FREE ESSAY ON AMERICAN LEGION

AMERICAN LEGION

College Writing
16 June 2000
The American Legion: A Right To Membership
Introduction
The United States Congress chartered the American Legion in 1919. Its purpose was to
benefit veterans and their families, promote Americanism and serve the greater good of
communities nationwide. First welcomed to membership were veterans returning home from
the battlefields of Europe. But over the years, Congress amended the Legion's charter so
as to include those who had served in World War II, Korea and more recent conflicts. 
Ineligible for American Legion membership, however, remain the many men and women who had
answered our nation's call while American military forces were not actively engaging an
enemy of the United States. Serving with valor and distinction, these members of the
armed forces have guarded America's shores and protected the nation's strategic assets at
U.S. military bases across the world. They have been on the front lines of American
efforts to mediate conflicts between warring factions in Europe, Asia and Africa. And
they, too, have been prime targets for armed aggressors, terrorist attacks and saboteurs.
The question is: have these veterans not earned the right to membership in the American
Legion as well?
This essay seeks to explore whether the American Legion's charter should be amended so as
to better reflect our nation's appreciation for those who serve in times of war and
peace. Indeed, it is an issue made all the more cogent today: With increasing numbers of
young Americans rejecting the armed forces as a career option, recruitment goals are not
being met and the military is being forced to lower its entrance requirements. If this
trend is not soon reversed, the U.S. military could be perceived as incapable of
implementing our nation's strategic policies abroad -- a perception that can only
encourage the most aggressive ambitions of other nations. 
A Resource for Veterans
In seeking to determine whether the American Legion should open its doors to non-wartime
veterans, we must begin with a look at the organization itself: 
its mission, its outreach programs and, above all, the benefits today's Legion is able to
provide for a worldwide membership now approaching three million men and women. 
Meeting in Paris some five months after the armistice of November 1918, delegates from
combat and service units of the American Expeditionary Force resolved to found an
organization that would protect the interests of veterans through the years that
followed. These delegates, who no doubt had witnessed the nation's failure to benefit
Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans -- and who were themselves only months
removed from the battlefields of what was even then called the war to end all wars -- had
a special concern for the sick and disabled among their number, as well as for the widows
and children of their fallen comrades. And their powerful commitment brought about the
act of Congress, which established the American Legion in September 1919.
With a framework for service, the new organization quickly moved to find hospitals and
other services for World War I veterans. It's leaders championed the cause of
compensation and pensions for the disabled, widows and orphans, then lobbied for a
government agency specifically dedicated to veterans' needs; and their efforts helped to
establish the U.S. Veterans Administration in 1930. 
In 1944, the Legion played a prominent role in the enactment of a G.I. Bill of Rights for
World War II veterans, and later supported similar legislation for veterans of the Korean
War. These measures would ultimately make possible college or vocational training for
more than 10.5 million veterans, and provide the low-interest loans that would enable an
estimated 5.6 million veterans to purchase their own homes. 
As the Legion grew in both membership and influence, so, too, did its agenda. Championing
the cause of patriotism, it developed educational programs, which sought to promote good
citizenship. Legion social and athletic programs for youth had a goal of helping children
to realize their full potential. A legislative division worked to make certain the
Legion's voice was heard in Washington. And through its nearly 15,000 local chapters
worldwide, the Legion has worked to build and strengthen a sense of community through
child welfare programs, educational scholarships, blood drives, crime prevention projects
and other 
such initiatives. Perhaps most important to veterans, however, are the special benefits
which the American Legion has been able to provide its membership.
Ranging from health, financial and employment services to member discounts for travel,
moving, insurance and even Internet usage, today's American Legion
benefits America's war veterans in countless ways, including opportunities for social
activity and camaraderie at its local chapters. As such, it is understandable that
non-wartime veterans might feel the pain of exclusion. 
A Policy Framed By Hope
It is an unhappy fact that policies and legislation often outlive their usefulness.
Within the archives of most every state and municipality are enactments dating from the
19th century and even earlier which, when brought to light by some enterprising news
hound or researcher, cause people to ask why such laws had not been updated years before.
Most often, the response has been simply that nobody saw a need to do so. In much the
same way, some would point out that the American Legion's membership policies are equally
archaic and long overdue for revision.
In adopting legislation that was to establish the American Legion and limit its
membership to those Americans who had served honorably in World War I, Congress believed
the job was done: In their minds, that horrific conflict had truly been a war to end all
wars; there would be no need to amend the Legion's charter because never again would
America's young men and women be called upon to make such a terrible sacrifice. For the
next 22 years they were able to applaud this seemingly good judgment. While there were
conflicts throughout the world -- from Spain to Ethiopia -- America' s dismantled war
machine had only a small volunteer army and little taste for battle. But the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor brought a new, even more deadly conflict; and with war's end in
1945, Congress was forced to amend the Legion's membership regulations in order to
welcome home a new generation of war veterans. However, there was still no thought of
opening the Legion's doors to all the nation's veterans. If their predecessors in the
Congress had been wrong about World War I being the last great conflict, then surely this
just concluded war -- brought to an end by the most powerful weapon in all history -- was
the long-awaited end to war. That rationale lasted fewer than five years. And Congress
was forced to amend the Legion's membership qualifications following the Korean War,
Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Libya, Panama and yet again following Operation Desert Shield.

What do we say to the men and women who helped prepare for any unforeseen war or
confrontation, and having fulfilled their military enlistment prior to these actions they
are discharged? Thanks for setting the table and training the help, now you can leave?
Opening New Doors to Recognition
Over these past eight decades, the question of whether non-wartime veterans should be
eligible for membership in the American Legion may have seemed unimportant. In the years
between the Armistice of 1918 and America's entry into World War II, the nation's
volunteer armed forces needed no inducements beyond the promise of adventure and a
paycheck. The same could be said for recruitment efforts in the years just before and
after Korea. But with Vietnam and its aftermath, American attitudes toward the military
have shifted markedly.
And with the fall of Communism, today's young Americans have little sense of the need to
protect their homeland from possible enemies. Unlike those of an earlier generation who
felt electrified by President John F. Kennedy's call for them to ask not what your
country can do for you but what you can do for your country, this new generation is more
likely to ask just the opposite. Downgraded in the public mind, today's armed forces must
also recruit at a time when the nation's economy is offering a range of workforce
alternatives promising high-pay and equally substantial benefits. 
In seeking to compete for even a small share of America's best and brightest young
people, the military continues to offer larger and larger bonuses, college funds and
career-based training opportunities. But armed forces recruitment drives continue to fall
short of their goals. Fearing a consequential reduction in manpower, and in an attempt to
broaden today's recruitment pool, the military has made a potentially devastating
decision to accept young men and women who lack even a high school diploma. At a time
when the conduct of military operations utilizes sophisticated technology and depends
more and more upon skilled personnel, this lowering of standards could have tragic
results.
Conclusion
America's military must add to its recruitment arsenal of financial bonuses and other
benefits the motivating force of pride and recognition -- a sense that our nation
appreciates such service. It is a motivation shared by generations of those who have
served in years past; it must now be extended to those we are calling upon to defend
America's interests in years to come. And America must give tomorrow's soldiers and
sailors, airmen and Marines a reason to feel proud and appreciated. By extending
membership in the American Legion to all such men and women who will put their lives on
the line in defense of our nation's cherished goals, Congress can move both to correct an
error of past indifference and to strengthen America for the generations ahead.