Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-331- A Historical Analysis of Cadre
7. CADRE DISSAPPEARANCE
In the period following World War II, two cadre forces existed for a brief period of
time. First, the Organized Reserves were explicitly recognized by the War Department as a
cadre force. Second, the Regular Army was skeletonized. However, cadre proposals
disappeared because the Army perceived a new, more imminent, threat. The U.S. Army
perceived the Soviet Union as both a larger and more imminent threat than any it had
previously faced. Cadre units were of less value in a war when masses of troops would be
needed in months rather than years. Following the Korean War, the Army slowly eliminated
cadre units. The Organized Reserves became the fully-manned Army Reserve and manning
levels of Regular Army units were maintained near authorized levels. The period following
World War II can be characterized by a brief return to dependence on peacetime cadre
forces followed by the gradual disappearance of anything resembling a cadre unit or
proposal.
7.1—A POST-WAR SKELETONIZED FORCE
At the end of World War II, the Army quickly demobilized, though not as quickly as
it had after World War I. Weigley argues that this was because “the War Department was
sensitive enough to Soviet ambitions to desire a generally cautious demobilization,” but
“Congress and the new administration of President Harry S. Truman felt obliged to yield to
the public cry that, after the longest American war since the Revolution, citizen soldiers
should be returned swiftly to their homes.” 212 Faced with an uncertain environment,
____________
212 Weigley (1984), p. 486