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US Military History – Ethical Questions
What is War?
• How do we define war?
• What distinguishes it from other forms
of armed conflict?
Definition of War
1. Substantial degree of organization on both sides
2. Significant degree of fighting
3. Engagement must be sustained over an extended
period
The Nature of War
• Application of political, psychological, economic and physical
pressure by a state or a group of states against another state or by a
segment of the population of a state against the established
government of a state.
Legacy for Indians
• Generally thought it was not their war
• War for liberty and independence took
liberty and independence away from
Indians
• War against colonial oppression led to
colonization and oppression of Indians
by the U.S. government
• Soldiers paid with Indian land, not free
land
• Indians erased from history due to Paris
Peace Treaty and the idea that the war
was fought ONLY between colonists and
British
The Loyalist Dilemma
• Loyalists believed in liberty too,
but feared that independence
would breed anarchy in America
• Loyalists were treated poorly:
–The English never fully trusted
the Loyalists
–Patriots seized their property;
imprisoned & executed others
• More than 100,000 Loyalists left
America when the war ended
Were the Loyalists Persecuted by
the Patriots During the
Revolutionary War?
Southern States
• Andrew Jackson v Creek Indian at Horseshoe
Bend (Alabama)
“We speak of the War of 1812, but in truth there were
two wars. The war between the Americans and the
British ended with the treaty of Ghent. The war
between the Big Knives [American frontiersmen] and
the Indians began at Tippecanoe, and arguably did
not run its course until the last Red Sticks were
defeated in the Florida swamps in 1818 (Sugden
401).”
•This battle was more related to control over
southern land than a Creek/British alliance
The
Civil War
(1861-1865)
Nathan Bedford Forrest
(Captured Fort Pillow)
 262 African-Americans
 295 white Union
soldiers.
 Ordered black soldiers
murdered after they
surrendered! [many
white soldiers killed as
well]
 Became the first Grand
Wizard of the Ku Klux
Klan after the war.
Sherman’s
“March
to the
Sea”
through
Georgia,
1864
Sherman’s March to the Sea
November 15-December 20, 1864
As the Union army moved through the South, they
destroyed train tracks by heating the rails and
bending them into a bow. This became known as
“Sherman’s Neckties”
Union General William T. Sherman already had
captured Atlanta, but he wanted to leave sixty
thousand troops there while he marched the rest of his
army to the Atlantic Ocean through Savannah,
Georgia. During this time, Confederate General John
Hood had led troops in a raid on Tennessee, leaving
Sherman’s soldiers to face fewer than five thousand
Confederate soldiers. Sherman’s troops burned
buildings and infrastructures along the way,
destroying many towns and cities. Sherman’s troops
defeated the depleted Confederate army and took
Savannah on December 22, 1864.
CICERO © 2010
The Prisoner-Exchange Controversy
Prisoner exchanges for 1st part of war, no large prison camps needed
Exchange ends after Confederates threat to kill Black soldiers and their
white officers
– Fort Pillow Massacre
– Generally not enforced, Blacks returned to their masters
Prison camps
– Overcrowded, poorly constructed
– 12% of Confederate prisoners died, 16% of Union
– Andersonville
Lincoln refuses to renew exchanges unless Black and White prisoners
treated the same
The Treaty of Paris: 1898
Cuba was freed from Spanish rule.
Spain gave up Puerto Rico and the island of
Guam.
The U. S. paid Spain
$20 mil. for the
Philippines.
The U. S. becomes
an imperial power!
Empire?
• Does the US have the right to conquer other countries?
• Do the results of the Spanish-American War conflict with
the ideals of the Declaration of Independence?
Cuban Independence?
Teller Amendment (1898)
Platt Amendment (1903)
Senator
Orville Platt
1. Cuba was not to enter into any agreements with foreign
powers that would endanger its independence.
2. The U.S. could intervene in Cuban affairs if necessary
to maintain an efficient, independent govt.
3. Cuba must lease Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. for naval
and coaling station.
4. Cuba must not build up an excessive public debt.
Our “Sphere of Influence”
Emilio Aguinaldo-Should we have
fought him?
Leader of the Filipino
Uprising.
July 4, 1946:
Philippine independence
The American Anti-Imperialist
League
Founded in 1898.
Mark Twain, Andrew
Carnegie, William
James, and William
Jennings Bryan among
the leaders.
Campaigned against
the annexation of the
Philippines and other
acts of imperialism.
19141918:
The World
at War
Government Excess & Threats
to the Civil Liberties of
Americans
1. Espionage Act – 1917
- forbade actions that
obstructed recruitment or
efforts to promote
insubordination in the military.
- ordered the Postmaster General
to remove Leftist materials
from the mail.
- fines of up to $10,000 and/or
up to 20 years in prison.
Government Excess & Threats
to the Civil Liberties of
Americans
2. Sedition Act – 1918
- it was a crime to speak against the
purchase of war bonds or willfully
utter, print, write or publish any
disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or
abusive language about this form of US
Govt., the US Constitution, or the US
armed forces or to willfully urge, incite,
or advocate any curtailment of
production of things necessary or
essential to the prosecution of the
war…with intent of such curtailment to
cripple or hinder, the US in the
prosecution of the war.
