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Educating Citizen-Soldiers in World War II

Christopher P. Loss

in Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century

This chapter moves the story from the New Deal to the U.S. Army. As the state's main wartime hub for psychological research, the Army Research Branch, headed by University of Chicago sociologist ... More

This chapter moves the story from the New Deal to the U.S. Army. As the state's main wartime hub for psychological research, the Army Research Branch, headed by University of Chicago sociologist Samuel A. Stouffer, presented evidence to military commanders that better-educated soldiers were more efficient, exhibited higher morale, and were less likely to desert or suffer a psychoneurotic breakdown than their educationally deprived peers. Military and educational policymakers were galvanized by this finding and joined forces to create the Army Information and Education Division—the education clearinghouse for the common soldier. With the steady support of General George C. Marshall, the chief of staff of the army, who believed wholeheartedly in the transformative power of education, millions of G.I.s made use of the educational services provided to them.Less

“A Veteran Does Not Have to Stay a Veteran Forever” Congress and the Korean G.I. Bill

Melinda Pash

in Veterans' Policies, Veterans' Politics: New Perspectives on Veterans in the Modern United States

This chapter chronicles the efforts of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to create legislation to provide veterans of the Korean War era with benefits similar to those enjoyed by the men and women who served ... More

This chapter chronicles the efforts of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to create legislation to provide veterans of the Korean War era with benefits similar to those enjoyed by the men and women who served during World War II. Much debate occurred as legislators tried to strike a balance between fairly rewarding service members and avoiding the abuses and pitfalls of the first G.I. Bill. Finally, in 1952, two years after the start of the Korean War, the Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (or the Korean War G.I. Bill, as it came to be known) passed as Public Law 550 of the 82nd Congress. Somewhat less generous in its provisions than the original, this one nonetheless offered veterans education, housing, and other assistance.Less

A Price on Patriotism: The Politics and Unintended Consequences of the 1966 G.I. Bill

Mark Boulton

in Veterans' Policies, Veterans' Politics: New Perspectives on Veterans in the Modern United States

This chapter explores the political debates surrounding the passage of the 1966 Cold War G.I. Bill, the first G.I. bill of the Vietnam era. Unlike the earlier World War II and Korean Conflict wartime ... More

This chapter explores the political debates surrounding the passage of the 1966 Cold War G.I. Bill, the first G.I. bill of the Vietnam era. Unlike the earlier World War II and Korean Conflict wartime G.I. bills, the 1966 bill covered all noncombat Cold War veterans and, therefore, proved to be far less generous. Politicians from Great Society liberals to fiscal conservatives deemed that these later veterans had not earned the right to more substantial benefits because they had not faced fire directly. The bill made no distinction between veterans serving in peacetime conditions and Vietnam combat veterans. Consequently, Vietnam veterans were left with a G.I. bill significantly less generous than the one awarded to their predecessors. This chapter reveals how the 1966 bill fell prey to the nuances of both the liberal and conservative economic philosophies of the mid-twentieth century and left a legacy of bitterness among Vietnam veterans.Less

Introduction: A Chance for Learning

Mark Boulton

in Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation

This book explores the contentious political debates over the Vietnam-era G.I. Bills and their impact on Vietnam War veterans' education benefits. It discusses the legislative history behind the ... More

This book explores the contentious political debates over the Vietnam-era G.I. Bills and their impact on Vietnam War veterans' education benefits. It discusses the legislative history behind the Vietnam-era G.I. Bills, starting with the 1944 G.I. Bill of Rights, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act, as well as the main politicians involved in their passage in order to understand how legislation that failed to fulfill many of the needs of Vietnam veterans came into being. It argues that a combination of political challenges resulted in education benefits for Vietnam-era veterans that were inferior to those received by their World War II counterparts. The book focuses on the two dominant strains of postwar American political ideology, liberalism and conservatism, and their implications for veterans' benefits. It also examines the postwar debates on federal compensation for military service that led to a reevaluation of the meaning of citizenship in America during the Cold War era.Less

“Do Something for the Soldier Boys”: Congress, the G.I. Bill of Rights, and the Contours of Liberalism

Nancy Beck Young

in Veterans' Policies, Veterans' Politics: New Perspectives on Veterans in the Modern United States

This chapter examines the fight in Congress over the creation of the G.I. Bill of Rights, placing the episode in the larger context of postwar reconversion. The chapter argues that the G.I. Bill, ... More

