Book Review: United States: The Assistant Secretaries
| Author | William R. Polk |
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100326 |
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
389
it
is
a
convenient
assessment
of
the
Guard
from
more points
of
view
than
merely
the
strength
of
its
lobby.
Based
on
a
clause
in
the
constitution
which
authorizes
Congress
to
call
into being
a
militia
whose
officers
must
be
appointed
by
the
several
states,
the
National
Guard
was
set
up
not
long
after
the
Civil
War
during a
period
of
resurgent
and
nostalgic
militarism.
Created
largely
to
deal
with
civil
disturbances,
by
the
early
nineteenth
century
the
Guard
had
succeeded
in
obtaining
recognition
as
the first
line
of
reserve
behind
the
regular
army
of
the
United
States.
The
War
Depart-
ment
and
professional
soldiers
soon
came
to
dislike and
distrust
this
amateur
army
which
was
at
that
time
half
supported
financially
by
the
states
and
was
therefore
relatively
independent.
Its
political
strength
lay
in
the
fact
that
it
had support
from
many
opponents
of
centralism
and from
believers
in
the
liberal
doctrine
of
a
citizen
army*
there
was
a
widely
held
myth
that
a
powerful
"Guard
vote"
must
always
be
appeased;
and
its
chief
rival
of
later
years,
the
organized
federal
re-
serve, was
little
more
than
a
list
of
officers
until
World
War
II.
Hence,
although the
great
wars
of
the
twentieth
century
gave
some
reason
to
doubt
the
quality
of
the
Guard's
officer-appointment
system,
its
training,
and
the
military merits
of
its general
officers,
it
retained
its
privileged
position.
The
Cold
War,
by
greatly
increasing
the
size
of
American
regular
forces,
proportionately
reduced
the
importance
of
the
reserves.
Reliance
on
nuclear deterrence
at
first,
by
downgrading
the
Army
seemed
to
favour
reserve forces;
but
it
was
soon
realized
that
forces
that
could
take
the
field
immediately
without a
long period
of
traimng
after
mobilization
were
now
needed
more
than
ever.
Nevertheless
the
Guard,
by
this
time
financed
ninety
per
cent
by
the federal
.government,
man-
aged
because
of
its
political pull to
remain
larger than
the
Army's
own
federal
reserve
and
successfuly
resisted
efforts
to
reduce
it
to
a
civil
corps.
Unfortunately
this
book
pre-dates
the McNamara innovations
and
so
does
not
give
the
author's
opinions
on
the
effect
that
they have
had.
From
the
evidence
given
it
would
seem
that
the National
Guard
(though
not
necessarily
also
the
federal
army
reserve)
was
somewhat
less
militarily
effective
than
the
Canadian
Non-Permanent
Active
Militia,
partly
because
it
had
greater
political
influence.
Duke
University
RicHAii A.
PRESTON
THE
AssiSTANT
SECRETARIES.
Problems and
Processes
of
Appointment.
By
Dean
E.
Mann
and
Jameson
W
Doig.
1965.
(Washington:
The
Brookings
Institution.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
xi,
310pp.
$8.50)
No
official
of
the
American
government
combines
more
operational
responsibility
and
direct
involvement
than
the
assistant
secretary
Like
the
desk
officer
and
the
office
director
in
the
official
hierarchy
of
the
Department
of
State,
he
has
a
direct
and
continuous
involvement
in
a
given
set
of
problems
or
an
area,
but
like
men
of
cabinet
rank
he
exercises
a
public
and
Congressionally
sanctioned
responsibility
It
is
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