Soldiers and Politics

Report Outline
Soldier Vote in Future Elections
Early Fears of Military Domination
Political Power of Veterans' Organizations
Wartime Service Legislation

Soldier Vote in Future Elections

Appeals to Soldier Vote in 1942 Campaign

Appeals to the “soldier vote” have already been heard in 1942 primary campaigns, and the opportunity to cast absentee ballots, available to large numbers of service men, will make the vote of members of the armed forces—and of their relatives at home—a potent factor in the coming November elections.

Postwar plans for a large standing army to serve as part of a world “police force” give reason to believe that, in the future, politicians may be forced to give prime consideration to the desires of a sizable number of continuing absentee soldier votes, as well as the wishes of a large veterans group. It is possible that the military will exert more influence on future elections than during any previous period in American history.

Every war in which the United States has engaged has been fought by an improvised army because traditional fears of a large standing army have caused peacetime enrollments in the armed forces to be held at a minimum. Although each war effort, therefore, has seen intensive development of the military organization, civilian control over the military has served as an efficient check to a permanent state of militarism.