Mobilizing the Imagination: Army Advertising and the Politics of Culture in Post

391 Pages·2010·6.53 MB·English

by  Jeremy Saucier

Mobilizing the Imagination: Army Advertising and the Politics of Culture in Post-
Vietnam America

by

Jeremy K. Saucier

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the

Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Supervised by

Professor Robert B. Westbrook

Department of History
Arts, Sciences and Engineering
School of Arts and Sciences

University of Rochester
Rochester, New York

2010
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For Tara

And to the memory of my grandfather,

Samuel Cleveland Bland—

a veteran of two wars
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Curriculum Vitae

Jeremy K. Saucier was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts on October 23, 1979. He
was educated in the Fitchburg public schools. He attended Wesleyan University in
Middletown, CT, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors in
American studies in 2003. He was awarded the Marnie Goldstein White Prize for his
thesis “Changing Heroes: Military Recruiting and Popular Culture in Post-Vietnam
America.” He entered the University of Rochester in the fall of 2003 and began
graduate studies in American history under the supervision of Robert Westbrook.
While at the University of Rochester, he worked as an intern supervisor at the
Rochester Museum and Science Center, a fellow for the New York Council for the
Humanities “Reading Between the Lines for Adults” book discussion program, and as
the assistant editor of the Reviews in American History. He also received the Meyers
Graduate Teaching Award, Donald Marks “Dexter Perkins Prize,” a Frederick
Douglass Institute Research Grant, and a Raymond N. Ball Dissertation-Year
Fellowship.
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Acknowledgements

I began working on this project as an undergraduate, and have since benefited from
the assistance of countless people. In many ways, this dissertation grew out of
courses in the American studies department at Wesleyan University and the
University of Rochester history department. I owe my teachers and classmates a
great debt. This project would not have been possible without the support of several
extraordinary people. Renee Romano first encouraged me to write about military
image-making and has since been the model of a teacher, scholar, mentor, and friend.
Richard Slotkin’s influence has been profound. His teachings, writings, and advice
have challenged me to think in new ways. My development as a historian is due in
large part to Robert Westbrook, and his keen eye for weak arguments and even
weaker writing. He has been a generous adviser and supporter of my work from the
first time we spoke. His counsel and encouragement have helped guide me through
the often uncertain path of writing cultural history. I owe a great debt to Victoria
Wolcott, whose excellent criticism made this a better dissertation, and whose advice
undoubtedly made me a better historian.

Other scholars from Wesleyan, U of R, and other universities have helped me
immensely throughout this project. Ann duCille and Claire Potter read and offered
insightful comments on this topic at its earliest stages. John Bodnar, Dan Borus,
Lynn Gordon, Christina Jarvis, Mike Jarvis, John Pettegrew, G. Kurt Piehler, Joan
Rubin, A. Joan Saab, and Tom Slaughter have offered their time and thoughts on this
project in one form or another.

I am also grateful to classmates and friends for their interest in my work. Dave
DiValerio, Matthew Schwarzfeld, and Sarah Seidman read and offered advice on this
project in its infancy. Joe Avitable, Loren Broc, Kathleen Casey, Michelle Finn, Dan
Franke, Sam Huntington, Monique Patenaude, Christine Ridarsky, and Jamie Saucier
read chapters or discussed ideas. I am particularly appreciative of Jamie’s ability to
endure long discussions about army advertising campaigns.

I also benefited from financial support provided by the U of R history department in
the form of a graduate fellowship and various travel and research grants, the
Frederick Douglass Institute for a travel/research grant, and the university for a Ball
Dissertation-Year fellowship.

So much of this work relied on the help of librarians, archivists, curators, historians,
and history department staff. Margaret Beckett and the U of R reference and
interlibrary loan staff helped me track down materials. Helen Hull, Jacqui Rizzo, and
Rebecca Hurysz have helped me in more ways than I could ever thank them for. I am
indebted to archivists and curators at the National Archives, the U.S. Army Military
History Institute, and the Strong Museum. I am especially grateful to Vanessa
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Broussard Simmons, at the Smithsonian Institution. Beth Bailey and J. Fred
MacDonald graciously aided me with research materials.

