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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Are presidents who've served in military history?

    Are presidents who've served in military history?

    For first time in 80 years, nobody on major tickets has served


    President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney exchange views during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. last Tuesday. A lack of military service is something they have in common. — AP

    Written by John Wilkens

    12:58 p.m., Oct. 20, 2012


    President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney spend a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about their differences.

    One similarity they rarely mention: Neither served in the military.

    Nor did their running mates, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. It’s the first time in 80 years that there are no veterans on either major-party ticket for the White House. The last time it happened, in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover.

    Military service used to be a featured part of any candidate’s résumé. After all, this is a nation, forged in armed conflict, that elected as its first president a Revolutionary War hero: George Washington. The Civil War propelled Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency; World War II did the same for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

    In all, 31 of the 43 presidents have been veterans.

    “The highest responsibility a president has is serving as commander in chief and making decisions about sending American sons and daughters into harm’s way,” said John Nagl, a retired Army officer and veteran of both Iraq wars.

    “There’s certainly an argument to be made that someone who has been there has a different appreciation than one who hasn’t.”

    Over the last 20 years, though, the ties between military service and the presidency have unraveled, according to Nagl, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. He noted that in every election since 1992, the candidate with the more-distinguished military record has lost.

    It’s a trend that’s due in part to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, the nation’s most unpopular war, and to the end of the draft and establishment of an all-volunteer military, which have lessened the connection society at large has to those in uniform.

    “The character of the country has changed,” said Rod Melendez, executive director of the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. “Fewer and fewer people have served. There’s a lot of general support among the public for those in the military. That’s not the same as having walked in those shoes.”

    During World War II, about 9 percent of the population was in the armed forces. Today: Less than 1 percent.

    Put it another way: A smaller share of Americans currently serve than at any time in the past 80 years — and this while the military has been engaged in its longest period of sustained combat in the nation’s history.

    Romney and Biden are old enough to have been drafted for Vietnam. Romney received draft deferments while going to college and doing Mormon missionary work in France. Biden received college deferments and then was disqualified for health reasons (asthma). Obama and Ryan came of age after the draft had ended.

    “This is probably the new normal,” Nagl said. “From now on, it will be unusual to have a candidate for president who has military service.”

    Does it matter?

    Retired Marine Col. Jack Harkins heads the United Veterans Council, an umbrella group of 200 organizations in San Diego. He sees the drop-off in military service among the nation’s leaders as troubling.

    “It’s indicative of our two political parties just frankly overlooking the value of being part of our armed forces,” he said. “They’re not attentive to the significance of that kind of service to the national character.”

    During the 1970s, about 80 percent of the members of Congress had military experience. As recently as 1992, it was 50 percent. Now it’s about 20 percent.

    Harkins, who spent 35 years in the Marines, said people who have been in uniform bring certain favorable characteristics with them when they move into government, business or community organizations. “You can communicate to people something about teamwork and cooperation, about putting others before yourself,” he said.

    And something about perspective, said Melendez, the Veterans Museum director and a retired Navy rear admiral.

    “My personal opinion is I would certainly like to have people at the top with military experience, especially when they are committing U.S. forces on behalf of the country,” he said. “I think military experience tempers a rush to judgment. It’s too easy to see the military as just a tool instead of being made up of people who have families.”

    That was a concern of Eisenhower’s, too. As an Army general, he oversaw the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can,” he later said.

    Congressman Duncan Hunter, a Marine combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he understands the concerns about having leaders with no military backgrounds making military decisions.

    “It’s harder to articulate what’s needed, whether you’re talking about Afghanistan or procurement or weapons, when people don’t speak the same language,” he said.

    But when it comes to the president, he doesn’t see being a veteran as mandatory. “As long as you surround yourself with good, smart people who can fill in the blanks, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

    It didn’t matter with Roosevelt, whose only military experience was as a civilian assistant secretary of the Navy. It didn’t matter with Abraham Lincoln, whose service was limited to three months as a militia captain in the Black Hawk War. Both are routinely considered among the nation’s greatest presidents.

    Conversely, Grant, the celebrated Civil War general, was by most calculations a lackluster president.

    “The skill sets do not line up directly,” Nagl said.

    Vietnam’s shadow

    Ric Epps, a San Diego State political science professor, thinks it’s understandable that military service doesn’t seem to hold as much sway with candidates or the voting public. “It started with Vietnam,” he said.

    Soldiers who fought there couldn’t wrap themselves in glory the way the conquering heroes of World War II could. Although Bill Clinton’s efforts to avoid the Vietnam draft drew criticism during the 1992 campaign, he defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush, a World War II aviator, and ended a string of nine-straight presidencies held by military veterans.

    Al Gore downplayed his Vietnam service when he ran for the White House. John Kerry had his record as a decorated swift-boat commander turned against him, another sign of just how unpopular the war was.

    Epps said the military’s own culture has changed since Vietnam, too — run now in many ways like a business, and treated by many who enlist as a job, not a calling. That changes how people value military service by candidates, he said.

    One of Vietnam’s legacies has been turned around, though. People don’t blame individual service members for the current wars, Nagl said. Instead, the public has embraced the troops. “My hope is that this is going to be the new American standard.”

    He thinks that will make it easier for more veterans of those wars to seek public office, maybe even one day the presidency.

    “My hope and belief is that those who have chosen to put themselves in harm’s way and build a better Iraq and a better Afghanistan will come home to fight in another arena and build a better America,” he said.

    Hunter hopes so, too. “I think veterans will be working in all kinds of fields, sharing their experiences,” he said. “The American people need to be touched by what happened there, even if they don’t have a direct player in the game. When you know someone who served, it broadens your perspective on all fronts.”

    Are presidents who've served in military history? | UTSanDiego.com
    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 10-20-2012 at 07:50 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member oldguy's Avatar
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    quote(It’s a trend that’s due in part to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, the nation’s most unpopular war, and to the end of the draft and establishment of an all-volunteer military, which have lessened the connection society at large has to those in uniform.)quote

    I believe the above is key to this discussion and states the reasons very clear but I would also add public schools and the liberal agenda have put a different slant on military service while I believe most people still hold the military in high regard they do not view it as producing leaders nor do they wish their children to serve and since so few now serve it does lessen the overall respect for military service.

    Personally for me who grew up with ww2 vets and served in Vietnam I would like to see a president with a military background and especially one who served in war time as they fully understand why we want to avoid war if at all possible.
    I'm old with many opinions few solutions.

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