Alfred de Vigny Quotes
An army is a nation within a nation, it is one of the vices of courage.
Vigny, Alfred de. Military Servitude and Grandeur. Translated by Frances Huard, George H. Doran Company, 1919, p. 25.
Greek invaders were marching on Istanbul
This was an official publication of the U. S. Army. The First World War had very little affect on future military preparedness At that time conservatives in Congress were very isolationist and military preparedness was not a high priority or even a significant political issue. The Democrats then were more supportive of military spending than the Republicans. It took World War II, for which America was very unprepared, to produce a change in public and political opinion regarding military preparedness.
The French and English, with larger numbers and more experienced troops and officers, wanted the American units to come under the command or their officers and be integrated into the allied army. However Wilson established the tradition that American troops fighting abroad most always fight as an American Army under American Command. Although resented then and into the 21st century by America’s allies who are expected to fight under American command, it is a tradition that no American major politician has seriously challenged since then.
Commenting on the hostilities between the Baltic states and the Russian government:
3 years later he led America on a huge invasion and nation building project in Iraq. It turned out that had he listened to his own advice and not flip-flopped, the huge cost of the Iraq War might have been avoided.
In early America, there was great concern about a standing army—a military force that exists and is organized in peacetime. History showed the founding fathers that tyrants who siezed power almost always did so by getting control of the standing army. The logic was if there is no standing army, no one can control it and therefore no tyrant can control the country by force. At the time, however, with oceans protecting us, there was penty of time to mobilize a defensive army should any foreign power invade. However, with modern military technology, and the importantance of retaliation as a protective3 strategy, it is virtually impossible to not have a standing army and stoll be secure.
Then Chief of Staff of the Army, he was asking for a large military appropriation.
Congress and most of the Founding Fathers were very distrustful of standing armies. They were aware that standing armies had taken over societies ever since ancient Rome and Julius Caesar.
Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny was a French poet and early leader of French Romanticism. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.