My greatest debt is to my family. Whatever I have accomplished is due in large part
to my mother’s encouragement and support. I am deeply indebted to my brothers,
and my extended families; the Sauciers, Blands, Raboins, and Horrigans for all they
have done. My father-in-law, Rick Horrigan, has been an avid and enthusiastic reader
of my work. My late grandfather, Samuel Bland, inspired me in ways that he will
never know. My wife, Tara Saucier, is a true partner. I could have never completed
this project without her unwavering love and support.
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Abstract

This dissertation is a cultural history of U.S. Army advertising since the end
of the Vietnam War. It traces the emergence and evolution of the army image-
making system, and the origins and establishment of the army brand. Placing army
image-making within the context of wider cultural and political events since the late
1960s, it considers army advertising as marketing and branding devices, cultural
representations of war and the military, as an ever-evolving form of mass cultural
communication, and as sites where image-makers worked out cultural anxieties about
the role of the nation and its army after the Vietnam War.
In the wake of that war, army leadership, experts, and advertisers became
acute cultural and social analysts in order to sell the army to a community of
American consumers. Army image-makers initiated a long-term public image project
aimed at dramatically recasting and continually reshaping the army’s image. They
utilized the techniques of consumer product marketing, while drawing on existing war
and military symbols, cultural representations of war, and American mythology. As
image-makers engaged in a permanent public image project, they also undertook an
ideological project that aimed to reconstitute American power in international affairs
after the nation’s defeat in Vietnam.
Using archival materials, government documents, company newsletters,
industry and government journals, marketing studies, films, television programs, as
well as army print advertisements, television commercials, video games, and web
content, my project illustrates the continuing importance of the role of culture in
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preparing, recruiting, and mobilizing for war during periods of war, and peace. It
demonstrates that there was more to army advertising than image-makers responding
to market demographics in order to fill the army’s ranks, and suggests that although
the state is less likely to frame military service as a responsibility or obligation of
citizenship, it has framed military service as an obligation to family, friends,
comrades, and to previous generations of Americans and soldiers.
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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Advertising, Image-making, and the “New Army,” 1968-1974 13

Chapter 2 Advertising in an Era of Doubt, 1974-1980 81

Chapter 3 Branding the Army in Reagan’s America, 1980-1987 150

Chapter 4 Projecting a “New World Order,” 1987-2000 218

Chapter 5 Advertising and Image-making at War, 2001-2005 277

Epilogue The Army Brand in a Global Age 334

Bibliography 348
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List of Figures

Illustration Title Page

1.1. “FEEL LIKE A MAN… Go Army,” 1963. 40

1.2. Herbert Paus, “The United States Army Builds Men,” c. 1917. 41

1.3. Howard Chandler Christy, “Gee!! I Wish I Were a Man,” 1917 42

1.4. “Your flag…your future. Join the U.S. ARMY,” 1967. 44

1.5. James Montgomery Flagg, “I Want You for U.S. Army,” 1917. 45

1.6. “He just lost his chance to make a chance,” 1967-1968. 46

1.7. “Your future, your decision… choose ARMY,” 1968. 48

1.8. “Today’s Army wants to join you,” 1971. 51

1.9. “Today’s Army wants to join you,” 1971. 53

1.10. “We care more about how you think, than how you cut your
hair,” 1971. 56

1.11. “The New Army,” Life cover, 5 February 1971. 58

1.12. “G.I. Joe Action Soldier” Insert, Hasbro, 1964. 59

1.13. “G.I. Joe Adventure Team,” 1970. 60

1.14. “G.I. Joe Super Deluxe Adventure Series,” 1970. 60

1.15. “When was the last time you got promoted?” 1972-1973. 65

1.16. “When was the last time you got promoted?” 1972-1973. 65

1.17. “When was the last time you got promoted?” 1973. 66

1.18. “When was the last time you got promoted?” 1973. 66

1.19. “Would your son get more out of college 3 years from
now?” 1972. 68
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1.20. “Some $307 a month salaries go a lot farther than others,”
1973-1974. 71

2.1. “Some people think it’s their duty,” 1974. 87

2.2. “If I already thought I’d learned enough—or been enough—I
wouldn’t be going to college in the Army,” 1975. 89

2.3. “I won’t be fixing tanks in Phoenix. But what I’ve learned
won’t be wasted either,” 1976. 90

2.4. “I believe everybody has an obligation to serve their country in
some way,” 1975. 93

2.5. “Country,” 1977. 96

2.6. “Fighter,” 1977. 98

2.7. “Specialist,” 1978. 101

2.8. “Sourcebook: The Magazine for Seniors 1980,” 1979. 103

2.9. “Join the people who’ve joined the Army,” 1974. 110

2.10. “In 8 weeks you’ll be keeping up with the Joneses, the
DeSantises, the Ryans, the Majeskis, and the Smiths,” 1974-1975. 112

2.11. “Some of our best men are women,” c. 1977-1979. 115

2.12. “ ‘…they are now become a formidable enemy,’” 1976. 122

2.13. “ ‘We…march before them with our Droms and fifes
agoing… we had grand musick,’” 1976. 123

2.14. “ ‘Both Officers and Men behaved with a degree of
Gallantry that did them the highest honor,’” 1976. 124

2.15. “ ‘You might have tracked the army from Whitemarsh
to Valley Forge by the blood of their feet,’” 1976. 126

2.16. “ ‘Even if I destroy all the men in North America, we
should still have to conquer the women,’” 1976. 128