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what a war ends or when the particular general's role in a war ends they don't
simply disappear they go on to some other career i think rudely popular for
them to get involved in military contracting that sort of thing but
another industry that they're going into increasing numbers is academia
uh... there is a recent story in new york times talking about how a number of
extremely high-profile generals and colonels
uh... from the iraq and afghanistan wars
are moving into academia and teaching courses that a number of universities
a few examples um...
admiral mike mullen the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is teaching
a class in diplomacy and military affairs at princeton uh... admiral
bertie all sin
who's the former head of the military special operations command
is teaching a class a military strategy at columbia are starting in september
uh... and there are a number of other
by generals and colonels who doing the same
and this is raising a number of questions about the role or
the disconnect between academia in the military generally
uh... as i'm sure you know back in the times of you know vietnam many years
after that
academia of both the professors and the students were heavily invested in the
antiwar movement there worked some of the driving forces for
um... there was a lot of anti-military antiwar sentiment at a number of
universe is not just in the ivy league but across the country
uh... and so for that
for that reason and because of that
uh... there was a disconnect between the military and universities you wouldn't
see
admirals and generals teaching and that's something that is changing just
last year harvard yale and columbia some of the universities i mentioned of these
uh... generals are teaching at
have all been have invited r_o_t_c_ back to campus after banning the program
during vietnam
and they said that one of the reasons that they're doing that is because of
the end of the ban on homosexuals serving openly
in the military
uh... one interesting and perhaps good development of rock obama's
ending of don't ask don't tell
uh... and they say that the hiring of retired military officers as teachers in
the ideally is part of that same evolution that these universities are
undergoing
now
you my question though why exactly the universe is what it but what to do this
uh... and in some of these general some of these admirals are big names
and certainly universities are averse to trying to court some sort of celebrity
potential
i know that allot of universities in um... washington d_c_
will often have our politicians are ministration officials uh... teaching
courses usually just like one for a semester they'll become
for professors or anything like that
uh... but there
are a couple of interesting reasons side says the at yale the military is for
most students sort of an unknown if something that they're curious about
they don't have any personal experience uh... a lot of the
more upper classes students as you might imagine who end up going inside of the
schools
it's less likely that they'll have family members
uh... who served in the recent wars
and so they have less direct contact with it and because of that they're more
interested
uh... one student uh... who had a course by general the crystal
uh... it was a former peace corps volunteer interestingly enough
said i would never imagine myself three years ago and of course taught by a
general
so this sort of of mystique to it
uh... and certainly because of the experience of these generals admirals
have
they bring other interesting uh...
sort of angle on the material understand that a lot of these courses aren't
necessarily military history as you might understand that
allowed you to do with military affairs foreign policy and things like that but
they can be more general
having you with things like of the role of leadership
uh... there's a reference here to one course public general mccur still
and spent two hours discussing her leadership was important solving
problems like apartheid
so it's not strictly just military also has to do a societal problems and how
you deal
with that
now it's not all upside some professors have a problem
with these generals an admiral's
uh... teaching at these universities uh... there are few reasons for that
some say that
for particular uh... members of the military the fact that they were
involved and operations of the professors have a problem with
uh... like commando grades the killed civilians in iraq and afghanistan
that certainly uh... upon that they have to pick with these a former military
members and they also say that the war is the last decade have been unpopular
on campus now it's easy to say there's a lot of antiwar sentiment i believe that
it's true not just in the ivy league but in most universities
but that said these courses have been incredibly popular and there've been far
more students interested in joining them than it has been spots for them
uh... to enter into
uh... and also uh... john lewis gaddis ideal history professor
i've also got the two thousand twelve pulitzer prize for biography
uh... said that there's an almost no inside military bias among students of
the straws
uh... difference between antiwar sentiment anti-military sentiment
which i think it's important to consider
but he does fallen by saying i wouldn't say that it's true among the faculty
now of course defenders say that the average faculty member squid older than
the average student they probably have
pretty vibe are vivid memories
of vietnam and the antiwar movement
of that time but i'm curious to know what you think about this would you be
interested the former admiral
or general teaching a course on leadership military affairs foreign
policy something like that your university
i do you think it matters if it's simply confined to the ivy league in some of
these big east coast schools
or is this something that you could see becoming more popular across the country
as more of these high ranking
military members leave the wars as we try to down our troops in afghanistan
and iraq
us let me know you can leave a comment in the comments section down below
you can tweet me uh... covered twitter information
in the description as well
uh... and as always thank you for watching