This chapter examines the fight in Congress over the creation of the G.I. Bill of Rights, placing the episode in the larger context of postwar reconversion. The chapter argues that the G.I. Bill, long celebrated as an important contribution to social welfare policy in the United States, represented a much more conservative approach than implementing a cradle-to-grave social security system that provided health care for all. Liberals in Congress fought for the latter at the same time the G.I. Bill was being considered. That they lost was no surprise but was in keeping with the important wartime shifts away from the New Deal welfare state and toward a less liberal warfare state.Less

For the Wounded and the Worthy: Veterans’ Benefits from the Early Republic to the Vietnam Era

Mark Boulton

in Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation

This chapter traces the history of federal debates over war veterans' benefits from the early Republic to the Vietnam era. After discussing the origins of offering compensation for the hazards of ... More

This chapter traces the history of federal debates over war veterans' benefits from the early Republic to the Vietnam era. After discussing the origins of offering compensation for the hazards of military service, the chapter considers the evolution of the G.I. Bills and the controversies surrounding them. It shows that, for ideological and economic reasons, the provision of veterans' benefits has been a contested issue in American politics since the Civil War. It also examines arguments by politicians from Thomas Jefferson through Franklin D. Roosevelt that military service should be a natural obligation of citizenship rather than a basis for ongoing federal benefits, along with claims that the cost of benefits placed an unnecessary financial burden on the government. Finally, it explains how the enactment of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 paved the way for a model that provides benefits to future generations of veterans.Less

Conclusion: “A Chance for Learning” Missed

Mark Boulton

in Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation

This book concludes with an assessment of the impact of education benefits on Vietnam War veterans' educational attainment as well as their life earnings. It cites statistics concerning the number of ... More

This book concludes with an assessment of the impact of education benefits on Vietnam War veterans' educational attainment as well as their life earnings. It cites statistics concerning the number of eligible veterans who claimed their education benefits, their educational attainment, and earnings. It also considers some of the problems that continued to compromise the benefits program's effectiveness right up until its demise, including the restrictions experienced by Vietnam veterans on the education they could attain and the quality of education offered under the G.I. Bills. Finally, it highlights veterans' belief that the “chance for learning” mentioned by Tim O'Brien at the Vietnam Veterans Day in Washington, DC in March 1974 never materialized, suggesting that the G.I. Bill was a failure for the Vietnam generation.Less

On the Streets and in the Schools: The Veterans Come Home

Mark Boulton

in Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation

This chapter examines the role of Vietnam veterans in the legislative story of the G.I. Bills, with particular emphasis on the difficulties they encountered in organizing as a coherent lobbying ... More

This chapter examines the role of Vietnam veterans in the legislative story of the G.I. Bills, with particular emphasis on the difficulties they encountered in organizing as a coherent lobbying force. While the calls for an improved G.I. Bill were addressed in Congress and covered by the press, Vietnam War veterans seemed to be either reluctant or unable to organize into a coherent force that could put significant pressure on lawmakers trying to derail their readjustment. There ware few large-scale national organizations to promote the specific needs of returning Vietnam veterans. Perhaps the most visible Vietnam veterans' group was the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). This chapter considers the experience of returning veterans as college students in various campuses as well as their academic performance. It shows that most veterans did not face overt hostility from their fellow students and, while not attaining the same profile or notoriety on campus as World War II veterans, demonstrated a similar devotion to their studies and a similar academic excellence.Less

Introduction: Making Social Change Happen

Ray Brescia

in The Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions

This introductory chapter details the story of the passage of the G.I. Bill, revealing how an adaptive grassroots network utilized all the media technologies available to it at the time in creative ... More

This introductory chapter details the story of the passage of the G.I. Bill, revealing how an adaptive grassroots network utilized all the media technologies available to it at the time in creative ways—from the mail and the telegraph to the radio and the cinema—to promote a positive, inclusive message and bring about social change. Innovation in communications technologies created an opportunity for the American Legion; it had at its disposal a vast array of tools to not just communicate with but also coordinate the efforts of its vast network of local chapters to promote adoption of the program. This connection between communications technology and a social movement is not accidental. U.S. history reveals the deep relationship between social change and innovation in the means of communication. Thus, this book examines the link between, on the one hand, innovations in communications technology and methods and, on the other, social movements that appear to have emerged in their wake. It also identifies the components of the successes and failures of these same movements that seem to have a symbiotic relationship to the technology that fuels them.Less

Postwar Prospects in the U.S.

