Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-301- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
Spanish-American War, which prevented a full analysis of their effectiveness. 101 Still, the
main lesson from the Spanish-American War was that the militia was not an effective
fighting force. Millis argues that : “it was obvious that it would have taken a long time to
make an effective force out of the National Guard units which turned out in 1898; it was
even more obvious that the whole Army system called for reform.” 102 The Spanish-
American War served as the impetus for this reform, which began with the Dick Act of
1903.
3.2—ELIHU ROOT AND THE DICK ACT
The experience of the Spanish-American War renewed the debate about the proper
peacetime establishment of the U.S. Army. Emory Upton’s cadre proposal was resurrected
in this debate. The first proponent of a cadre force was Secretary of War Elihu Root. Root
was a lawyer with little knowledge of military affairs upon his appointment but he
“attempted a conscientious study of foreign military organization and American reform
proposals.” 103 In his readings, Root came across Upton’s manuscript: The Military Policy of the
United States. Root was so impressed with Upton’s manuscript that he had it published at the
expense of the War Department. Based on his study of military policy, Root proposed a
number of significant reforms. One of these reforms was a federally controlled reserve that
would be used to fill out an Uptonian cadre force in wartime. 104 Root faced intense
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101 Weigley writes about the relative effectiveness of the militia: “The Uptonians cited the conduct of several
other volunteer regiments as further proof of the inferiority of citizen soldiers, especially in regiments drawn
from the state militia.” [Weigley (1984), p. 306]
102 Millis (1956), p. 174
103 Weigley (1984), p. 315
104 Ambrose (1964), p. 155. However, Weigley argues that “Root was too much the civilian and had too much
common sense to swallow Upton whole …. It was less Upton’s general theme that Root praised than his more