Rebuilding the Army

Report Outline
Faltering of Morale and Discipline
Public Attitudes Toward the Military
Proposals for the Post-Viet Nam Army
Special Focus

Faltering of Morale and Discipline

Role of Viet Nam and Society in Army Unrest

In an address to the cadets at West Point on May 29, President Nixon said it was no longer a secret that “discipline, integrity, patriotism and self-sacrifice …can no longer be taken for granted in the Army in which you will serve.” Many professional soldiers frankly admit that discipline in America's armed forces has broken down. Enlisted men sometimes have refused to obey their officers, even on the battlefields of Viet Nam. Assaults on officers are increasing. Desertion rates are high. Drugs, violence, crime, protest and racial tension—the problems of society—have all been intensified in the barracks. According to a highly respected military writer, Col. Robert D. Heinl Jr., “The morale, discipline and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States.”

There appears to be no clear-cut single cause of the military malaise. Some officers find a permissive society at fault for sending them young men who refuse to accept discipline. Others blame the top leadership for placing a higher priority on military hardware than on the needs of the men and officers. Still others look beyond the generals and the privates and accuse the President, Congress and the public for failing to support the military. But if there is a preponderant cause of the Army's problems, the one most frequently mentioned is the Viet Nam War.

“It is just now beginning to be understood by the public that the Army has suffered no less than the rest of American society from the war,” the London Economist remarked recently, “and an excellent case can be made that the Army is in fact the main casualty.” Some officers say morale is low because the Army is being forced to fight an unpopular war. Public revulsion against atrocities perpetrated in Viet Nam has tainted everyone connected with the military and struck at the cherished ideals of Duty, Honor, Country. According to some observers, most of the Army's other problems flow from the anti-military attitude that the war has fostered.