Make haste to reassure me, I beg you, and tell me that our fellow-citizens
understand us, support us and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the
Empire.
If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these
desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!
Since its return to an all-volunteer military force in the wake of the Vietnam War,
the United States has faced an increasing cultural tension within its borders- that of the
growing schism between the American society as a whole and the military supposedly
representative of that society. Particularly as the result of trends during the 1990’s, the
study of this “civil-military gap” has been renewed in certain academic circles. For the
most part, however, this study has limited itself to the “what” and the “why” of the gap,
rather than its ramifications for the future. While the former questions are essential to a
better understanding of this growing disparity, the future implications of an American
military divorced from its polity hold one part of the answer as to whether the United
States can maintain its preeminent position in the present international environment.
More importantly, these implications aid in addressing older, more fundamental issues-
issues concerning the balance of individual rights and responsibilities in a liberal
democracy and questions as to whether a liberal democracy can ever adequately
function as an imperial power.
Any discussion of the contemporary culture gap between the American military
and the American society must include a variety of facets. First, on a level broader and
more fundamental than the United States itself, we must discuss the very different
values that sustain a liberal democracy and, alternately, an effective military. In many
cases, the two are fundamentally at odds, raising special concerns for the military of a
liberal democracy. Second, we must look at the gap from an American perspective. Is it
a new-found phenomenon, or one that plays an integral part in the United States’
political and social histories? Third, no discussion of the American civil-military gap
would be sufficient without addressing the deleterious effects of the Vietnam War and
2
Convention