Harry M. Wyatt III Quotes
We had the best-equipped and we have the best-trained military force on the face of the earth, right here in Oklahoma.
This was the first exposition of what turned out to be the winning Presidential Campaign strategy in 2004.
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.
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.
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.
Harry M. "Bud" Wyatt III (born 1949) is a retired lieutenant general of the United States Air Force (USAF) who last served as 14th Director, Air National Guard. He is also an attorney from Oklahoma and served as the Adjutant General of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Secretary of Military Affairs. Wyatt maintained a private law practice until his election to the Oklahoma bench.
