Andrew Bacevich, "The Real World War IV "

For most citizens, patriotism takes the form of either service or dissent. In his years of professional and personal experience as a participant and student of the military, Andrew J. Bacevich has engaged in both. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, he served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. While still in the Army, Bacevich earned his doctorate in American diplomatic history from Princeton University. He retired from military service at the rank of colonel, and has taught at Boston University as a professor of international relations and history since 1998. He is also a prominent and authoritative critic both of the United States occupation in Iraq, which he calls an “immoral, illicit, and imprudent, preventive war,” and of the expanding American militarism more generally.

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, a book-length treatment of the issues Bacevich begins to explore in “The Real World War IV,” is an indictment of American foreign policy across the ideological spectrum. He charts the swift evolution that brought America from the anti-military skepticism of the Vietnam era to the widespread contemporary belief that martial activity is the solution to both domestic and international problems.  During this forty year period, “Political leaders, liberals and conservatives alike,” he writes, “became enamored of military might. Militarism insinuated itself into American life.”

As of May 2007, Bacevich’s scholarly critique is also tinged by personal tragedy. He lost his son, a first lieutenant in the Army also named Andrew J. Bacevich, to the Iraq war; he responded to this loss with a moving Washington Post editorial called “I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty.” Though he is a self-described “Catholic conservative,” Bacevich continues to make known his criticism of American military intervention across a wide range of publications and forums, in defiance of easy ideological categorization. As an author, Bacevich argues that both liberals and conservatives are complicit in the growing gap between American values and American foreign policy. As a citizen, Bacevich is a living testament to the complexity of political belief and affiliation, and an example of how an active American public can live out its patriotism and “think realistically of other ways of achieving our purposes in the world” beyond a commitment to military aggression.

Bacevich, Andrew. "The Real World War IV." Wilson Quarterly. 29.1 (2005): 36-61.

Digital image drawn from the Indiana University Newsroom.

Quotations come from “Warheads,” a San Diego Union-Tribune review of Bacevich’s book; “Rescinding the Bush Doctrine,” an editorial by Bacevich in the Boston Globe; “Seduced by War,” an interview with Bacevich that appears in Bostonia.

Links to Explore:

The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler: a podcast interview with Andrew Bacevich.

The New American Militarism: a lecture given by Andrew Bacevich at the Carnegie Council.

The Semiwarriors: an article in The Nation by Andrew Bacevich.

Media Matters. Podcast interview with Andrew Bacevich.

Questions for Connecting:

• Throughout his essay, Bacevich offers a view of Americans and their leaders as settling for answers that are simple, straightforward, an ill-informed. At one point, he says both groups has "a demonstratable preference for clarity rather than nuance." William Greider, on the other hand, has great faith in the leadership potential of American employees: "[D]oes anyone doubt that, if employees acquired such self-governing powers, the terms of work would be reformed drastically in American business? Or that, if they owned the enterprise together, the rewards and risks would be reallocated in more equitable ways?" What leads Bacevich and Greider to have such opposed views on the preferences and the potentials of Americans? Do they bring these views to their arguments or do their views arise out of their research? Are these views of the average American fictions or descriptions of reality?

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