Isser Woloch

in The Postwar Moment: Progressive Forces in Britain, France, and the United States after World War II

This chapter explores the launching of progressive visions for the postwar in the U.S. As the CIO-PAC (CIO-Political Action Committee) produced a flurry of electoral activism, it also crystalized a ... More

This chapter explores the launching of progressive visions for the postwar in the U.S. As the CIO-PAC (CIO-Political Action Committee) produced a flurry of electoral activism, it also crystalized a progressive program for postwar America. Its principal manifesto, The People's Program for 1944, raised a progressive standard for renewal in the postwar moment. The manifesto demanded jobs for all with adequate wages; affordable housing; provision for all of adequate medical care; equality of educational opportunity; and improved protection from the economic perils of old age, sickness, accident, or unemployment. The chapter then considers Franklin Roosevelt's re-election campaign; Harry Truman's approach to reconversion after V-J Day; the conflicts between big business and big labor during the postwar moment; the impact of the G.I. Bill of Rights; and the Republican sweep of Congress in the election of 1946 and its direct result: passage of the anti-union Taft–Hartley labor law.Less

World War II and its Aftermath

Robert J. Kaczorowski

in Fordham University School of Law: A History

Chapter 5 discusses the impact of World War II on law students and legal education and the nation’s and state’s responses. Dean Wilkinson again played a leading role in shaping and achieving changes ... More

Chapter 5 discusses the impact of World War II on law students and legal education and the nation’s and state’s responses. Dean Wilkinson again played a leading role in shaping and achieving changes in national and state standards to accommodate law students who were drafted out of law school and returning veterans. It explains accelerated programs and the establishment of summer sessions with rolling enrollments and graduations during the war. The Law School admitted foreign educated lawyers who fled Nazi Germany and countries it occupied to practice law in the U.S. Law School graduates gained access to positions with the city’s elite law firms. After the war the Law School joined a select group of law schools in adopting a college degree requirement for admission. The G.I. Bill strengthened the Law School’s financial condition, but Fordham University continued to use the Law School to subsidize its other divisions. This prevented the Law School from adopting changes in its program that were occurring in the leading law schools. It also continued Dean Wilkinson’s practice-oriented conception of legal education, and the Law School lost its place as the second law school in New York City to New York University School of Law.Less

“Adventure … Begins at Home”

in Of War and Men: World War II in the Lives of Fathers and Their Families

This chapter examines the challenges faced by the veterans with the housing shortage in the U.S. in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It explains that during this period, the U.S. experienced a period ... More

This chapter examines the challenges faced by the veterans with the housing shortage in the U.S. in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It explains that during this period, the U.S. experienced a period of high inflation and most jobs were available in metropolises. It highlights the importance of G.I. Bill in helping veterans send their children going to school and in purchasing property with little or no down payment. This chapter also discusses the success of William J. Levitt in the real estate business.Less

Military–Industrial Empire

Melvin Delgado

in State-Sanctioned Violence: Advancing a Social Work Social Justice Agenda

Viewing the military as a major state-sanctioned violence mechanism brings challenges, and not because of the absence of scholarly material or varied perspectives to craft an analysis. Rather, the ... More

Viewing the military as a major state-sanctioned violence mechanism brings challenges, and not because of the absence of scholarly material or varied perspectives to craft an analysis. Rather, the challenge is how to narrow the scope and still do justice to the broadness of this subject. This chapter may well be the first time that readers have been exposed to the military in state-sanctioned violence, particularly when focused on people of color. Historical material gives context to state violence manifestation in the military–industrial complex and veterans, and a natural follow-up to the chapter on law enforcement and criminal justice. It may seem odd to include the military alongside subjects typically found within a state-sanctioned violence paradigm focused on cities and youth of color; although the military–industrial complex may have escaped attention in social work education, there are increasing numbers of veterans entering our profession. At first glance, it simply does not fit, but upon closer examination when viewing the military as (1) a prime source for recruiting police officers, (2) providing equipment meant for wars that find their way to the nation’s streets, (3) a system that relies on the young, (4) having a role in foreign conflicts causing population displacements, and (5) increasingly a source for recruits of color, it becomes worthy of attention. It is easy to view the military as its own separate category of state-sponsored violence with minimal interactions with other forms of state violence due to the enormity of its influence.Less