Recruitment
Recruitment.The military manpower policy of the United States has been marked by sharp contrasts between principles and realities. Universal service has often been the ideal, but the militias and conscript armies have never been equally representative of society.
America's early military traditions were heavily influenced by Great Britain's, and included a predisposition toward militia organization and a distrust of centralized standing peacetime forces. The militias—military organizations composed of civilians enrolled and trained as defensive forces against invaders—developed from medieval notions of the duty of all free men to help the king defend the realm. The colonists, threatened by Native Americans and rival colonial powers, organized as citizen‐soldiers in order to protect themselves and their interests.
When troops were needed for a campaign, legislatures assigned quotas to local militia...
[The entire page is 1821 words long]
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