Armed Forces

In 1796 George Washington, arguably America’s greatest military leader, hoped in his farewell address as president that his successors would “avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and are regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” For much of its history, the United States has avoided such an “overgrown military,” but because the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, the armed forces have been a major component of the national government since World War II.

Democracy and a strong military are not incompatible. In ancient Athens, the cradle of democracy, every Athenian citizen—only adult males—could expect to serve in either the army or the navy. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher (ca. 427–347 B.C.E.), proposed in his last work, The Laws, that “[t]he Guardians of the Laws must compile a preliminary list of candidates, restricted to citizens, and the Generals should then be elected from this list by all those who have served in the armed forces at the proper age, or who are serving at the time.”

The constitutions of most countries deal with the military to a greater or lesser degree. The constitution of Japan (1947), for example, written after the country’s defeat in World War II, renounces war and declares that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” According to the German constitution (1949), “Men who have attained the age of eighteen may be required to serve in the Armed Forces, in the Federal Border Police, or in a civil defense organization.”

America’s Constitution refers to the military in several provisions. Article I, section 8, grants Congress the power to “declare War” and to “raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; and To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Section 8 also empowers Congress to “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”

Article II, section 2, designates the president “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the [Page 43] United States.” The language of section 2 also authorizes the president, with the Senate’s advice and consent, to appoint military officers. The president’s authority over the military granted by the Constitution represents the basic principle of constitutional democracy that the military should always be subordinate to civilian political authority. The president generally exercises his authority over the armed forces through the secretary of defense (see Cabinet).

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