas about the Natchez USCT Monument project that you want the committee to consider, then complete the attached Survey Form and submit it to the chairperson of the appropriate subcommittee listed below.

You may also contact us by email at NatchezUSCT@juno.com

History and Research Subcommittee
Contact Chairwoman Deborah Fountain at DescendantsofNatchezUSCT@gmail.com

Monument Design Subcommittee
Contact Chairman Lance Harris at lharris@mdah.ms.gov

Site Subcommittee
Contact Chairman Devin Heath at Devin@visitnatchez.org

Finance/Fundraising Subcommittee
Contact Mayor Dan Gibson at mayor@natchez.ms.us

Marketing/PR Subcommittee
Contact Chairman Roscoe Barnes III at Roscoe@visitnatchez.org

Chairman Robert Pernell can be reached at robeperne@gmail.com, and Vice Chairman Carter Burns can be reached at carterburns@natchez.org.

While many are familiar with the Normandy Invasion, few American, Canadian or British citizens know about the massive air campaign waged against their occupied ally. This offensive lasted four long years and targeted most of France’s population centers and infrastructure. By the time the war was over, the Allied air forces killed as many French as the Germans killed British civilians during the “blitz” and vengeance weapon assaults, equaling between 60,000 and 75,000 out of a total of 150,000 French civilian deaths during the war were caused by Allied bombs.

For Rouen’s civilians the war did not end on June 6, 1944. For more than two months, the city continued to see both the movement of German forces to the front and the continuation of attacks by fighter-bombers. After months of heavy allied bombing, Canadian troops finally moved into Rouen, ending the nightmare.

Today, after decades of reconstruction, Rouen is a thriving, vibrant city. It has a beautiful riverfront, great shopping and wonderful cafés and restaurants. However, evidence of the wartime destruction is obvious: damage to the front of the Palace de Justice, the remains of burnt-out buildings, and the noticable differences in the architecture of buildings constructed before and after the war.

Justified or not, the devastation of Rouen in 1944 is part of the Second World War’s sordid history. It is certainly a narrative worthy of understanding when evaluating the war’s effect on politics and society in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The United States has engaged in several years of war in Iraq against the Islamic State (IS) since launching Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in October 2014. The United States estimates that they have killed more than 60,000 IS members, conducted more than 22,000 airstrikes and trained more than 100,000 security forces throughout Iraq. The successful U.S. campaign is in contrast to past operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere and is best encapsulated in the " by, with, and through " approach of letting Iraqis lead operations. This bottom-up approach is tactically successful but is short on strategy, opening the door for Iranian influence in Iraq. The United States is modeling other counterterror operations throughout the world on its Iraq success with other " build partner capacity " programs. Based on two years of fieldwork and interviews, this article examines both the tactical successes and policy implications of the U.S. successes against IS in Iraq.

During World War II a daring action by Australian commandos  to capture an airfield at Kaiapit changed the strategic situation in New Guinea. However, 75 years on, where the 1942 battles of Kokoda and Milne have become famous, the 1943 campaigns in New Guinea - which included stunning actions such as Kaipait - are absent from Australian popular memory.

While  there  were  demonstrations  in  the  United  States  against  the
Vietnam  War,  numerous  Americans  protested  the  military  draft,  as  well. What  is  more,  young  Americans  also  made  every  effort  to  avoid conscription. In addition, the soldiers in the U.S. armed forces also be gan to oppose  the  war  that  led  the  American  army  on  the  verge  of  disintegration. Why  did  so  many  young  Americans  want  to  evade  the  draft  at  all  costs?  How could they manage to avoid going to Vietnam? Why did the resistance emerge  in  the  U.S.  military  during  the  Vietnam  War?  The  purpose  of  this essay  is  to  discuss  and  examine  the  arguments  of  draft  protesters  and  the opposition in the U.S. army during the Vietnam War.

