ABSTRACT
THAT the leaders of the two military establishments, the Army and Navy, constituting a definite though not easily definable organism popularly known here as “the Camp,” have been in effective control of the Government during the crisis years is beyond dispute. An examination of the constitutional position reveals that the power of the military authorities to command the armed forces without interference from the civil authorities is unquestionable, while the power to determine the organization and strength of those forces is shared by the military and civil authorities, the division of power being so equivocal as to penmit much elasticity of interpretation. In constitutional terms, what has happened in the period under review is: (1) that the Camp has successfully sustained the right to enlarge the command power, (2) that the Camp’s share of the organizing power has been stretched to its fullest extent with the result that it has involved a partial control of general policy, (3) that the constitutional privileges possessed by the Camp leaders, privileges accorded primarily to guarantee the effective exercise of their special powers, have been used to secure the adoption of general policies in line with their political views.
