How U.S. Military Interventions
Shape Citizenship
David Livingstone
Society for Military History Pacific
Region Coordinator
Phases of Citizenship in terms of U.S. Military
conflict
• Colonial Period: Citizenship defined by Insurgency.
• The U.S. Civil War: The borders of Citizenship
challenged – division, slavery, rights.
• American Imperialism: Beginnings of global
citizenship – Span. Am. War, Cuba, Philippines.
• World War I: Expansion & Contraction – Woodrow
Wilson’s idealism, the 14 Points, isolationism.
• World War II: Era of American Empire – U.N.
• Cold War: Containment, Korea, Vietnam,
decolonization – the military industrial complex.
Phases of Citizenship
• The Post Cold War: “The End of History?” / Gulf War
I, Asymmetrical Warfare – 9/11, Global War on
Terror.
• Consequences of the Post Cold War: Decline of
American influence, the Arab Spring, low intensity
conflict, contraction of American citizenship abroad.
• Professional versus Conscript Army: Advantages – no
draft, highly trained and motivated force; downsides
– reduction in national service, changing
perspectives on citizenship, generational challenge.
Perceptions: In which war did the U.S. Military suffer
the greatest number of casualties?
Source: U.S. Congressional Research: crs.org
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Revolutionary War: (1775-1783)
War of 1812: (1812-1815)
Mexican War: (1846-1848)
Civil War: (1861-1865)
Spanish-American War: (1898-1901)
WW I: (1917-1918)
WW II: (1941-1945)
Korean War: (1950-1953)
Vietnam War: (1964-1973)
Gulf War: (1991)
10,623
6,675
17,435
646,392
4,108
320,518
1,076,245
139,858
161,864
850
“Over grown military establishments are
under any form of government
inauspicious to liberty, and are to be
regarded as particularly hostile to
republican liberty.”
The Paradox of How
We Interpret
Citizenship Through the
Lens of Military
Intervention
“If we desire to avoid insult, we
must be ready to repel it; if we
desire to secure peace, one of
the most powerful instruments
of our rising prosperity, it must
be known, that we are at all
times ready for war.”
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is
good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than
that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have."
Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903
President Woodrow Wilson
Our object now ... is to vindicate the principles of peace and
justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic
power and to set up amongst the really free and selfgoverned peoples of the world such a concert of purpose
and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of
those principles.
Selective Service Act 1917
Who are considered citizens in times of war?
Recruiting Posters Aimed at African-Americans 1918;
Source: Gilder Lerhman Collection
What did serving in the military do for
citizenship status?
Was there any improvement in postwar
America?
Of the more than 400 Medals of Honor awarded, not
one of the 1.2 million African Americans who served
in the war was a recipient.
Lt. Vernon J. Baker: awarded his
Medal of Honor on January 13,
1997 for actions in Italy in 1945.
Executive Order 9981 – July 26, 1948
Containment, Cold War, and the Military
Industrial Complex
How did the policies of Eisenhower, Truman, and JFK shape the
Cold War?
The Vietnam War and the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolutions
LBJ
Why did America go to war in Vietnam?
Citizenship Through Protest?
Using Music As a Primary Source
Immigrants, Women, and the changing face of
the U.S. Military
Under special provisions in Section 329 of the
INA, the president signed an executive order on
July 3, 2002, authorizing all noncitizens who
have served honorably in the U.S. armed forces
on or after Sept. 11, 2001, to immediately file
for citizenship.
“Valor Knows no Gender”: Women in
Combat
• 2013, Leon Panetta lifts ban on women in
combat.
• How does this expand citizenship for women?
• How does this change citizenship in America?
• What if any pitfalls are there in this change?
Useful Books
Teaching With Novels
Useful Websites
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WW I Document Archive: http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/
National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/education/
Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/
University of Washington:
http://guides.lib.washington.edu/content.php?pid=90255&sid
=687755
• Feel free to contact me at dlivings@ucsd.edu if I can help in
any way or you need assistance with primary sources.