Increasing modernization in military technology and methodology occurred
during the beginning of the twentieth century. These changes had a direct effect on how
U.S. Marines practiced military intelligence during the occupation of Haiti from 1915
1934. The use of military intelligence had an impact on the outcome on the occupation
but was not the only factor that contributed to U.S. military victories. My thesis explains
that the improvement of intelligence methods used by Marines in Haiti occurred as a
result of outside influence, changing circumstance in Haiti, and individual agency. Major
failures had occurred that allowed resistance to grow unchecked in the Haitian
countryside. With the introduction of full-time military intelligence officers and
improved data documentation, the intelligence collected became more useful to Marine
Corps leadership. The staff officers that assumed the roles of intelligence personnel
created new forms for recording intelligence reports and made past intelligence more
accessible to military command. Individual ingenuity led to the assassination of
Charlemagne Peralte, the central leader of the caco revolt. This thesis discusses the
intelligence innovation that occurred during the occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1935.

Innovator, achiever, expert, visionary, legend, trailblazer, early adopter, trendsetter, change maker, influencer, connector, philanthropist, operational researcher, and communicator capture some of the roles of innovation, but this list that focuses on "heroic" innovators shorts the contribution of teams and the larger environment of enterprise and profit.  The Marine Corps, especially in light of the 38th Commandant's Planning Guidance, should lean into the idea that innovation is collaborative.  "Every Marine an innovator" could help the Corps focus on how it needs the contributions of all to grow stronger.

Paper presented for "The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and Its Policy Consequences  Today.”, hosted by Bowling Green State University, University of Toledo Law School, and the Robert M. Jackson Foundation.

This is also the conference draft that was the basis for the published chapter in "The Nuremberg War Crime Trial and Its Policy Consequences Today" listed below.

It is a fundamentally popular belief that the historical development of modern law of war (humanitarian law) is an example of the positive and progressive nature of human legal interaction between states.  That this is substantially correct is evidenced by the line of normative conferences stretching back to the late nineteenth century, through which states interacted to attempt an amelioration of the horrors of a rapidly industrialized world in which states possessed increasingly lethal weapons.  The 20th century would bring World Wars and the development of Atomic weapons, and in each case, the global community gathered and negotiated new “rules” that were meant to lessen the impact of war upon the innocent.  In Geneva Convention IV of 1949, a new standard of behaviors would secure rights for combatants and protect non-combatants from unnecessary suffering, and would remain intact for all future revisions.  A comforting narrative, yet, it is both incomplete and erroneous. 

Through Geneva IV (1949), the global community applied lessons that expanded rights and responsibilities of nations, through their combatant parties.  A reaffirmation of the role of the state as the responsible actor was a primary goal, excluding, for the most part, non-state parties from collective responsibility as well as from protections as lawful combatants.

Geneva IV did not address non-state actors as equals, and this omission would be a subject of intense debate in the broader global community.  In 1977, after four years of formal meetings that for the first time recognized non-state actors (at least as non-voting participants with rights of commentary) the global community would offer Additional Protocols I (AP1)  and II for state ratification.  These negotiations, couched in terms of “justice” and “equity” were realpolitik advanced at a new democratic level in the cause of the Global South (including those states that were aligned with either side in the Cold War) by addressing the organizational and technical advantages the Global North held.  “Military Necessity,” negated as a defense at Nuremberg, was now clearly a concept that influenced calls for asymmetrical behaviors in the operational requirements that distinguished advanced militaries from their insurgent foes.  A new and regressive set of rules were codified in AP1; from this point on, the legacy of World War II as the apex of humanity’s brutality that had spurred advances in international law in the case of conventional (non-nuclear) warfare was under threat.  Distracted by the policy-distorting specter of global nuclear Armageddon, the U.S. and the Soviet Union found themselves engaged in a diplomatic struggle to exclude nuclear capabilities from inclusion in the new frameworks, which ultimately played into the Global South’s concentration on  conventional and political issues that suited their goals: a redefinition of the state, the recognition of “freedom fighters” as both lawful combatants with traditional rights as well as drastic temporal advantages in automatic revision to noncombatant or even civilian status when not directly engaged in hostilities.  These “Distinctions” (A basic principle of Just War doctrine) were meant to negate the superior advantages of the Global North, and were the real prize for the Global South.  A review of the arguments in the record of the conference is a primary basis for the discussion.

