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US MILITARY OATHS: LEGISLATING RESPONSIBILITY AND LOYALTY
Euler, Peter
Euler, Peter
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Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2022
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History
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/7629
Abstract
Since the United States’ founding, the national government has required that its military officers and enlisted personnel take oaths. Addressing issues of support, loyalty, diligence, and obedience, these oaths developed differently even though they were shaped by the same circumstances such as existing in a society that historically valued an oath’s effectiveness to accomplish a specific purpose. What purpose did US leaders believe military oaths fulfilled? This thesis argues that the oaths always served the same primary purpose to help sustain civil control of the armed forces. For the nation’s founders, the oaths essentially served as a symbol that embodied the republican ideal of “due responsibility.” Always connected with responsibility, however, was the issue of loyalty. Whenever the nation experienced pivotal events, such as its establishment or civil war, national leaders substantially modified the oaths to account for shifting allegiances. Ultimately, then, examining the society from which the oaths developed and the specific episodes when the oaths were created or changed, such as congressional debates, provides needed context to understand the oaths’ current significance to the nation and its armed forces.
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