Citizen Warriors: America's National Guard and Reserve Forces & the Politics of National Security [Hardcover]

Stephen Duncan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 1996

A detailed, expert history of U.S. Reserve and National Guard Forces, with a look forward at how they should be used in the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs under both Reagan and Bush, Duncan divides his deeply informed report into two sections. The first chronicles in great detail the process by which National Guard units were mobilized and deployed in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Duncan explains regular army antipathy to using reserve forces in combat situations, the congressional and public debate over the use of reserve troops and the step-by-step decision-making process that resulted in the mobilization of over 100,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf. Although most reserve units were trained in essential support services, a few units did engage in combat against Iraq, and Duncan provides examples of their fighting prowess. The book's latter half examines the development of the "Total Force" policy since the Vietnamese War, how reserves fit into this concept, defense budgets and their impact on reserve forces and the arguments for and against reserve units. The author concludes by listing 35 principles upon which future use of reserve forces should be based. He severely criticizes the Clinton administration for not developing a coherent foreign policy that clearly demarcates America's national interests. In like fashion, Duncan criticizes proposed plans to send reserve units to fight crime in housing projects, patrol our borders, aid in natural disasters and assist in other projects that, he claims, would undermine their combat readiness. Duncan makes his case cogently and with vigor, and his book deserves to be considered by every policymaker whose work impinges on our reserve military forces.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The subtitle summarizes Duncan's effort soundly. The assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs under both Reagan and Bush, Duncan is qualified by both experience and writing ability to make his study invaluable. In its first half, devoted to the call-up for the Persian Gulf War, he provides a valuable new perspective on how that action looked from a key Pentagon vantage. The second half, though, is somewhat scattershot in its coverage of the roles of the reserves and the National Guard from the inception of the all-volunteer army to the end of Clinton's first term. Duncan emphasizes the need to keep support units in proportion to combat units and the danger to training in using reserve and National Guard formations for antidrug work and other civil affairs tasks. Above all, and with a perceptiveness that one fears is rare in the field of military science, he insists that questions of military policy can be answered only after decisions on a national strategy have been made. Roland Green

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press; 1St Edition edition (November 18, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891416099
• ISBN-13: 978-0891416098
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful analysis., August 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Citizen Warriors: America's National Guard and Reserve Forces & the Politics of National Security (Hardcover)

Duncan, an Annapolis graduate and Vietnam veteran, was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and so uniquely positioned to observe the deployment and performance of the National Guard and Reserve units so vital to our efforts in the Gulf.
He examines the Reserves as essential to the All-Volunteer Total Force, and in the context of politics, outside of which the policies cannot be understood. Of particular note is his discussion of the unfortunate roundout brigades, which were activated but not deployed for the Gulf War, and the implications for future operations.
Finally, the author provides some observations, cautions, and recommendations, and concludes "Only if we are wise in our reliance upon our citizen warriors,can we be assured that in the future, as in the past, they will immediately respond to the war tocsin when new dangers arrive".
(Yhe numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)