Reforming and Rebuilding the US Army
The US Army emerged from Vietnam battered.
Battered in reputation, abroad and at home.
Racial conflict flourished in the ranks.
Public trust in the Army, as an institution and in individual contact, was at a low ebb.
The draft Army ended, and a volunteer Army began.
The Army, my Army, began a period of intense retrospection.
Relooking doctrine, how we do things.
Relooking training, how we build trust within the organization.
Relooking outreach to the public. Be All You Can be.
All of this began in the last days of the Nixon administration, continued under Ford, and really began to pick up steam during the Carter years.
By the time Reagan arrived, the Army was ready to run again.
With an influx of monies, and led by two far-seeing Chiefs of Staff, John Wickham and Carl Vuono, the Army that emerged from the Eighties was a powerful, cohesive force that knew its missions, capabilities, limitations, and where it fit in the structure of American national power.
The conflicts in Panama and Kuwait served to prove the efficacy of the decades of reform the Army had put itself through.
Of course, this was all done through civilian oversight.
One of the most far-reaching pieces of defense legislation ever enacted was the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act, a law that still has force of primacy in the military today. The leaders of reform in each house were Senator Barry Goldwater, a Republican of Arizona, and Representative Bill Nichols, a Democrat of Alabama.
The US Army would not have become the organization for good that it is, without this willingness to look in the mirror and see its failings and resolve to do better –
Resolve to be better.
Reform is not only possible. It is essential.
