MILITARY JUSTICE IS TO JUSTICE AS MILITARY MUSIC IS TO MUSIC.

by Robert Sherrill ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 1970

The title is a favorite saying in the GI underground, reflecting a far-from-original recognition that military music is supposed to keep ""the boys"" pepped up and military justice is intended to keep them tamed down. But nowadays ""neither John Philip Sousa nor the Uniform Code of Military Justice are what they used to be, in their effects on the men in the ranks,"" observes writer-journalist Robert Sherrill (author of the rabidly unflattering portrait of LBJ, The Accidental President, Gothic Politics in the Deep South, and, with Harry Ernst, The Drugstore Liberal on HHH). With a cold civilian eye, he examines in historical and current context the blatantly undemocratic underpinnings, gross inconsistencies, unconstitutional trial procedures, and illegal and inhumane punishments of the military system of justice. Surveying some of the recent challenges to that system, several controversial courts-martial of GI dissidents (the conviction rate in courts-martial is a ludicrous 95%), and the burgeoning civil liberties agitation on bases and in nearby antiwar coffeehouses. Sherrill concludes that the time is past for half-answers and patchwork reform: ""Justice is too important to be left to the military."" He hopes that public pressure will return Americans in uniform to the jurisdiction of the civilian courts and the protection of the Bill of Rights. The argument that looser discipline and decorum would leave the services in a state of hopeless chaos is given short shrift--Article 15 of the Uniform Code leaves the brass sufficient muscle for day-to-day discipline but Sherrill remains vague on the limits of permissible protest. Extensive treatment is accorded the Presidio ""mutiny"" case (subject of Fred Gardner's excellent The Unlawful Concert, p. 145) and the Howard Levy affair, but the discussion touches upon most (though not all) of the other celebrated cases. (Sparse coverage here of Andy Stapp's American Servicemen's Union, but Stapp speaks up well for himself in Up Against the Brass, p. 309.) A well-framed general indictment of military justice in theory and practice, this book should elicit interest and enlist support.

Pub Date: April 22, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION