MIA > Archive > Draper > Militarization
From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 8, 20 February 1950, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
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This is one of a series of articles on the militarization of American government and life, based on the findings of a committee of nationally known liberals. This committee, organized as the National Council Against Conscription, in February of last year published the booklet New Evidence of the Militarization of America. All the information and quotations used in the present series of articles comes from this booklet. |
The Report of the Reserve Establishment of the armed forces includes a page about the Boy Scouts as the only organization not directly sponsored by the military which was nevertheless thought of as one of the agencies under the military wing.
This close relationship of the Scouts to the military is a recent thing even though there has traditionally been an obvious patterning of Scout uniforms after military uniforms.
During World War II “Scouts cooperated in the recruiting programs as well as the distribution of posters and served as messengers and orderlies in the recruiting of WACs, Waves, army, navy, coast guard, and marines.” Scouts served as orderlies for draft boards. They contributed $1,957,512,934 through the sale or purchase of war bonds and stamps.
They were urged through the pages of Boy’s Life to learn Lord Mountbatten’s instructions on commando training. The editor of this Scout magazine in the February 1943 issue wrote:
“So thoroughly do these instructions fit in with the Scout plan to ‘Toughen Up, Buckle Down, Carry on to Victory,’ and so replete with good Scouting ... that the letters and instructions are here printed so that every Boy Scout may benefit by them.”
The commando instructions contained the following:
“Try and get someone to instruct you in unarmed combat so that you know how to deal quickly and silently with a sentry and thus prevent him from giving the alarm.
“Never forget that the fundamental requirement is a very high standard of discipline. If your leader asks you for ideas or suggestions or proposals, then you give them, but when your leader gives an order, obey it. If he cannot rely on instant obedience and on complete conscientious performance of an allotted duty, then you may be sure that the unit will be caught out in battle.”
Throughout the war Scout publications repeatedly orientated boys in the army way. For example, the February 1942 Boys’ Life quoted Col. Ryder, commandant of West Point, as saying: “The Scout program is exactly what the soldier wants it to be.”
The November 1942 Boys’ Life, under a West Point picture, stated: “These are West Point Military Academy men. War Officers in the making. They look like us. Can we look like them? Can we be like them? Yes? Yes’ Take the Scout Way.”
Since the war, military influence in the Scouts has continued to increase. The Boy Scouts of America and the army air force entered into an agreement “whereby twelve liaison officers have been designated by the army air forces to cooperate in making more effective the Air Scout program. Each of these twelve officers have been assigned to one of scouting’s twelve regions to work in cooperation with the regional executive staff of that region.” The magazine Scouting for June–July 1946 states that the “request;for “this agreement came from the commanding general of the army air forces. ”
The air force point of view toward its work with Scouts is reflected in the following comment from an official military report:
“The U.S. air force will continue to support the Air Scout program for its public relations and public education values and although the existing agreement between this headquarters precludes the active use of the Air Scout movement as a personnel procurement source it is recognized that the program presents an admirable medium for the dissemiination of the missions, objectives, and problems of the USAF to a widespread and receptive public audience.”
The March 1947 Boys’ Life described Scout experiences at a summer camp at West Point where “army enlisted personnel taught them marching drill, how to get ready for inspection, army songs,” until, as “one fellow aptly stated, ‘we were just a bunch of buck privates going through the mill. ‘”
During the school year the West Point Military Academy celebrates “Boy Scout Day at West Point.” In 1948, 10,000 Boy Scouts from nearby states were present on this day, watched military parades, were shown around the post by cadets, and otherwise feted.
When the Boy Scouts from all over the United States assembled in preparation for going overseas to the World Scout Jamboree in France in July 1947, they were taken to Camp Kilmer, N.J. They “spent the day in military fashion and stood retreat at sundown,” according to the account of the New York Times. (July 22, 1947).
The military influence appears at the local level through the sponsorship of Scout troops by American Legion posts and through the appointment of officers or former military officers as Scout officials. The New York Herald-Tribune of June 4, 1947 described the appointment as chairman of the Activities Committee of the Greater New York Scout Council of a former “military attaché with rank of Colonel, at the American Embassy in Stockholm.” Military men are also invited to serve as speakers at Scout events. For example, a major was the principal speaker at the Scouts’ annual pilgrimage to Theodore Roosevelt’s grave.
The annual meeting of the Greater New York Council Boy Scouts of America for 1948 featured as a speaker Major General James M. Gavin, wartime commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and elected as chairman of the executive board of the council Maj. Gen. Julius Ochs Adler.
General Gavin in his address said that the army was concerned “with the minds and hearts of boys rather than with weapons” as the nation enters “into a war of ideas for the survival of our way of life.”
Some local Scout units spend a great deal of time in military drill with a drum and bugle corps; some participate in military parades.
The emphasis of scouting on the local level can be seen from an examination of their wartime program. Out of 13 major national programs assisted by the Scouts, the American Legion ranked third. The American Red Cross was aided by 48,436 Scouts, and the United War Fund-Community Chests by 39,588. whereas only 220 aided the Y.M.C.A.
The American military authorities are not only aware of scouting’s usefulness to them; they are aware of its potentialities if military groups in other countries want to use them. For example, in Germany even Girl Scouts are forbidden to wear uniforms. One newspaper report stated: “Because of the American Military Government’s viewpoint on scouting. Girl Scouts wear no uniforms ...” (Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 12, 1948)
Last updated on 9 March 2023