American Legion

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American Legion

College Writing
16 June 2000
The American Legion: A Right To Membership
Introduction
The United States Congress chartered the American Legion in 1919. Its purpose was to benefit veterans and their families, promote Americanism and serve the greater good of communities nationwide. First welcomed to membership were veterans returning home from the battlefields of Europe. But over the years, Congress amended the Legions charter so as to include those who had served in World War II, Korea and more recent conflicts.
Ineligible for American Legion membership, however, remain the many men and women who had answered our nations call while American military forces were not actively engaging an enemy of the United States. Serving with valor and distinction, these members of the armed forces have guarded Americas shores and protected the nations strategic assets at U.S. military bases across the world. They have been on the front lines of American efforts to mediate conflicts between warring factions in Europe, Asia and Africa. And they, too, have been prime targets for armed aggressors, terrorist attacks and saboteurs. The question is: have these veterans not earned the right to membership in the American Legion as well?
This essay seeks to explore whether the American Legions charter should be amended so as to better reflect our nations appreciation for those who serve in times of war and peace. Indeed, it is an issue made all the more cogent today: With increasing numbers of young Americans rejecting the armed forces as a career option, recruitment goals are not being met and the military is being forced to lower its entrance requirements. If this trend is not soon reversed, the U.S. military could be perceived as incapable of implementing our nations strategic policies abroad -- a perception that can only encourage the most aggressive ambitions of other nations.
A Resource for Veterans
In seeking to determine whether the American Legion should open its doors to non-wartime veterans, we must begin with a look at the organization itself:
its mission, its outreach programs and, above all, the benefits todays Legion is able to provide for a worldwide membership now approaching three million men and women.
Meeting in Paris some five months after the armistice of November 1918, delegates from combat and service units of the American Expeditionary Force resolved to found an organization that would protect the interests of veterans through th...

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