03-14-2012, 03:07 AM
The description gets even more dismal in the next chapter leading up to 1939:
Chapter V: A Return to the Past; A Look to the Future
Here's the summary paragraph of a very loooong, detailed tale of unreadiness:
"After establishing post-World War I divisions, the Army experienced a prolonged period of stagnation and deterioration. The National Defense Act of 1920 authorized a Regular Army of 296,000 men, but Congress gradually backed away from that number. As with the Regular Army, the National Guard never recruited its authorized 486,000 men, and the Organized Reserves became merely a pool of reserve officers. The root of the Army's problem was money. Congress yearly appropriated only about half the funds that the General Staff requested. Impoverished in manpower and funds, infantry and cavalry divisions dwindled to skeletal organizations."
Your friend may have been on to something, but I would like to see it. Armies (at least prudent ones) make "what if" contingency plans, and the US even may have had a contingency plan to invade Canada (which I'd still ike to see). From the looks of it, however, unlike Soviet Russia and fascist Germany,the US military iwasn't in a position to do much about it. Maybe your colleague never published because there was nothing there...
Chapter V: A Return to the Past; A Look to the Future
Here's the summary paragraph of a very loooong, detailed tale of unreadiness:
"After establishing post-World War I divisions, the Army experienced a prolonged period of stagnation and deterioration. The National Defense Act of 1920 authorized a Regular Army of 296,000 men, but Congress gradually backed away from that number. As with the Regular Army, the National Guard never recruited its authorized 486,000 men, and the Organized Reserves became merely a pool of reserve officers. The root of the Army's problem was money. Congress yearly appropriated only about half the funds that the General Staff requested. Impoverished in manpower and funds, infantry and cavalry divisions dwindled to skeletal organizations."
Your friend may have been on to something, but I would like to see it. Armies (at least prudent ones) make "what if" contingency plans, and the US even may have had a contingency plan to invade Canada (which I'd still ike to see). From the looks of it, however, unlike Soviet Russia and fascist Germany,the US military iwasn't in a position to do much about it. Maybe your colleague never published because there was nothing there...
