Posted on 03/27/2007 4:43:39 PM PDT by SJackson
It raised eyebrows back in 1981 when new President Ronald Reagan began returning the military salutes of the servicemen standing guard when he'd disembark from Air Force One or from Marine 1, the helicopter that would deliver him to the White House lawn.
No presidents before had returned those salutes, not even Dwight D. Eisenhower, who just seven years before he took office had been a five-star Army general. Reagan, who had held the rank of captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II, changed all that and every president since, including our present one, renders the salute.
Although it was far from the biggest issue of the day, many commentators did question the practice at the time, pointing out that while, yes, the president was commander in chief of the military, he wasn't a military person himself and by saluting was insinuating that he was.
I hadn't heard much about that issue since, but noted author Garry Wills, a professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University, brought it up again in an op-ed column he wrote for the New York Times earlier this year.
"We hear constantly now about 'our commander in chief.' The word has become a synonym for 'president.' It is said we 'elected a commander in chief.' It is asked whether this or that candidate is 'worthy to be our commander in chief.'
"But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army," Wills wrote.
Wills recalled how he cringed back in 1973 when Richard Nixon's chief of staff, Al Haig, tried to justify Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" firings because the attorney general and deputy attorney general had refused an order from their "commander in chief."
"President Nixon was not (Elliot Richardson's or William Ruckelshaus') commander in chief," he commented. "The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. He is not even the commander in chief of National Guard troops unless and until they are federalized."
It all may seem like small potatoes, but Wills and others see that attitude and the extension of the salutes as the increasing militarization of U.S. politics.
"The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline," Wills wrote. "The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hides its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets."
The bottom line, Wills said, is that "the representative is accountable to citizens. Soldiers are accountable to their officer. The dynamics are different, and to blend them is to undermine the basic principles of our Constitution."
A dishonest and cowardly socialist.
Check your Constitution. The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He may be a civilian, but he's at the top of the military chain of command. He's directly in authority over everyone serving in the military. It is an unusual position for a civilian to hold, but there you have it.
I am in favor of the president saluting. It may be unusual for a man who is not in the military to salute; it is also, in my humble opinion, odd for a man to be saluted and yet unable to return that salute. It all comes back again to our Founders' decision to put a civilian over the military.
Well why is lefty Wills complaining. He is an avid gun grabber. I mean he thinks ONLY the military and police should own firearms. Where does his lefty brain think that will lead. No civilian ownership but only STATE ownership. Now he grips about a salute.
Wills is really quite boring on this subject.
Boy scouts salute. Sea Scouts salute. Girl Scouts salute.
Martial Arts practioners bow.
It is called "returning respect".
Dang! Even Shirley Temple in "Littlr Miss Whatever" Saluted better than that. Can't she find a low level WAC drill instructor to teach her?
Wills is just pissed that the US (Reagan) won the cold war. Such a shame his beloved comrades from the Soviet Union went down the tubes thanks to the great Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Thanks for the article, and yes, yes it does.
I salute officers. If an officer fails to return my salute I will respectfully point out that I have shown proper military courtesy and ask the officer to return the courtesy.
Maybe the problem is that President Reagan had good manners.
A liberal who recognizes that the general populace is onto his B.S. and wants to hide, while still holding onto his stupid prejudices.
To all DIMWITS - I'll speak slowly so you can follow along .. The President .. is .. the .. COMMANDER .. IN .. CHIEF! He .. has .. a .. right .. to .. RETURN .. his .. officer's .. SALUTE.
I'm so sick of these people - why do they have to make life such HELL ..??
Your weak fingered attempts to salute make me want to puke!
There is very definitely a Hillary issue here - Camille Paglia wrote a column around it, the gist of which is that she's taking saluting lessons because she's a woman who wants to take a man's route to power (yes, I know, a familiar and tedious feminist train of thought) and hence will ape men's gestures to do so. Hatshepsut wore a fake beard. For some progressive commentators this passes for profundity.
Just the thought of her saluting makes me gag~~~
I would love to see Ronald Reagan salute anything one more time. I miss him.
I never fail to salute former President Clinton when I see him on the TV---with only one finger. SAAAA-Loot!
The President is the Commander in Chief. He is in the Chain of Command. Hell, he's at the top of the chain of command. So if you don't salute him, who do you salute. And if he's courteous enough to return the salute, Bully!
Yeah, but in Canada and Britain, the C in C is the Queen, not the PM, if I'm correct.They salute her, don't they?
Gary Wills always has to find SOMETHING to b*tch about when it comes to President Bush. If this all he has, it's pretty lame.
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