"A new profession emerged on the battlefield of the American Civil War: the war reporter. Military correspondents, writers and artists traveled with the armies, sometimes in large groups. More than ever before, the home front and the war itself was constructed in the newspapers. While such journalists were often a rowdy bunch with questionable ethics, they did inform the public about things the military would rather have liked to keep undercover. The military engaged with the media in both positive and negative ways, from developing a friendly if manipulative public relations stance to outright censorship. Enemy newspapers were also treated in a variety of ways. One strange episode is the "Great Newspaper Run" of the Memphis Appeal which managed to escape its hunters for years, publishing continuously in many locations under difficult circumstances.

GERMAN /DEUTSCH - Vor 150 Jahren entstand auf den Schlachtfeldern des US-Bürgerkriegs ein neuer Beruf: Der Kriegsreporter.
Schlagwörter: Bohemian Brigade, Great Newspaper Run, Journalismus, Kriegsberichterstattung, Militär, Pressearbeit, Pressefreiheit, Telegrafie, USA, Zeichnungen, Zeitung, Zensur
Personen: Barbara Ellis, Brayton Harris, Abraham Lincoln, George Meade, Thomas Nast, James Perry, William Sherman
Publikationen: Harper’s Weekly, Memphis Daily Appeal (Moving Appeal, Appeal on Wheels), New York Herald, New York Times, New York Tribune"

The closure of 91 military facilities and the relocation of 54 others came closer to being realized last March (1988) after the House Armed Services Committee voted in favor of the congressional amendment that would being the base closure and relocation (BRAC) process in 1989. Of the almost $700 million per year the recommended closing and relocations would save the US DoD budget, the largest part will come from US Air Force facilities.
[Authored by G. Jacobs under pseudonyn "Gene D. Tracy]

Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger had his own views of the challenges within the world, most specifically those posed by the growth of the Soviet Union's military power. The article summarized these views, as seen in the mid-Eighties.

At a White House dinner on January 35th, 2017, U.S. President Donald J. Trump was persuaded to slacken the rules of engagement for U.S. military actions in "areas of active hostility" in Yemen and Somalia. Since President Trump's decision, U.S. SpecOps troops and Yemeni and Somali civilians have been killed in U.S. military actions carried out with insufficient vetting and faulty intelligence. This op-ed argues that U.S. military actions should instead be subject to the heightened rules of engagement described in President Obama's Presidential Policy Guidelines of December 2016.

This week, dozens of aging combat veterans made their way to Washington D.C. Early on the morning of Wednesday, April 13, they completed an almost mandatory circuit taking them from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery to the World War II and Korean War memorials in the National Mall. They took part in wreath laying ceremonies at these monuments–an act of remembrance and respect for those fallen in combat and the ones still missing. Many of the veterans couldn’t contain their tears as the bugle played “Taps”.  Who knows where the melody transported them?  Did they remember battles fought? Friends lost? The terror of war? The pride they felt for their service?  The price they paid in their youth?

This scene is a common occurrence at these sites. Veterans from the many wars this country has fought find their way to these monuments triggering memories of days long gone and reopening unhealed, invisible wounds. This time, the majority of these veterans were Puerto Ricans who fought in the Korean War with the 65th U.S. Army Infantry Regiment—also known as el sesenta y cinco de infantería. Regardless of where they came from they were all Borinqueneers.

See whole article at http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/centrovoices/chronicles/borinqueneers-forgotten-heroes-forgotten-war?ct=t%28Centro_Voices_Spring_4_8_2016%29&mc_cid=e6550acf82&mc_eid=b0c447c05a