American Legion Approach to National Security 1919. Graphic: American Legion, Aerospace Commission
In the American Legion, we hear a lot about service to Veterans and children and youth, but the organization was founded on both Veterans’ service and national defense as equal, core components. The founders advocated for a strong U.S. Military and national defense, partly because they had witnessed firsthand the nation’s military and educational shortcomings before the Great War.
In the early years of The American Legion, its approach to National Security was defined by military preparedness, a strong distrust of large standing armies, and a push for citizen-soldier defense systems. Many of the Legion’s primary founders—including Theodore Roosevelt Jr.—had roots in the pre-WWI “Preparedness Movement.” They had experienced firsthand how a lack of military readiness, training, and education delayed and complicated America’s entry into World War I. Consequently, during its foundational era in the late 1910s and 1920s, the Legion championed several distinct defense policies through resolutions and lobbying.
The Citizen-Soldier Ideal over Standing Armies. The Legion realized that maintaining a large standing Army drained the nation’s economy, but that the United States needed trained soldiers ready when needed. During its first national convention in Minneapolis in November 1919, the Legion established that large, permanent standing armies were “uneconomic and un-American.” Instead, they advocated for a defense model rooted in democratic equality: a national citizen Army and Navy built on the strength of the National Guard and organized reserves.
Universal Military Training (UMT). The Legion fiercely lobbied Congress for decades to pass UMT. They believed that every young American man should receive basic military training so the nation would never again have to build a modern army entirely from scratch during a global crisis. While highly controversial and unpopular in the isolationist climate of the 1920s, the Legion consistently defended UMT as a cornerstone of democratic obligation.
Early Technological Foresight. The Legion recognized the changing nature of warfare remarkably early. At that same 1919 convention, delegates passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a separate air branch of the military service. This early legislative push for military aviation capabilities sowed the seeds for what eventually became the U.S. Air Force. Unable to pass this in the first half of the century, they also pushed for the growth of civilian aviation so we would have the infrastructure needed if we went to war.
Resistance to Interwar Disarmament. As the U.S. entered a period of deep political isolationism in the 1920s, public sentiment heavily favored disarmament and cutting military funding. Airplanes produced for WWI sat in government warehouses unused for years, then were sold as surplus, creating the barnstorming flying culture of the 1920s and 30s. The Legion took an unpopular, counter-cultural stance by sending representatives to speak in favor of stronger military and defense appropriations at every single congressional hearing during this era, warning against leaving the country vulnerable.
By pushing these initiatives, the early American Legion sought to balance deep-seated American skepticism of militarism with the hard-learned lesson that national security requires proactive, organized readiness.
The greatest defense in the U.S. arsenal is airpower: the Army’s airmobile assault and paratroopers, the Navy’s carrier task forces, Marine Aviation units, Air Force aviation units, and Space Force missile units.
However, the Legion’s proactive stance seems to have dwindled, aside from a few inactive members on the national level. California is the last Department in the American Legion with an Aerospace Commission, and the National Aerospace Committee has not met in many years. From 1920 to 1960, American Legion support for airpower in the United States could be found at every level, right down to the Post. Now, the last Department Aerospace Commission (California) has difficulty getting District Commanders to appoint District Advisors to the Aerospace Commission. It is time to get back to all of the core pillars of the American Legion.