Government Excess & Threats
to the Civil Liberties of
Americans
3. Schenck v. US – 1919
- in ordinary times the mailing of the
leaflets would have been protected by the
1st Amendment.
- BUT, every act of speech must be judged
acc. to the circumstances in which it was
spoken.
-The most stringent protection of free
speech would not protect a man in falsely
shouting fire in a theater and causing a
panic. [Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes]
- If an act of speech posed a clear and
present danger, then Congress had
the power to restrain such speech.
Harts War - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlZQj4OrTUM
America-First Committee
Charles Lindbergh
Winning 4 Gold
Medals (irony - still
has to come home
to Jim Crow USA)
German POW’s
vs.
African American Soldiers
Japanese Internment
• Sabotage or espionage
• General John L. DeWitt
– Officer in charge of western United States.
• Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t
mean it won’t.
Executive Order 9066
• Military allowed to establish military zones.
– Even allowed to force people out of the zones.
• Main goal was to remove Japanese people from the
western United States.
Japanese Internment Camps
• Given a few days to sell belongings.
– Could bring anything you could carry.
• Poor conditions in camps.
Japanese Internment Camp
Nazi Concentration Camp
Bomber Offensive: Was the Allied Bombing of Enemy Cities Such
as Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo Necessary?
• Allies were winning but at terrible costs.
– An invasion would cost an estimated
1 million American lives.
• General Curtis LeMay’s fire bombing
– 84,000 Japanese in 1 bombing
• Japanese wouldn’t give up.
Harry S. Truman becomes
President
• Little knowledge on the A-Bomb
• Final ultimatum
– Give up or face “prompt and utter
destruction”
• Should we have used atomic weapons?
The Manhattan Project:
Los Alamos,
NM
Major General
Lesley R. Groves
Dr. Robert
Oppenheimer
I am become
death,
the shatterer
of worlds!
Tinian Island, 1945
Little Boy
Fat Man
Enola Gay Crew
Col. Paul Tibbets & the A-Bomb
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
© 70,000 killed
immediately.
© 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
© 40,000 killed
immediately.
© 60,000 injured.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
Japanese A-Bomb Survivors
The Nuremberg War Trials:
Crimes Against Humanity-Should they have been held?
Japanese War Crimes Trials-Were
they fair?
General
Hideki Tojo
Bio-Chemical
Experiments
Korean War 1950-1953
Truman vs. MacArthur
Should MacArthur have been allowed to expand the
war?
The Vietnam
War
1954 - 1975
Was U.S. Military
Intervention in
Vietnam Justified?
 Was
it Wise for the
United States to Assist
in Deposing Ngo Dinh
Diem?
 Was the US guilty of
war crimes in Vietnam?
 Is
it justified for
the US government
to keep info from
the people?
U.S. Military
Involvement Begins
 Kennedy elected 1960
 Increases military “advisors” to
16,000
 1963: JFK supports a
Vietnamese military coup d’etat –
Diem and his brother are
murdered (Nov. 2)
 Kennedy was assassinated just
weeks later (Nov. 22)
Defoliation

Dense jungle
needed to be
cleared so NVA/VC
could not hide.
– Agent Orange
– Napalm
Are We Becoming
the Enemy?
Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry
 Mylai Massacre, 1968
 200-500 unarmed villagers
 Lt. William Calley,
Platoon Leader
“Pentagon Papers,”
1971
 Former defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg
leaked govt. docs. regarding war efforts
during Johnson’s administration to the
New York Times.
 Docs. Govt. misled Congress & Amer.
People regarding its intentions in Vietnam
during mid-1960s.
 Primary reason for fighting not to
eliminate communism, but to avoid
humiliating defeat.
 New York Times v. United States (1971) *
U.S. Intervention in Somalia
• In 1992, the U.S.
sends troops into
Somalia to protect
ethnic minorities and
alleviate the suffering
due to a famine
• U.S. troops get caught
in a Somali Civil War
involving Islamic
warlords
Operation Desert
Storm
• Aug 1990 –Iraq
occupies Kuwait
–UN says leave
• Feb. 1991 – US led
coalition frees
Kuwait
Media images of destroyed
–Highway of Death
• Iraqi Shiites >: (
Iraqi retreat turn Western
stomachs, prevent West from
marching into Iraq… oops!!!
Did the United States Enter the Persian Gulf
War to Deter Iraq from Developing Weapons of
Mass Destruction?
Invasion of Iraq - 2003
• Target: Remove Saddam
Hussein from power
because he is holding
WMDs
• Bush Doctrine: Preemptive war against
states sponsoring
terrorism
Terrorism
The Long War
Back in Iraq - Gulf War II
• Post 9/11, Bush
vows to stop rogue
nations and
terrorism
• West thought
Hussein
developing a
bio/chem/nuclear
program, told to
allow inspectors.
The Iraq War Controversy
Bin LadenWanted Dead
or Alive!