Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-317- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
5. CADRE IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD
Legislation for a better-organized and trained National Guard weakened the
arguments made by cadre proponents. However, cadre proposals did not disappear with
these changes. Two features of the post-World War I world, both unplanned, would keep
the cadre idea alive. First, the War Department changed its assumption about the perceived
threat following World War I. The War Department focused almost solely on planning for
total mobilization. 158 This led to the creation of a third force, the Organized Reserves, which
existed alongside the Regular Army and National Guard. The Organized Reserves was
intended as a non-drilling force of officers and enlisted men but, in practice, had only
officers. The Organized Reserves were an unplanned cadre force. The second feature of the
interwar period was the Army’s insistence on skeletonizing the Regular Army when faced
with budget cuts. When faced with a decision on how to reduce the size of the force, the
professional military personnel in the War Department returned to the ideas of Upton and
cut enlisted end-strength to a larger degree than they did officer end-strength. During the
interwar period, two cadre forces existed: a skeletonized Regular Army and the Organized
Reserves.
5.1—THE ORGANIZED RESREVES: A CADRE FORCE
The United States Army of World War I looked nothing like the peacetime army that
preceded it. At the beginning of U.S. participation in World War I, on April 1, 1917, the
Regular Army consisted of 213,557 officers and men. By November 11, 1918, the Army had
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158 For a full discussion of post-World War I mobilization planning see: Kreidberg and Henry (1955), p. 382-
492.