Maxwell Taylor's Cold War

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Trauschweizer
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
White House ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Armed Services

Maxwell Taylor’s Cold Wartraces the Cold War career of Maxwell Taylor, a Kennedy White House insider and architect of American strategy in Vietnam. After 1945 Taylor led the U.S. Military Academy, commanded American forces in Berlin and Korea, guided the army through declining budget shares, emerged as a critic of President Eisenhower’s nuclear deterrence strategy, and, in the 1960s, served as military advisor at the White House, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, ambassador in South Vietnam, and advisor to Lyndon Johnson. Taylor remained a public critic of defense policy and civil-military relations into the 1980s. Through Taylor’s career we can investigate the evolution of the national security establishment from the vantage points of the military and the executive branch: what is the role of the armed services in national and international security strategies? Where do service interests and national interest intersect and what happens when there is less-than-complete overlap? What is the role of the JCS and their chairman? This has implications for historical and contemporary issues: civil-military relations, the question at what levels professional military advice needs to be heard, and the ramifications of the evolving challenges of war and balance of strategy and force structure for conventional warfare and counterinsurgency. These issues are linked in the hierarchies of a nationalsecurity state built for industrial wars of the twentieth century (between states), which now faces varied threats in the twenty-first century (from insurgents and terrorist groups) that were at least partly foreshadowed in the Vietnam War era.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Ingo Trauschweizer
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
White House ◽  
Joint Chiefs Of Staff ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Armed Services ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

In 1984 officials in Washington debated reforming the defense establishment and who should advise presidents on strategy in times of crisis. Maxwell Taylor, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), John F. Kennedy White House insider, and one of the architects of America’s war in Vietnam, told members of Congress that the JCS were divided by service interests and had never fulfilled their role as strategy advisors. He concluded the system should not be reformed—it should be torn down. The Goldwater-Nichols Act that resulted in October 1986 did not quite meet Taylor’s radical proposal of a complete restructuring even though it enhanced the powers of the JCS chairman. This book considers what shaped Taylor’s thinking. Through his career in the Cold War we can investigate critical questions from the vantage points of the military and the executive branch: What is the role of the armed services in national and international security strategies? Where do service interests and national interest intersect and what happens when there is less-than-complete overlap? What is the role of the JCS and their chairman? And how could the armed services prepare for vastly different challenges, ranging from nuclear war to conventional battle, counterinsurgency, and nation building?...

Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Grey Zone ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Asymmetric Warfare ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Civilian Leadership

This book explores contemporary civil-military relations in the United States. Much of the canonical literature on civil-military relations was either written during or references the Cold War, while other major research focuses on the post-Cold War era, or the first decade of the twenty-first century. A great deal has changed since then. This book considers the implications for civil-military relations of many of these changes. Specifically, it focuses on factors such as breakdowns in democratic and civil-military norms and conventions; intensifying partisanship and deepening political divisions in American society; as well as new technology and the evolving character of armed conflict. Chapters are organized around the principal actors in civil-military relations, and the book includes sections on the military, civilian leadership, and the public. It explores the roles and obligations of each. The book also examines how changes in contemporary armed conflict influence civil-military relations. Chapters in this section examine the cyber domain, grey zone operations, asymmetric warfare and emerging technology. The book thus brings the study of civil-military relations into the contemporary era, in which new geopolitical realities and the changing character of armed conflict combine with domestic political tensions to test, if not potentially redefine, those relations.

The Clinton Administration and Africa: Role of Congress and the Africa Subcommittees

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Volman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Clinton Administration ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Foreign Operations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Studies of U.S. government relations with Africa have generally focused on the role of the executive branch, specifically by examining and analyzing the views and activities of administration officials and the members of executive branch bureaucracies. This is only natural, given the predominant role that the executive branch has historically played in the development and implementation of U.S. policy toward the continent. However, the U.S. Congress has always played an important role in determining U.S. policy toward Africa due to its constitutional authority over the appropriation and authorization of funding for all foreign operations conducted by the executive branch. Furthermore, Congress enacted legislation on several occasions during the Cold War period that directly affected U.S. policy. For example, Congress approved the Clark Amendment prohibiting U.S. intervention in Angola (although it later voted to repeal the amendment) and also passed the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which imposed sanctions on South Africa over the veto of the Reagan administration.

