The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1945-92

Our Army often undertakes assigned missions it would not have chosen for itself. Perhaps the most complex, demanding, and controversial of such missions features its intervention in domestic civil disturbances — upholding lawful government when the threat to law and government comes from among our own American citizens. As unappealing as the image of American soldiers confronting American citizens may be, the military responsibility to assist in securing domestic tranquillity has deep constitutional roots. For over two hundred years our soldiers have often proved the instrument of last resort when chaos seemed imminent. This volume, covering 1945 to 1992, is the third of three volumes on the role of federal military forces in domestic disorders. Summarizing institutional and other changes that took place in the Army and in American society during this period, it carries the reader through the nation's use of federal troops during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the domestic upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s associated with the Vietnam War. The development and refinement of the Army's domestic support role, as well as the disciplined manner in which the Army conducted these complex and often unpopular tasks, are major themes of this volume. In addition, the study demonstrates the Army's progress in coordinating its operational and contingency planning with the activities of other federal agencies and the National Guard. Although this is a story of the U.S. Army's experience at a specific time in American history, the issues it addresses and the lessons to be learned transcend the period covered. If past is prologue, units from both the Army's active and reserve components will be called upon to deal with domestic civil disturbances at some future date. The relevant lessons gleaned from our Army's past include the value of highly disciplined soldiers, careful operational and logistical planning, flexibility, and the assumption of initiative at all levels of command. These hallmarks of a trained and ready force are invaluable not only during domestic civil support, but also during the full range of military operations the United States and its Army are likely to face in the twenty-first century. We commend this volume to you as useful lessons from the past that can be drawn upon to serve the future. Washington, D.C. 31 March 2005 Brigadier General, USA (Ret.) Chief of Military History Paul J. Scheips received his M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1949 and his Ph.

D. from American University in 1966. Early in his career he taught at the University of Michigan and Denison University. From 1952 to 1962 he worked as a historian for the Signal Corps Historical Division, where he authored a number of studies and participated in the celebration of the Signal Corps' centennial in 1960. In 1962 Scheips joined the staff of the Office of the Chief of Military History (now the U.S. Army Center of Military History). As a member of the Histories Division, he produced a wide array of studies and contributed to many of the Center's publications, including American Military History and Department of the Army Annual Historical Summary, 1981. He is also the author of Will Croft Barnes, a Westerner of Parts; Hold the Fort! The Story of a Song from the Sawdust Trail to the Picket Line; and the two-volume anthology Military Signal Communications, in addition to numerous articles in professional journals. Scheips retired in 1986 from federal service as the chief of the Center's Staff Support Branch.

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