Sponsored by the Freedom Park Foundation of Junction City, Kansas, this book honors the U.S. Army on its bicentennial.

The theme chosen was not the glorious wars of the past, but rather the contributions of the Army to and its relations with American society in peacetime. As the noted military historian Professor Theodore Kopp has said over the years, peace is the norm and war is the exception. The long quiet years of the Nineteenth Century were those during which the Army surveyed the country, saved the National Parks, and began to control the waterways as the people desired. In the Twentieth Century, the Army has benefitted American society not only as protector, but through its various activities ranging from medical advances and aid to disaster victims to its direct involvement in the welfare of the voters in many states. And its peacetime role has not been limited to the United States, but has included occupations of foreign lands with all the cultural implications which have come from intermarriage. In the present century, then, the Army has played a multitude of roles, not all of which have been covered in this book, which can only devote its pages to some of the most praiseworthy of the Army's activities.

The Army in peacetime, outside of the unusual Cold War period, has been much smaller than many other professions and trades. Yet as Kipling said about that ubiquitous British private, Tommy Atkins, its critics have been many, and they have overlooked the many quiet contributions made in favor of those that can be beaten with a publicity stick.

We hope this book acts as a corrective to those actions and a tribute to the men in Army green.

Robin Higham
Kansas State University