The Best of Intentions

2019 ◽  
pp. 222-249
Author(s):  
Anit Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Design ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Discussion ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Defense Planning

This chapter examines defense planning in the Indian military. It begins with a conceptual discussion on the role of civilians in defense planning, mainly by examining the experience of other democracies. Next, it describes the history of defense planning in India, focusing on the formulation and implementation of five-year defense plans. There are three main arguments in this chapter. First, effective defense planning requires a close partnership between civilians and the military. Second, defense planning in India is marked by a lack of civilian guidance and institutional discordance, creating friction in civil–military relations. To an extent, this is because of a lack of expertise, on the part of civilians, and an institutional design that creates strong civil–military silos. Third, notwithstanding the above, there have been periodic attempts at reforming defense-planning structures. Progress has been achieved in some sectors, but much remains to be done.

Depth in Staff

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
Stephen Skowronek ◽  
John A. Dearborn ◽  
Desmond King
Keyword(s):  
Executive Branch ◽  
House Staff ◽  
First Year ◽  
White House ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Trump Administration ◽  
At Will

This chapter considers depth in staff, exploring the role of White House officials tasked to bridge the president’s personal direction with the institutional presidency and the executive branch at large. These staffers are normally part of the presidential party, collectively representing the different wings of the president’s electoral coalition. In the Trump administration, the White House staff jostled for influence and favor throughout the president’s first year. Trump bristled at their efforts to establish regular processes and to control the flow of information. The president saw management of that sort as an impingement on his authority to act on his own instincts and to direct his subordinates at will. Differences over the issue of trade afford a brief, but sharp, illustration of the tension between an institutional presidency and the personal direction of a unitary executive.

Puget Sound's Security Codependencyand Western Cold War Histories, 1950–1984

2011 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-293
Author(s):  
Brian G. Casserly
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Movement ◽  
The Public ◽  
War Experience ◽  
Armed Services ◽  
The Military

Puget Sound provides a case study of significant changes in the West's Cold War experience and illustrates that this era can be understood in terms of two distinct phases, with a turning point in the late 1960s/early 1970s. This transition saw shifts in relationships between Puget Sound residents and the military, from a traditional, almost unanimous support for the military's presence in the region, to the development of a much more hostile attitude among some segments of the public. This change reflected growing concerns about the environment and skepticism about military-related economic growth. It was also shaped by concerns about nuclear weapons and the role of the armed services in U.S. foreign relations, the result of the rebirth of the anti-nuclear movement across the United States in the 1970s.

scholarly journals Educating the Professional Military

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-497
Author(s):  
Anit Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Military Education ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Professional Military Education ◽  
Education Benefits ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Objective Control ◽  
Military Relations

This article analyzes the ways in which civil–military relations shape professional military education (PME). Its main argument is that military education benefits from a civil–military partnership. In doing so, the article examines the role of civil–military relations in shaping PME in India. While describing the evolution of military education in India, it analyzes its weaknesses and argues that this is primarily due to its model of civil–military relations, with a limited role for civilians. Theoretically, this argument challenges Samuel Huntington’s notion of “objective control”—which envisaged a strict separation between the civil and military domains. Conceptually, this article argues for a greater dialogue on military education among civilians, both policy makers and academics, and military officers and not to leave it to the military’s domain—as is currently the practice in most countries.

Remedies for Human Subjects of Cold War Research: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mastroianni ◽  
Jeffrey Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Advisory Committee ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Human Subjects Research ◽  
White House ◽  
Research Recommendations

At a White House ceremony in October 1995, the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments presented its Final Report to President Bill Clinton. The 925-page report and the over 2,000 pages of supplemental volumes summarized eighteen months of investigative research, debate, and deliberation on historical and contemporary issues in human subjects research. The Advisory Committee's efforts were aided by unprecedented support from the highest levels of the executive branch, including the heads of eight cabinet-level agencies and their departments' resources. The presidentially appointed committee and its staff delved into long-forgotten Cold Warera government archives, listened to hours of public testimony, interviewed key players in the development of medical therapies and nuclear weapons, and studied ethical issues arising in today's research.In this article we focus on a critical, but narrowly defined, part of the Advisory Committee's Final Report: remedying harms or wrongs to subjects of human radiation experiments conducted or sponsored by the U.S. government between 1944 and 1974.

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