Note: Introduction to Military Sociologist Charles Moskos's 'The American Enlisted Man' (1970)

Military sociology is a field of study that examines the social structure and social behavior within the military. 'The American Soldier,' compiled by sociologist Samuel Stouffer and his colleagues in 1949, is one of the representative achievements in this field (Introduction to the classic work 'The American Soldier' (1949), which explores the social psychology of soldiers during World War II), and many researchers have since contributed to the development of this discipline.

Researchers in military sociology have analyzed the factors that influence morale, discipline, and cohesion—topics that were previously left ambiguous—and have provided knowledge that serves as the foundation for efficient personnel management. Some of this research has also addressed internal conflicts within the military, and American sociologist Charles C. Moskos, Jr. has also addressed this theme.

Moskos's book 'The American Enlisted Man' (1970) is a wide-ranging investigation into the personnel challenges faced by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. It was already known from the research of Stouffer and his colleagues that there was a deep-seated social divide within the military between officers and everyone else. The root cause was thought to be the distinction in status and treatment between officers and enlisted personnel, which served as a source of envy and resentment, leading to conflict. However, when Moskos conducted his research, he found, unexpectedly, that the divide between career and non-career personnel was more serious.

At the time, the United States was using a selective draft, and the socioeconomic backgrounds of young men entering the Army as recruits varied. There were young men from relatively wealthy middle-class backgrounds, as well as those from less economically privileged working-class or minority backgrounds.

Moskos's survey reported that because many young men from the middle class had received a university education, they found it difficult to build social relationships with non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in their units. Furthermore, such soldiers were often evaluated by officers for their high level of education and were frequently assigned to rear-echelon administrative jobs rather than dangerous combat missions, and even if they were sent to the war zone, they were rarely sent to the front lines.

In other words, drafted middle-class youth had a higher probability of enjoying a favorable career in the military, which, from the perspective of working-class non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, was seen as unfair personnel management. From this, it can be inferred that conflict in the military shifted from a class-based divide between officers and enlisted personnel to one based on civilian educational background and social class. This is an interesting point to consider regarding how military personnel systems were influenced by the advancement of a credentialist society in the 20th century.

Incidentally, in 1973, the U.S. government decided to withdraw U.S. forces from the Vietnam War and ended the draft. Moskos focused on the impact of this, and in a co-authored paper with sociologist Morris Janowitz published in 1979 titled 'Five Years of the All-Volunteer Force: 1973-1978,' he pointed out that the Army found it difficult to recruit university graduates after the draft was suspended.

In the 1964 data, the percentage of draftees who had received a university education or higher was 17.2% (13.9% for volunteers). However, in data from fiscal year 1975 onwards, the percentage dropped sharply to 5.7%, and continued to trend at 4.1% (FY 1976) and 5.1% (FY 1977) in subsequent years. While the decrease in university graduates among U.S. military enlisted personnel due to these changes may have contributed to the mitigation of the career versus non-career conflict that Moskos pointed out, the U.S. military would subsequently struggle with personnel recruitment.

Janowitz, M., & Moskos Jr, C. C. (1979). Five years of the all-volunteer force: 1973-1978. Armed Forces & Society, 5(2), 171-218. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X7900500201

Header image: Charles Moskos conducting social research on U.S. military units in Vietnam in 1967

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